5 ms·

I'm not in the US; if I had to send out 200 or even 100 applications I would change career. If I had to send 50 I would be starting to investigate other career

I'm not in the US; if I had to send out 200 or even 100 applications I would change career. If I had to send 50 I would be starting to investigate other careers.

jason-phillips 4y ago
I applied to 500 openings to get my first job. I think persistence is what matters.
- Macha 4y ago
  My first development job as a graduate I applied to 5 positions, got 3 interviews and offers from all 3 interviews. Degree from somewhere middle of the road in my country, some side projects, applying to large but not FAANG tech cos. I think I had a good CV for a graduate nothing _that_ spectactular. There's definitely some diverging experiences going on here.
  - Eisenstein 4y ago
    Maybe people should have their resume looked over? I have seen some very talented people make some pretty glaring errors and/or just be pretty bad at making things presentable. I think they may be getting tossed out of the pile due to something they just aren't realizing.
    - giantg2 4y ago
      Maybe, but probably not a huge percentage. There are tons of resources for helping review resumes and provide practice interviews. Mine was reviewed by at least 4 people and still took over 200 applications to get a job.
    - anon50118810 4y ago
      OP here. I'm getting a roughly 15%-20% success rate converting a cold application to a first interview. That's around the industry average from what I've seen on various sites. If my resume were a disaster I'd expect something closer to 0%.
Spivak 4y ago
I think it depends, if you're early in your career you're basically trying to find a company willing to take a chance on you and train you. Once you have some accomplishments under your belt companies will start being more aggressive at hiring you because you can hit the ground running. If you're applying for "senior" positions and have the CV to back it up and you're still batting 1/200 getting to the first interview then you are either the unluckiest person ever or there's a red flag you haven't noticed.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Yeah. You're just graduating from school. Maybe it's not a well-known school--or maybe it's not even the "right" (or any) degree. Maybe you're grades aren't the best. It's very reasonable that getting someone to take a chance on you for a job you're not obviously qualified to grow into can be pretty hard. But, with a track record and you aren't trying to career change? That is a lot.
- anon50118810 4y ago
  OP here. GGP said 200 applications to get a job, not an interview. I've had a bit under a 20% success rate on getting a first interview after an application but haven't gotten an offer yet. Also, there are red flags, and there are red flags. I have some red flags I can't do anything about, I just have to push through them, but they shouldn't be a dealbreaker for anyone actually desperate to hire.
- giantg2 4y ago
  "and train you" Frankly, companies don't train. Mt company talks about training all the time and it's a joke.
- MivLives 4y ago
  If you are one of these companies, you're the reason I could even get into this space! The company I ended up working for basically would stick 10-15 potential Junior engineers (majority from bootcamps) in a room for 2 months and give them all 2 identical features to ship. Then access to the dev codebase, docs and the ear of senior engineer. People would help each other, it was expected. People would go learn parts of the stack come back and teach everyone else (this is how I learned about GraphQL). At the end of the 2 months anyone who couldn't preform was let go, everyone else was placed. I understand this was a boomtime thing that only works as massive companies, but it makes getting a new person on your team easier if they know the codebase/workflow. For the new engineer it also really helps to get used to how code works in a massive repo when all you've done is tiny self run projects.
yamtaddle 4y ago
I've been a developer in the US and held... oh... 8 or 9 tech jobs since about the year 2000. I don't think I've ever sent more than 10 applications in a job search. My average is probably 3-4. I'm entirely unremarkable and also didn't have a degree for the first IIRC 4 jobs (I floundered and bailed on a non-tech Bachelor's the first time, then several years later got a CS degree from an unremarkable—but at least not infamous—university). But I also target the mid-tier, not FAANG, finance, or top-tier startups that hire like FAANG. I'd break down halfway through one of their day-long interviews no matter how much I studied leetcode, and I know it. Put me in any kind of meeting for more than a couple hours and I'm braindead, and interviews count as meetings. Even worse than ordinary meetings, really. Yeah, if I had to send 50, let alone 200 applications in one search... I can't even imagine. If I hit 100 with no offers I'd for-sure reckon my career was over and I needed to look at jobs several notches down the economic and social ladder (and tech's already not that high on the social ladder).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
pkteison 4y ago
I've had it take 80 applications to actually get one on-site interview before (and I have a pretty good resume). I would not be suggesting people consider major life changes based on a few dozen attempts not progressing, it can definitely take more than that without reflecting on you.
ownagefool 4y ago
I'm in the UK and have: - previously passed a loop with FAANG ( didn't join tho ) - have a strong portfolio in a hard to resource niche Easily send out 200 apps and get ignored. The market is dumb, not sure I should quit over it tho
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  If you’re a FAANG level developer (very top of your field) then surely you’ve got a network of people you can ask for a job anytime rather than having to apply as normal? I’m not even remotely FAANG level but if I wanted a job I’d email some people I know or Tweet that I’m looking - not fill in a form. Have you tried working your network? Emailing some friends?
  - giantg2 4y ago
    I hate that there's so much talk about networks. There's a ton of talk about anti-discrimination, equity/equality, etc in other areas of HN. What's the word for cronyism if the person is qualified?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - chrisseaton 4y ago
      It’s not cronyism - it’s people knowing your portfolio of work and abilities. And at the end of the day - do whatever you need to within reason to put food on your own table. Don’t worry about someone else judging you for cronyism for feeding your family.
      - anon50118810 4y ago
        There's nothing wrong with networking, but if we're all agreeing that networking is important to having a job search that doesn't involve hundreds of applications, then let's just be honest about that. In particular let's make sure people who don't have that network and who do have to job search know what they need to do to get where they need to be.
DarrenDev 4y ago
I'm also very surprised by these numbers. I'm a senior dev in Ireland and my success rate over the past number of years would be around 1 in 5 CV submissions lead to a first interview / tech screen. And once I reach that stage around 1 in 3 lead to an offer. I'm a reasonably good developer, but not top tier by any means. But my starting point is usually a recruiter contacting me. It's been a long time since I've chased a recruiter or company. And I've never sent out 100+ applications in my 22 year career. Maybe geography plays a part. London and Dublin are full of tech jobs. Isolated cities in the US might be different, with moving or commuting to a different city not an easy option. I'd like to see some of the CVs that keep getting rejected or passed over, because that volume (100-200) doesn't feel right to me.

I'm not in the US; if I had to send out 200 or even 100 applications I would change career. If I had to send 50 I would be starting to investigate other careers.

jason-phillips 4y ago

I applied to 500 openings to get my first job. I think persistence is what matters.

Macha 4y ago
My first development job as a graduate I applied to 5 positions, got 3 interviews and offers from all 3 interviews. Degree from somewhere middle of the road in my country, some side projects, applying to large but not FAANG tech cos. I think I had a good CV for a graduate nothing _that_ spectactular. There's definitely some diverging experiences going on here.
- Eisenstein 4y ago
  Maybe people should have their resume looked over? I have seen some very talented people make some pretty glaring errors and/or just be pretty bad at making things presentable. I think they may be getting tossed out of the pile due to something they just aren't realizing.
  - giantg2 4y ago
    Maybe, but probably not a huge percentage. There are tons of resources for helping review resumes and provide practice interviews. Mine was reviewed by at least 4 people and still took over 200 applications to get a job.
  - anon50118810 4y ago
    OP here. I'm getting a roughly 15%-20% success rate converting a cold application to a first interview. That's around the industry average from what I've seen on various sites. If my resume were a disaster I'd expect something closer to 0%.

Spivak 4y ago

I think it depends, if you're early in your career you're basically trying to find a company willing to take a chance on you and train you. Once you have some accomplishments under your belt companies will start being more aggressive at hiring you because you can hit the ground running. If you're applying for "senior" positions and have the CV to back it up and you're still batting 1/200 getting to the first interview then you are either the unluckiest person ever or there's a red flag you haven't noticed.

ghaff 4y ago
Yeah. You're just graduating from school. Maybe it's not a well-known school--or maybe it's not even the "right" (or any) degree. Maybe you're grades aren't the best. It's very reasonable that getting someone to take a chance on you for a job you're not obviously qualified to grow into can be pretty hard. But, with a track record and you aren't trying to career change? That is a lot.
anon50118810 4y ago
OP here. GGP said 200 applications to get a job, not an interview. I've had a bit under a 20% success rate on getting a first interview after an application but haven't gotten an offer yet. Also, there are red flags, and there are red flags. I have some red flags I can't do anything about, I just have to push through them, but they shouldn't be a dealbreaker for anyone actually desperate to hire.
giantg2 4y ago
"and train you" Frankly, companies don't train. Mt company talks about training all the time and it's a joke.
MivLives 4y ago
If you are one of these companies, you're the reason I could even get into this space! The company I ended up working for basically would stick 10-15 potential Junior engineers (majority from bootcamps) in a room for 2 months and give them all 2 identical features to ship. Then access to the dev codebase, docs and the ear of senior engineer. People would help each other, it was expected. People would go learn parts of the stack come back and teach everyone else (this is how I learned about GraphQL). At the end of the 2 months anyone who couldn't preform was let go, everyone else was placed. I understand this was a boomtime thing that only works as massive companies, but it makes getting a new person on your team easier if they know the codebase/workflow. For the new engineer it also really helps to get used to how code works in a massive repo when all you've done is tiny self run projects.

yamtaddle 4y ago

I've been a developer in the US and held... oh... 8 or 9 tech jobs since about the year 2000. I don't think I've ever sent more than 10 applications in a job search. My average is probably 3-4. I'm entirely unremarkable and also didn't have a degree for the first IIRC 4 jobs (I floundered and bailed on a non-tech Bachelor's the first time, then several years later got a CS degree from an unremarkable—but at least not infamous—university). But I also target the mid-tier, not FAANG, finance, or top-tier startups that hire like FAANG. I'd break down halfway through one of their day-long interviews no matter how much I studied leetcode, and I know it. Put me in any kind of meeting for more than a couple hours and I'm braindead, and interviews count as meetings. Even worse than ordinary meetings, really. Yeah, if I had to send 50, let alone 200 applications in one search... I can't even imagine. If I hit 100 with no offers I'd for-sure reckon my career was over and I needed to look at jobs several notches down the economic and social ladder (and tech's already not that high on the social ladder).

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

pkteison 4y ago

I've had it take 80 applications to actually get one on-site interview before (and I have a pretty good resume). I would not be suggesting people consider major life changes based on a few dozen attempts not progressing, it can definitely take more than that without reflecting on you.

ownagefool 4y ago

I'm in the UK and have: - previously passed a loop with FAANG ( didn't join tho ) - have a strong portfolio in a hard to resource niche Easily send out 200 apps and get ignored. The market is dumb, not sure I should quit over it tho

chrisseaton 4y ago
If you’re a FAANG level developer (very top of your field) then surely you’ve got a network of people you can ask for a job anytime rather than having to apply as normal? I’m not even remotely FAANG level but if I wanted a job I’d email some people I know or Tweet that I’m looking - not fill in a form. Have you tried working your network? Emailing some friends?
- giantg2 4y ago
  I hate that there's so much talk about networks. There's a ton of talk about anti-discrimination, equity/equality, etc in other areas of HN. What's the word for cronyism if the person is qualified?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - chrisseaton 4y ago
    It’s not cronyism - it’s people knowing your portfolio of work and abilities. And at the end of the day - do whatever you need to within reason to put food on your own table. Don’t worry about someone else judging you for cronyism for feeding your family.
    - anon50118810 4y ago
      There's nothing wrong with networking, but if we're all agreeing that networking is important to having a job search that doesn't involve hundreds of applications, then let's just be honest about that. In particular let's make sure people who don't have that network and who do have to job search know what they need to do to get where they need to be.

DarrenDev 4y ago

I'm also very surprised by these numbers. I'm a senior dev in Ireland and my success rate over the past number of years would be around 1 in 5 CV submissions lead to a first interview / tech screen. And once I reach that stage around 1 in 3 lead to an offer. I'm a reasonably good developer, but not top tier by any means. But my starting point is usually a recruiter contacting me. It's been a long time since I've chased a recruiter or company. And I've never sent out 100+ applications in my 22 year career. Maybe geography plays a part. London and Dublin are full of tech jobs. Isolated cities in the US might be different, with moving or commuting to a different city not an easy option. I'd like to see some of the CVs that keep getting rejected or passed over, because that volume (100-200) doesn't feel right to me.