Applying for jobs

Hermia

tsimehC wrote: »

One time I did nag the person to get a response who responded that they had over 100 applicants and didn't have enough time to send out replies to everyone. I guess that's the reason why and not because they're just ignoring your application or at least I like to think it is!

I think it really is impossible for employers to now send out rejection letters all the time, although I do think they should send letters to people who have been interviewed. We got 1100 applications for one job recently. Can you imagine how much it would have cost us in postage (our budgets are very tight) and we don't have an envelope-stuffing machine. There is no way someone could have sat there stuffing hundreds of envelopes or typing in hundreds of emails. We are desperately short-staffed as it is.

loisa

Hermia wrote: »

I think it really is impossible for employers to now send out rejection letters all the time, although I do think they should send letters to people who have been interviewed. We got 1100 applications for one job recently. Can you imagine how much it would have cost us in postage (our budgets are very tight) and we don't have an envelope-stuffing machine. There is no way someone could have sat there stuffing hundreds of envelopes or typing in hundreds of emails. We are desperately short-staffed as it is.

Wow that must have been a good job. I think it is perfectly understandable that a company can't personally reply that many people.

A covering letter with the application pack should be sufficient along the lines of :
"If you haven't heard from us by Xdate, please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion. We thank you for your interest in our company... blah blah"

ThinkingOfLinking

doobiesis wrote: »

I've had this issue recently, sent loads of applications via email and snailmail. I guess there's so many people looking for a job at the moment they can choose not to reply to people. I did have one email saying that I wasn't successful. It feels a bit pointless when you do it all the time and nowt!! I guess i'd best keep up with it as my contract ends in four weeks

To be honest, even before the recession hit; I'm talking 2005, the same thing was happening; I applied for shedloads of jobs and most applications were simply ignored.

safesound

Hermia wrote: »

We got 1100 applications for one job recently. There is no way someone could have sat there stuffing hundreds of envelopes or typing in hundreds of emails. We are desperately short-staffed as it is.

Write a generic "sorry you weren't successful but we wish you all the best etc etc" email and BCC[1] everyone who wasn't successful. Takes maybe five minutes of your time.

[1] BCC = Blind Courtesy Copy. Allows you to send email to an address list without anyone being able to see anyone else on the list.

Rockporkchop

safesound wrote: »

Write a generic "sorry you weren't successful but we wish you all the best etc etc" email and BCC[1] everyone who wasn't successful. Takes maybe five minutes of your time.

You think sending an email to 1100 people takes five minutes?!

CCFC_80

Rockporkchop wrote: »

You think sending an email to 1100 people takes five minutes?!

No but it will give some of those useless people in HR Departments something to do !

DCFC79

What annoys me is you see an ad for a job whioch you like so you call up and your asked if you have so many gcse's at grade a - c, why not put the bit about the grades in the ad if its important

LittleVoice

safesound wrote: »

[1] BCC = Blind Courtesy Copy. Allows you to send email to an address list without anyone being able to see anyone else on the list.

Off topic (sorry) but interested to see the meaning here. In olden times it was blind carbon copy.

dooby

Myself and OH are new to this jobseeking lark, he's recently been made redundant.

We were advised by the Job Centre to apply by email AND in writing for the same jobs, and to also to enclose a SAE so they can send a reply.

It works out at just short of a quid per application though, which isn't so bad if it's just one or two jobs being applied for but when it's 10 to 20 a week it's a huge part of our budget.

Do you not think this is worth doing? We don't mind the expense if it increases his chances of getting noticed.

Savvy_Sue

safesound wrote: »

Write a generic "sorry you weren't successful but we wish you all the best etc etc" email and BCC[1] everyone who wasn't successful. Takes maybe five minutes of your time.

[1] BCC = Blind Courtesy Copy. Allows you to send email to an address list without anyone being able to see anyone else on the list.

And how do you get all those email addresses into the BCC field? Takes a little more than 5 minutes to do that, I fear.

andy46 wrote: »

No but it will give some of those useless people in HR Departments something to do !

When there is no HR Department and the duties of HR are something you do in addition to your usual role, life is not so simple.

dooby wrote: »

Myself and OH are new to this jobseeking lark, he's recently been made redundant.

We were advised by the Job Centre to apply by email AND in writing for the same jobs, and to also to enclose a SAE so they can send a reply.

It works out at just short of a quid per application though, which isn't so bad if it's just one or two jobs being applied for but when it's 10 to 20 a week it's a huge part of our budget.

Do you not think this is worth doing? We don't mind the expense if it increases his chances of getting noticed.

Personally, I don't think it's worth doing, because it's not just the cost of sending a 'thanks but no thanks' letter which puts employers off doing it - and the stamp is only a small part of the cost involved because someone's got to write that letter.

And I also don't think it's worth sending by post or email, but is actually likely to confuse people - I know I have copied both the 'actual' and the 'virtual' copies of an application form, and given someone two applicant numbers, before realising that the details are rather similar ...

As I have said before (and hopefully to prevent suggestions that I'm useless), we DO let all applicants know, but then we don't get 1000+ applications per job as it's a fairly specialised field.

I haven't heard of JC saying to send an sae, but then I haven't had contact with the job centre for some time - is it usual? Wouldn't be so bad if they were paying for the stamps ...