5 ms·
I applied to 250 jobs and timed how long each one took
- mgerullis 3y ago2.5 minutes to apply seems very fast. What does it entail? Surely not the compilation of the entries, I need more than a minute to read a job posting in detail.
- shsachdev 3y agoHey I’m the OP who did the experiment - 2.5mins was from start of app to clicking submit. Time does not include me reading the job description.
- benjijay 3y agoHow do you maintain motivation to keep applying to jobs when tracking with data like this? After seeing countless posts on r/dataisbeautiful or similar where people detail number of applications > number of replies > interviews > eventual success, I tried for myself in the last hunt - and then stopped tracking it once I got to around line 55 in the spreadsheet and only 3 responses - all automated rejections Eventually figured out it was more worth my time to just go with whatever recruiters were reaching out that week
- shsachdev 3y agoFull disclosure: I did this as an experiment for an article (https://www.careerfair.io/online-maze https://www.careerfair.io/online-maze) and as such my motivation to keep applying was driven by the piece of content I was creating. In addition, a lot of the time I wouldn't actually press the "submit" button - I would just stop my timer. Again, my goal was to create a cool, accurate piece of content that could spark interesting discussion, which did end up happening (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37753292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37753292).
- Havoc 3y agoIs this for some sort of low end secretarial job where industry does not matter? Or are these fake applications just to test this? idk these shotgun job searches always blow my mind. 250? Think I’ve applied to maybe 8 jobs in my life
- mgerullis 3y agoAuthor mentions applying to engineering roles
- Uptrenda 3y ago>Think I’ve applied to maybe 8 jobs in my life Someone has life on easy mode.
- prepend 3y agoOr is going it on hard mode where an app follows hundreds of hours of networking and outreach before actually applying.
- aftoprokrustes 3y agoNot necessarily. I am in the same case as OP. Basically I am a specialist with a PhD in a niche topic. There are at most a handful job postings per year that fit my profile perfectly, but then I have virtually no competition. If you have a generic profile ("frontend developer"), you get hundreds of opportunities per day, but are alao in competition with hundreds of similar applicants. My position is comfortable, but if interest in my particular combination of skills decreases, things could get quite difficult.
- tester756 3y agoHundreds of hours of networking? what? Who does that and why? Are we talking about political jobs? or nepotism?
- tstrimple 3y agoNot typically hundreds of hours networking for a single position, but it's difficult to overstate the value of that network when you're looking for a job. Anything at all you can do to skip the HR resume filter will put you in a much better spot than 95% of other applicants. All of my major career advancements have come because of a combination of what I know and who I know. I can't see myself ever applying for a role using the HR provided application mechanisms. Any future job will be a referral, just like the last few have been.
- Uptrenda 3y agoOne day there will be a genius or group of geniuses who find a way to make job hunting less horrible and we will probably make songs about them.
- spicyusername 3y agoI wish this also tracked the interview "process". 20 seconds to apply is nice until you then encounter the 10 step interview gauntlet with 5 hours of homework.
- bboozzoo 3y agoPhew, only 5 hours, that's really great. How about a week of 2-3 after-hours work to fit within the time limit, then submitting the PRs and addressing review for each of the 3-4 steps?
- kcb 3y agoThat's not an interview that's a job.
- shakezula 3y agoExcept that’s a regular experience I’ve encountered while job hunting this winter. It’s either that or what, don’t apply to a good job that I want? The applicant has no leverage in these situations.
- otachack 3y agoSeriously, at that point candidates should ask for a 1099 along with a settled rate.
- blitzar 3y agoI missed the bit where they timed how long it took for each application to get a reply.
- jeffrallen 3y agoYou would still be waiting for most of them. The reply rates, even in polite Switzerland, should make hiring managers blush.
- toss1 3y ago>>Two and a half minutes might not be too long, but it can feel like an eternity when you’re forced to answer the same questions and upload the same documents. Over and over again. Sounds like an opportunity for some automation — auto-fill the common fields and allow the applicant to focus on reading and writing the unique stuff for each job. Of course the fieldnames aren't standard, so probably needs some LLM-ish ingredients in the sauce
- TheCaptain4815 3y agoThis strategy just seems ripe for improvement through LLMs. You input a stock resume + additional skills and have the resume aligned more for each job you're applying to. The hard part would be stopping hallucinations for skills you don't have. In theory however, this should substantially raise your interview rate. If the companies are using Ai to auto filter people, why can't we fight back?
- shakezula 3y agoThat seems appealing but then as the applicant you’re at the whim of a LLMs biases, which are even harder to discern than humans.
- ryzvonusef 3y agohttps://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=false&query=ai%20resume&sort=byPopularity&type=show_hn https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=fal... 30 results for showing HN their AI-resume thingmajig in the past year.
- imtringued 3y agoWhat prevents the LLM from becoming an adversarial model to defeat the LLM that the company uses? Then you're turning the interview process into an arms race of "Who has access to the best adversarial models?" and thereby make it completely redundant since at this point you're paying to get a job.
- ike2792 3y agoThe process is pretty bad from a hiring manager's perspective also. The company I work for requires uploading a resume and filling out some basic questions, along with applying via LinkedIn. It's fairly easy and not much of a burden for the applicant. What this translates to on my end is 200 resumes per day for a basic entry-level engineer role, half of which don't even meet the minimum requirements on the posting. To get to a manageable number of resumes to manually review, you either have to use an automated filtering system or have the recruiter filter through them manually. This leads to a lot of rejections, which in turn leads to every applicant applying for basically every single job they are halfway qualified for out of desperation. It's a broken process all around.
- afpx 3y agoI've recently started seeing job postings that say at the bottom "Mail physical resume" - is that the new brown M&M test? Also, can't the hiring process be improved with optimal stopping?
- DecentRecruiter 3y agoWow, 200/day. How of your time does that consume?
- scudsworth 3y agololled and closed tab when i quickly realized this was just about time to submitting random job applications and had zero about the problems inherent in the actual technical interview process. thanks for timing how fast you could speed run rote forms i guess?
- gtvwill 3y agoLol recently went for job as a systems engineer. 7 month interview process, handful of psych tests. Still didn't get the role despite being the teams top pick courtesy of some other teams input. IT is honestly horrible to find work in despite the claims of shortages. Meanwhile, start doing construction. Instantly booked out for the next 4 months with work at a higher rate than I get paid in IT and i got zero tickets. Probably have the next year of jobs booked before the first quarters over. Tbh all I see in IT is zero job security and companies who go against actual good security posture in chase of a profit. Can't wait til AI automates most of these msp muppets out of business.