> 6. My thought on why all these are so bad is because job application, listing site, social network ( LinkedIn ) all work for hiring companies, they are the on

> 6. My thought on why all these are so bad is because job application, listing site, social network ( LinkedIn ) all work for hiring companies, they are the ones who pay them. And not job seekers. It is even worse: They work for HR departments in those companies, whose primary goal is 1) to produce automated reports and statistics about their “pipeline” so they seem important 2) have an auditable paper trail for legal risk, and a distant 3) hire people. Ultimately, there are only 2 kinds of companies: owner/majority shareholder operated or manager/minority shareholder operated. Owner operated companies have far quicker and more painless procedures- so you can prioritize those. For manager-run companies, you need to find an inside human recruiter first, before applying. This is more legwork, but it will ensure that 1) your application is not in vain, a human will take a look 2) none of the pre-calling references 3) might even let you talk to some teams informally.