It depends. If you figure that a company keeps a posting online until the candidate accepts an offer, the ratio of 'accepting applications' to 'we'll keep your

It depends. If you figure that a company keeps a posting online until the candidate accepts an offer, the ratio of 'accepting applications' to 'we'll keep your resume around just in case' is like 2:1 -- 33 percent success rate. Which is where recruiters come in. Companies paying people to talk to and find candidates is a real signal that they'll consider your application, rather than trying to meet some H1-B requirement or whatever other possible reasons they have for including a job on a website. I've submitted like 26 applications, and gotten about 10 calls from humans. 3 of those calls were from recruiters who reached out to me first. There's also a stream of LinkedIn contacts who want to send me off to remote places for 3 month contracts for random 'Fortune 500 company', but if you're looking for a w2 employee gig with health insurance, relocation, and long term employment opportunity, these warm body shops are less helpful.