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Your assumptions are objectively incorrect. That's the old way of applying to jobs and, while it may still work, it didn't work for me or anyone else I've talk
by biglyburrito 1y ago
Your assumptions are objectively incorrect. That's the old way of applying to jobs and, while it may still work, it didn't work for me or anyone else I've talked to that has looked for a tech job in the last year.
If you have an "in" with somebody at the company you're applying to, then yes, that absolutely increases your chances of your resume at least being looked at by someone in the hiring chain. Barring that, though, cold calls are extremely unlikely to get you anywhere. As far as job applications go, AI-driven applicant tracking systems (ATSes) are what handle the majority of resume submissions now, and they absolutely does do not give a shit about thoughtful, artisanal resumes or job applications. More likely than not, it's a matter of what keywords an automated system seems in your resume that determines whether the company even bothers reaching out to you. And given that most companies are seeing 1-2 orders of magnitude more job applications now, it's incredibly unlikely a human is going to see your resume unless it passes the ATS filtering process.
Resume spray-and-pray is unlikely to get you good results, but that's not what the OP described. They used AI as a tool to automate parts of the resume preparation & submission process, & spent time on the parts they believed mattered.
As for pooh-poohing the 450 positions OP applied to, idk how many months they spent searching, but in terms of raw numbers that's pretty reasonable IMO. I submitted my resume to 150-175 companies over the course of 3 months before I found my job last year, and that was just before the tech job market started tanking harder -- those numbers seem low to me in today's market.
- michaelt 1y ago> Resume spray-and-pray is unlikely to get you good results, but that's not what the OP described. Gotta disagree with you there, given the post says: > My advice to other engineers on the job market: > 1) Spray and pray.
- estimator7292 1y agoI got one the old fashioned way in about six months and less than 50 applications. This was a few weeks ago.
- usernamed7 1y agoHonestly, good for you. I wish that could have been my story too.
- gtirloni 1y agoYou just need to find another few thousand applicants with experiences similar to yours to skew the current trend now.
- spjt 1y agoMy question would be why a senior engineer with 15 years of experience doesn't have an "in" with someone at several companies.
- usernamed7 1y agoI don't know where your expectations come from but people in my network are either also unemployed, or working for companies not hiring for my role/region/tech/seniority.
- devoutsalsa 1y agoThe hiring market is broken when there's a glut of applicants. Hiring tools do not make it easy to manage a flood of applicants, and "easy apply" features make it even worse. This was true before AI and it's more true now. Source: I have 20 years experience as tech recruiter, and 11 as a developer
- Poomba 1y agoBecause the people they have an “in” are working for companies that arent hiring
- dabockster 1y agoOr they worked for a small number of large firms that have reigned in referrals. Like how a lot of people moved to Seattle for its tech scene but then realized that all we really have for large scale employement is Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing. All the other firms are lower headcount satellite offices.
- cx0der 1y agoPeople move nationally or internationally, so the old "in" is not useful anymore. In my case I moved internationally and my connections moved to different countries.
- badpun 1y agoI got a job by just picking a telephone. Recruiter called looking for someone with similar experience. One one hour long interview later, I was hired. I'm a senior data engineer with experience in financial companies.