4 ms·

I work for a job search site and our customers have huge problems with "mass appliers" who just apply to every job and hope that one is an actual fit.

z3t4 7y ago
Its not unusual that a dev job get thousands of applications. But what should the job seekers do? If you do the math the work seeker has to apply for 1000 jobs to have a statistical chance to find a match. The market doesn't work because its unbalanced. For example on a dating site where women do not reach out to men, the women will complain about the low quality, and the men has to mass message. Leading to very few matches. It the employer would however actively search for candidates the market would be more balanced, and lead to more matches. The problem is that instead of looking themselves, employers use recruiters. What if there would be recruiters in the dating market. That wouldn't work at all. You would tell the recruiter that you want someone that is intelligent and kind. But you still dont get any matches. Because you dont know what you want until you see it. Im thinking of like an expo where workers show their skills and portfolios and the employees show what they are working on and the problems they are solving.
- sawmurai 7y ago
  You can already improve your statistical chance by pre-filtering jobs based on required skills etc. Say, you end up with a list of 10 out of those 1000 jobs and then apply to those. Depending on how active your job hunt is, you might even spend 15 minutes per application and tailor your CV to the job description (use the same keywords, highlight relevant experience, the regular stuff). You would already have greatly improved chances and you would not be what employers have a problem with. Remember: If they are able to hire you without a recruiter they save a LOT of money, so they WANT you to apply directly. Btw: The problematic mass-appliers I was refering to are the ones that apply to every damn job on the entire website. Yes, we have those. No, I don't understand their motives either. The only thing they achieve is work for the job site and the HR department, ultimately resulting in the usage of automated pre-filtering that also harms actual applicants.

z3t4 7y ago

Its not unusual that a dev job get thousands of applications. But what should the job seekers do? If you do the math the work seeker has to apply for 1000 jobs to have a statistical chance to find a match. The market doesn't work because its unbalanced. For example on a dating site where women do not reach out to men, the women will complain about the low quality, and the men has to mass message. Leading to very few matches. It the employer would however actively search for candidates the market would be more balanced, and lead to more matches. The problem is that instead of looking themselves, employers use recruiters. What if there would be recruiters in the dating market. That wouldn't work at all. You would tell the recruiter that you want someone that is intelligent and kind. But you still dont get any matches. Because you dont know what you want until you see it. Im thinking of like an expo where workers show their skills and portfolios and the employees show what they are working on and the problems they are solving.

sawmurai 7y ago
You can already improve your statistical chance by pre-filtering jobs based on required skills etc. Say, you end up with a list of 10 out of those 1000 jobs and then apply to those. Depending on how active your job hunt is, you might even spend 15 minutes per application and tailor your CV to the job description (use the same keywords, highlight relevant experience, the regular stuff). You would already have greatly improved chances and you would not be what employers have a problem with. Remember: If they are able to hire you without a recruiter they save a LOT of money, so they WANT you to apply directly. Btw: The problematic mass-appliers I was refering to are the ones that apply to every damn job on the entire website. Yes, we have those. No, I don't understand their motives either. The only thing they achieve is work for the job site and the HR department, ultimately resulting in the usage of automated pre-filtering that also harms actual applicants.