Microblog Memes

Wow... So you are expected to feel ghosted/rejected 100 times a week, and upwards to 1500 in total? I wonder how healthy that must be for your psyche...

Also, every interview:

"So, why do you want to work with us, specifically?"

Jesus.

Look, I already realized I was living life on easy mode, but this post drives it home more.

I've applied for a job exactly five times in my life. I've gotten five interviews. And I've gotten four offers, all of which I accepted. I've never been unemployed for even a day, nor had to settle for staying where I was working for lack of available positions/job-listings.

The one time I didn't get an offer after an interview, the listing said they wanted "Python experience" (which I had quite a bit of), but in the interview they told me they were switching to C# (which I had never touched in my life). They passed me over ostensibly in favor of another applicant with C# experience. Kinda wasted both my and their time with that one. But it was very shortly thereafter that I landed another job. (As Java dev, which is gross, but I've got no right to complain in a thread about people getting interviews on less than 1% of their applications.)

From my understanding depending on industry and geographic area “Arthur” is correct.

When I do counseling with younger people who have graduated school recently or whatever over the last 2 years or so this seems to be the situation for those that get 60-80k jobs. The search itself is an insane grind.

I graduated college in 2008 and it wasn’t even this bad then. It took hundreds of applications over 6-8 months but not thousands over 12-18 which is what I’m seeing now from people.

It’s that bit where as a counselor sometimes I get people who are like “it was hopeless so I just gave up” and I’m like “well, yeah, makes sense”. Like you can only grind so hard before the system breaks you

If you’re sending out 1500 a week you have no identifiable skill set beyond existing. 1500 jobs that are relevant to 1 individual aren’t being posted every week.

He's right but he shouldn't be right.

If I had to spray and pray 1500 resumes I'd be suicidal.

Actual genuine nightmare fuel. This is not a lifestyle conducive to human health. Living this way is killing us.

My previous employer cut all the contracts leaving me to find a new role.

I was not in that role long enough to gain enough experience to find a similar role and it was a career change.

I estimate I put in over 750 applications and got maybe 7 interviews out of it.

My CV basically matched the job description for a few roles but was told no.

It's rough out there, I had to take the first offer as my bank account was basically gone. I'm now earning less than I did 10 years ago and of course rent and prices have gone up. Going to be a rough few years.

I got a CS degree earlier this year. I'm Autistic and am genuinely really passionate about it. I've put out hundreds of applications and got 1 interview but was ultimately rejected. I've tried applying to retail positions, even with a dumbed down resume so I don't look overqualified, and they don't want me either. I'm extremely low on money and I've been getting really bad panic attacks lately. I don't even know what to do anymore.

I am so fucking happy my own business managed to get off the ground.

Job hunting suuuuuuuuucked. I knew I was good, but no-one noticed.

Now, my customers love me.

Edit: I just realized the other side of this equation means companies are expecting to get about 1500 applicants for every position they offer?! That's insane, and there is no chance a human is reviewing every application.

Starting January this year, I put out aprox 400 applications: mostly online, around 30 in-person handing out resumes to anyone that'd still take one (they usually direct you to an online application if you visit in person). After 4 months, I'd had a grand total of 5 interviews. 4/5 said they had more interviews to do that day and would call me in a day or two, whether they chose to hire or not, just to follow up and let me know their decision. The 5th straight up said I'd be a fantastic fit for the team, he's just got to confirm with another upper manager who'd be back tomorrow and they'd call me later tomorrow with a hire date and more details. None of the 5 contacted me again.

Called the last one back a couple times and got avoided for three days until the manager finally told me they'd gone with another candidate.

Finally in May I had a phone interview, then followed up with an in person interview and landed a job within walking distance of my home.

Job hunting sucks.

Yeah that's just a psychopathic take.

Not too brag, but I walked out of uni with a nursing degree, went through one application and interview process, and have been in secure, full-time employment ever since.

COVID was a bit shit, but it turns out that was a temporary low point.

Last time I applied for a job, I applied for 3 jobs, landed 2 interviews, got into the second round for both and took the one that matches the most with what I wanted and paid well.

Applying to 100+ jobs just sounds like spray and pray. This was admittedly 6 years ago and not in the US, but still if you already have experience it shouldn't be that hard.

Also admittedly, for my first job I applied for 30+ positions, getting into the second round once. After that I took a break from applying because I wanted to study up on how to actually land a job. After reading about how to conduct yourself in a job interview, I applied again and landed the first job I applied to.

All that to say that there is a certain skill required for applying and interviewing. Probably a hugely unpopular opinion here, but I stand by it.

That advice only makes the situation worse. If you are applying to 100 postings a week, you are almost certainly applying to jobs you aren't qualified for, or don't really want. You're just playing the numbers game.

On the other side of it, HR departments are getting so many applications from unqualified people who are playing the numbers game, that eventually they just cut off the flow of incoming applications, qualified and unqualified alike.

I've often seen my son apply to great jobs that he is absolutely qualified for, and would be great for both himself and the employer, only to get a letter that they have closed applications due to the overwhelming response. If there weren't so many unqualified applicants pumping up their useless personal numbers, maybe he'd make the cut for interviews, where he can shine, and get the job. But he never gets that far because of unqualified resume spammers bogging down HR.

Everybody should do everybody else a favor, and just apply for the jobs that your are qualified, and want to accept.

Yeah, no thanks. I choose a life of poverty instead. Enjoy your grind in a collapsing system.

Yeah. I've been working in silicon Valley since 2009. I've worked everywhere from startups to Facebook. I was laid off a year ago. I did 25 applications a week for 6 months with 0 interviews or call backs. This was all stuff I have industry experience at and fantastic references for. Even the contract companies I worked with haven't been able to find me anything outside of IT roles that require 24/7 on call paying $25/hr. I was making that in 2010. The job market for tech is nonexistent.

yea well they deserve to be flooded with AI applications so just give them what they earned

Starting out that's the amount I had to do to get a job far away from the shit hole I was living in.

It was an awful experience and literally moving across the country by myself was less emotionally taxing than the application process.

This isn't how we're meant to live.

Half the jobs aren't even real listings, they are just there so the company looks prosperous (by having job openings) and so they can have your data.

My first job application as a spotty teenager landed me a job. This developed a false impression of the job market for baby me (in my country it's perfectly legal to pay minors less than the minimum wage, thus an incentive to exploit children).

My second job, in my spotty mid-twenties, took me around 100-300 applications, and I only ended up getting the job due to some programme that let companies get cheaper onboarding through a government scheme.

I'm in my spotty mid-thirties (I might have bad skin), I've had success only applying for the occasional job that actually interests me, and putting my best foot forward (each application generally takes 3-5 hours preparation). I'm fortunate enough to not be desperate though (employed, just seeking something better).

Even with LLMs, I think most employers are savvy enough to tell if a person is genuinely interested.

Side note: Don't use em dashes. I love em dashes—but so does ChatGPT—it's one of the first things a recruiter will look for apparently.

There are not even 100 new jobs a week where I live, and that is including absolutely everything. Limiting to something I am vaguely skilled at? Fuck all jobs. About quarter of a million people if you combine the large town and next door city where I live and there is so little to find to apply to. Even worse when jobs give a wrong location name.

Job advertised as being in city with postcode AB1, actual role is in a town that isn't even on he same island as the city in AB6

It took me a couple hundred when I got laid off at Christmas last year. Was May before I got hired on again. I did hire an AI spamming service towards the end and I did start getting interviews off it, but ultimately found something on indeed. I still leave the spamming service running because, fuck HR and fuck their stupid systems, break them and make them figure out something else.

I got my CS degree eight years ago and never managed to find a job in the field. Still sending out resumes to every position that claims to be entry level, only to be told they're looking for someone with five years of experience in a technology that came out two years ago.

I wonder if still not having any relevant experience by now just comes across as a red flag to recruiters.

So just flood the zone with shit is what guy 2 is saying.

But if the average person sends out 1000 applications then the average job gets 1000 applications. So they might skim through a tenth of those? But if you randomly make it into the pile of resumes that are seen then your blast everywhere resume probably doesn't get you any further. So I guess we are back to personal connections or industries that are massively expanding, like defense in Europe right now.

my old indeed account before/start of covid was close to 1000 jobs over the course of the year, most of them i wouldn't even get a reply, it got the point where if i had to make an account/do a 30 minutes form i wouldn't even bother trying because it just not worth it due to the instant bot rejection "Thank you for applying, Unfortunately..."

When i was a teenager, i was told to try and make 10 paper applications a week which felt like loads, I have always found it stupid that there isn't a job for everyone.