Is there any compelling reason you would make someone in either a specialized technical field or in any kind of management position fill out an application form like a McDonald’s burger-flipper? If a person has a resume spanning several years of work in a given field, and the recruiter has that in hand, does it not make sense for the recruiter (who stands to make money, from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars) to transfer the information onto whatever form is required, returning it for review and signature?
In these days of increasing automation and the need to differentiate on intangibles (service, professionalism, etc.), why doesn’t this field — which is a service, no more, no less — take advantage of opportunities like this?
Ideally, this information goes in some kind of database and could be sorted/sifted/searched any number of ways (both on the usual keywords and on terms that reflect the recruiters own approach to their work). But my guess is that the average search firm has filing cabinets full of applications and an Excel spreadsheet of recent jobs and applicants. No history or institutional memory, no long-term relationship with either client companies or candidates.
I’d love to be proven wrong, but someone I know, with 15 years experience in a highly technical field and a stellar work history, was sent a job application just last week, as if they were applied for the graveyard shift at QFC.