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Doing an online application to initiate contact with a potential employer is already a strike against the applicant. The whole point of these systems is to whi
by crispyambulance 6y ago
Doing an online application to initiate contact with a potential employer is already a strike against the applicant.
The whole point of these systems is to whittle down the pool of candidates down to single digits. Of course each candidate is going to "perfectly match" the stated faux-objective criteria because that's what the users of these systems think they want. Whether or not that's what they need is another question entirely.
For the jobs where it's possible, it's much better to reach out directly to human beings and exercise one's human professional network. The best jobs are filled by referral and/or reputation, almost always.
- ghaff 6y agoThat's been my experience but it probably does legitimately depend. I think there are some people whose skills match sought after keywords and they're fine with those positions. If you've got a more eclectic (and often more senior with varied types of experience), keywords probably don't help much at all.
- decafninja 6y agoI don't bother with online applications anymore - I don't think I've ever had a single experience where doing so didn't result in an automated rejection letter or simply no response. Seems like a total waste of time. Applying via human connections (whether it be a friend, coworker, or even a recruiter - first or third party) has been tremendously more successful.
- fallingknife 6y agoGoogle did a study on what elements of the hiring process correlated with good performance and found that references we're almost useless.
- crispyambulance 6y agoGoogle is Google. They hire _VAST_ numbers of people straight out of college. It's practically a pipeline for them. I am not saying that neglecting referrals from professional contacts doesn't work for Google, but rather that it's commonplace and "good enough" for other places. Moreover, from the point of view of an individual rather than the employer's performance metrics, it's generally better to make a human connection if you're just talking about the chances of getting hired.
- curryst 6y agoI don't see what good references are since the applicant gets to choose them. How many people legitimately can't find a single person from a previous job to list as a reference? Or find a person that can convincingly pretend to be a reference. It would be different if you could randomly call 3 people they worked with at their last company, but I don't think anyone does that.
- ahepp 6y agoAre we talking about candidate provided references? Or telling your boss "hey, my buddy is looking for a new job, I'll shoot you the resume"? The former seems fairly useless, the latter seems useful