Put off by long Application Forms

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I saw a job advert which I thought sounded good for me. But then I went to the company website and saw the application form they want you to fill in. It was 5 pages long and had lots of detailed questions. I was instantly put off the role as they are not paying a huge amount and yet they seem to want to know every single detail about you.

As it happens i don't fit some of their very specific criteria so I am not bothering.

Do you think company's make the application process complicated on purpose to put people off?

Is it really complicated or just extended? Sounds like they don't want to waste time interviewing anyone and use a large questionnaire to weed out the people that they're not looking for. So yeah, I guess they do do it to put people off.

I've never seen any such long forms while I was looking for a job. It was mainly just places to upload a resume and submit a letter. Though I suppose that may differ between fields of work and depends on how big the companies are (I didn't look for big companies).

I've had some of those long forms which can get annoying, however I think they're good practice to do anyway because other companies might also have long forms or similar forms, in which case the next time you do such a form you'll get faster at it as you can use the information from previous ones.

In my opinion interviews are worse as you don't have as much time to think - yet they can still ask you questions similar to what's on their application form or ask you to elaborate on something you wrote, whereas when you fill out the form you can spend as much time as you need. I'm notorious for talking ages to fill out the forms and thinking 'if they asked me that question in the interview, I'd be screwed'.

I also have some parts I don't know how to fill in/answer or the best way to approach those parts - recruiters want to see your judgment in those cases, whether you can avoid mistakes, and how well you express yourself in writing (for written response questions). If in doubt ask someone for advice or for them to check your form. (another thing you get the benefit of in a form as opposed to an interview)

On this particular application form it gives you about 3 pages, which are basically blank, to add any further relevant information. I hate these kind of things because I am always stumped as to what is relevant information.