4 ms·

We get 200+ responses to most job postings. 90% or more of those are from candidates that just spam every job ad on the internet with their CV even if they live

by 6nf 10y ago

We get 200+ responses to most job postings. 90% or more of those are from candidates that just spam every job ad on the internet with their CV even if they live on the other side of the planet. We can't respond to each of those. We will respond to everyone that gets past this first round. And if you get a phone / in person interview we will definitely call you back to say 'no sorry'.

deedubaya 10y ago
It seems like high volume is a problem. How do you manage your applicants? Would you reply to every applicant if it were just one click? Would that even be valuable to you?
kriro 10y ago
I'd say that you should be able to rifle through 200 responses and sort out the crap and shove them into a folder where they'll get some friendly auto response rather quickly. Even if you go a step further and tag the mails as "not qualified enough" and "doesn't fit the job posting" and have them get different responses based on that it shouldn't take that long. I'd personally consider every unanswered job application bad PR for the company/a mild failure. Takes about a workday if it takes you 2 minutes/application. I'd guess this can be done in <1 minute though but since you probably have to open an attachment for many I think two is the safer assumption (from dealing with a lot of unsolicited mail). Is it really that unreasonable to spend one work day per job posting to presort? The task can be parallelized nicely and even delegated down to interns if you think it's not worth the time of someone in HR (I'd strongly advocate against this).
- dimino 10y ago
  Why put any effort whatsoever into it? What exactly is the bad PR? The fact is, maybe you don't deserve a response just because you sent in your resumé. Also, "why don't you just" is one of those famous things developers hear all the time and your comment reeks of it.
  - kriro 10y ago
    It's a simple long tail problem. People tend to be grumpy if they don't get a response (at least some people will be, statistically speaking). Those people will likely act as negative multipliers when it comes to your organization (especially since some of them will already be in a bad mood if they are job hunting out of necessity). They may or may not be less grumpy if they get a response, my hypothesis is that at least some of them will be less grumpy. If you get 200 replies for each job posting and presumably post a couple of jobs, preventing some negative feedback (especially in the age of social media) for a modest amount of work should be a no-brainer. You can chose to have a "clearly spam" category that you don't reply to I suppose but apart from these even the worst written applications deserve the decency of an answer (personal opinion). Similarly I also think even the most brain dead customer requests and support questions should be answered (once again personal opinion). The benefit is obviously very hard to measure which is why I can only make an argument based on reasoning (or dogma I suppose). The cost however is really easy to measure so the counterargument is easier to make.
_coldfire 10y ago
I'm making an assumption about your job offerings, but think this is a common problem with remote work. We live in a global economy where equivalent positions can earn vastly more than others. Such disparity can breed the mountain of applications for decent roles. There's no easy solution, can easily say the polar opposite of having few applications is hardly any better having worked in a company that struggles to fill vital roles yet refuses to go down the remote path. That said, this thread is quite cathartic to read, there's been times where I've heard no response at all and gotten quite disheartened, nice to see things from the other side.
foobazzy 10y ago
Well, I am guilty of this. I do apply to jobs on the "other side of the planet" if it includes the keyword `remote`. Or if the job is too interesting to me, I shoot a mail asking if they are looking for overseas/remote work candidates. The problem comes when I don't get a response. I tend to forget where I applied to months ago and I can't search my mailbox for a response. Assumptions: 1) No human saw it. 2) Maybe their policies changed, so let's ask again. And hence, I become a spammer. I really don't know how to solve this.
- quesera 10y ago
  That's what your Sent Mail folder is for. Or some trivial record keeping. Not being able to resolve that for yourself seems like a demonstration of sketchy problem-solving skills. This is a bad approach when trying to get hired.

by 6nf 10y ago

deedubaya 10y ago

It seems like high volume is a problem. How do you manage your applicants? Would you reply to every applicant if it were just one click? Would that even be valuable to you?

kriro 10y ago

I'd say that you should be able to rifle through 200 responses and sort out the crap and shove them into a folder where they'll get some friendly auto response rather quickly. Even if you go a step further and tag the mails as "not qualified enough" and "doesn't fit the job posting" and have them get different responses based on that it shouldn't take that long. I'd personally consider every unanswered job application bad PR for the company/a mild failure. Takes about a workday if it takes you 2 minutes/application. I'd guess this can be done in <1 minute though but since you probably have to open an attachment for many I think two is the safer assumption (from dealing with a lot of unsolicited mail). Is it really that unreasonable to spend one work day per job posting to presort? The task can be parallelized nicely and even delegated down to interns if you think it's not worth the time of someone in HR (I'd strongly advocate against this).

dimino 10y ago
Why put any effort whatsoever into it? What exactly is the bad PR? The fact is, maybe you don't deserve a response just because you sent in your resumé. Also, "why don't you just" is one of those famous things developers hear all the time and your comment reeks of it.
- kriro 10y ago
  It's a simple long tail problem. People tend to be grumpy if they don't get a response (at least some people will be, statistically speaking). Those people will likely act as negative multipliers when it comes to your organization (especially since some of them will already be in a bad mood if they are job hunting out of necessity). They may or may not be less grumpy if they get a response, my hypothesis is that at least some of them will be less grumpy. If you get 200 replies for each job posting and presumably post a couple of jobs, preventing some negative feedback (especially in the age of social media) for a modest amount of work should be a no-brainer. You can chose to have a "clearly spam" category that you don't reply to I suppose but apart from these even the worst written applications deserve the decency of an answer (personal opinion). Similarly I also think even the most brain dead customer requests and support questions should be answered (once again personal opinion). The benefit is obviously very hard to measure which is why I can only make an argument based on reasoning (or dogma I suppose). The cost however is really easy to measure so the counterargument is easier to make.

_coldfire 10y ago

I'm making an assumption about your job offerings, but think this is a common problem with remote work. We live in a global economy where equivalent positions can earn vastly more than others. Such disparity can breed the mountain of applications for decent roles. There's no easy solution, can easily say the polar opposite of having few applications is hardly any better having worked in a company that struggles to fill vital roles yet refuses to go down the remote path. That said, this thread is quite cathartic to read, there's been times where I've heard no response at all and gotten quite disheartened, nice to see things from the other side.

foobazzy 10y ago

Well, I am guilty of this. I do apply to jobs on the "other side of the planet" if it includes the keyword `remote`. Or if the job is too interesting to me, I shoot a mail asking if they are looking for overseas/remote work candidates. The problem comes when I don't get a response. I tend to forget where I applied to months ago and I can't search my mailbox for a response. Assumptions: 1) No human saw it. 2) Maybe their policies changed, so let's ask again. And hence, I become a spammer. I really don't know how to solve this.

quesera 10y ago
That's what your Sent Mail folder is for. Or some trivial record keeping. Not being able to resolve that for yourself seems like a demonstration of sketchy problem-solving skills. This is a bad approach when trying to get hired.