4 ms·

In 25 years I’ve never once gotten a response when filling out a web form for a job. As far as I’m concerned they’re black holes.

naravara 5y ago
Same. What I did start getting, though, was a whole lot more robocalls and spam emails that correlated strongly with my bursts of job application activity. I'm guessing Taleo and some of the other companies that provide these platforms must leak PII like a sieve.
wayne-li2 5y ago
I only have 3 years of experience but with three job hunts, the last one I just completed recently. My new grad job hunt, I received minimal responses cold applying online. My second job hunt was a one and done poach. The most recent one, I received a substantial percent of follow throughs. I cold applied to 6 well known SV companies and received a response from 5 of them. I don’t have any other insight I just wanted to provide an additional data point.
- Beltalowda 5y ago
  My experience getting a job in the last few months is similar; I got a response from almost everything I applied to. In most cases I didn't even bother writing a cover letter (I hate writing those so much, and it takes forever).
  - cpach 5y ago
    I’m glad to hear someone else who also hates writing cover letters (^_^)
astura 5y ago
Strangely enough that's the only way I've ever gotten a job.
AnotherGoodName 5y ago
I've reached out via these forms to Stripe once. I wanted a change from a senior role at a faang. Got nothing at all. The best part is a Stripe recruiter then contacted me over 6 months later on linkedin, apparently unaware of my application and I had to decline since I just started a new role in the meantime. A suggestion to recruiters. Find where the inbox for these applications goes. Clearly no one's checking.
- dpifke 5y ago
  Is this a structural issue with how recruiters are compensated? At many companies they have quotas or are paid bonuses based on how many candidates they source. I can imagine a policy whereby candidates that approach the company directly aren't counted as "sourced" by any particular recruiter.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ianbutler 5y ago
  So far out of all the forms I've filled out, Square is the only one who actually responded via the forms. It led to an offer which I turned down for other reasons but it did work that one time. Except for that offer, I get all of my jobs through boutique recruiting firms and some larger recruiting firms or connections.
- tfehring 5y ago
  For what it's worth, I've gotten a response to an application to Stripe specifically from applying through their website. No experience at FAANG or other high-profile companies. And I had previously applied for a different role (with no response) and the recruiter was aware of that. My impression is that the main issue is stale listings - you probably applied for an opening that they were effectively done reviewing applications for but hadn't taken down from their website. One recent user-hostile trend I've noticed in job application platforms (including Stripe's) is that they don't tell you when a listing was posted or updated. So you can't distinguish between an opening posted yesterday (that they're probably actively reviewing applications for) and one posted six months ago (that's almost certainly a black hole).

naravara 5y ago

Same. What I did start getting, though, was a whole lot more robocalls and spam emails that correlated strongly with my bursts of job application activity. I'm guessing Taleo and some of the other companies that provide these platforms must leak PII like a sieve.

wayne-li2 5y ago

I only have 3 years of experience but with three job hunts, the last one I just completed recently. My new grad job hunt, I received minimal responses cold applying online. My second job hunt was a one and done poach. The most recent one, I received a substantial percent of follow throughs. I cold applied to 6 well known SV companies and received a response from 5 of them. I don’t have any other insight I just wanted to provide an additional data point.

Beltalowda 5y ago
My experience getting a job in the last few months is similar; I got a response from almost everything I applied to. In most cases I didn't even bother writing a cover letter (I hate writing those so much, and it takes forever).
- cpach 5y ago
  I’m glad to hear someone else who also hates writing cover letters (^_^)

astura 5y ago

Strangely enough that's the only way I've ever gotten a job.

AnotherGoodName 5y ago

I've reached out via these forms to Stripe once. I wanted a change from a senior role at a faang. Got nothing at all. The best part is a Stripe recruiter then contacted me over 6 months later on linkedin, apparently unaware of my application and I had to decline since I just started a new role in the meantime. A suggestion to recruiters. Find where the inbox for these applications goes. Clearly no one's checking.

dpifke 5y ago
Is this a structural issue with how recruiters are compensated? At many companies they have quotas or are paid bonuses based on how many candidates they source. I can imagine a policy whereby candidates that approach the company directly aren't counted as "sourced" by any particular recruiter.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ianbutler 5y ago
So far out of all the forms I've filled out, Square is the only one who actually responded via the forms. It led to an offer which I turned down for other reasons but it did work that one time. Except for that offer, I get all of my jobs through boutique recruiting firms and some larger recruiting firms or connections.
tfehring 5y ago
For what it's worth, I've gotten a response to an application to Stripe specifically from applying through their website. No experience at FAANG or other high-profile companies. And I had previously applied for a different role (with no response) and the recruiter was aware of that. My impression is that the main issue is stale listings - you probably applied for an opening that they were effectively done reviewing applications for but hadn't taken down from their website. One recent user-hostile trend I've noticed in job application platforms (including Stripe's) is that they don't tell you when a listing was posted or updated. So you can't distinguish between an opening posted yesterday (that they're probably actively reviewing applications for) and one posted six months ago (that's almost certainly a black hole).