Job app form keeps changing password to three characters

Creagan

I'm job hunting. There is a particular type of online job app form that tends to be used by the places I'm applying to. Here's an example of what the online platform looks like.

And whenever I try to apply for this jobs via that online form, it changes any password I type to three characters. So then I can't apply, because passwords are supposed to be longer than three characters. This happens no matter what browser I use, and whether or not I use incognito/private browsing. It happens on both my Windows 7 desktop & laptop.

I can't find anything online about what might be causing this. This application form thing is used often enough that my inability to access it via my own computers is seriously hampering my ability to apply for jobs.

Any idea what's going on and how I can make it stop? I'd really appreciate it.

Figgy

Only thing I can think of is that you're not meeting the password requirements, whatever they may be, and it's kicking back that 3-digit value into your password field. If you use a browser extension that reveals hidden password fields, what does it change it to, "nil"?

Have you considered calling the place using this platform to ask if anyone else is having this issue? Or have a friend try on their computer.

Creagan

I'm meeting the password requirements. I downloaded an extension to reveal passwords, it just changed to *** rather than bullets.

The problem with trying to call somebody is it isn't clear who I should be calling about this. And also, like 1/4 of all the university & museum jobs I've looked at use this platform.

I got it to work on somebody's mac, once. But given the volume of jobs I'd be applying for via this platform, borrowing somebody else's computer is far from ideal.

Smasher

What happens when you try submitting the application anyway?

I did some testing and found that while the displayed password is replaced as you describe, when I try submitting the form with only the password fields filled in it reports errors as if the password were unchanged from what I typed. That makes me think that if you just type the passwords in and submit the form it would work correctly.

Creagan

In the past, it has not. That's what I was doing when I tried before, did it on different browsers, etc. It says there was a problem with the password & wouldn't let me register.

But since it'd worked for you, I tried it again but changed my username to something different.

Then it worked.

But then it made me re-login to get to the actual job I wanted to apply for, and wouldn't let me in for five minutes because of the same password issue.

I have no idea why. Maybe it's a timing thing. Ugh.

Well, here's hoping it'll let me do the application. Thank you for the help! I really appreciate it!

Delzhand

It sounds like misleading or incorrect validation messages. Shame. That's the worst. One thing you might try is disabling javascript - if there's clientside validation that's fucking up, any site worth its salt will have fallback serverside validation, which is usually different code entirely, which might give the correct errors.

That said, if the form requires JS to be enabled to fill it out, that won't work.