23 Applicants per Job

agrinnall

MattLFC wrote: »

I think people are missing the point here... of course there is often more than 23 people applying for the same job. Recently, we recruited a PA, and within 3 days, we had 40 applications. We pulled the job a week early because we ended up with over 200 applications in just under 2 weeks (one of the joys of giving the option of email for applications I guess). There wasnt actually more than about 30 with the relevant skills and experience to do the job, from looking at the CV's, but there was still over 200 applications.

However, of the 200 that applied to our job advert, I'd hazard a guess most of them applied for a few other jobs in the same week, in fact a great deal of them had probably applied for countless jobs in the same week.

The figure of 23, will be arrived at, say there is 2.3million people currently counted as "unemployed" (I know the true figure is higher than this), then that means there will be ~1million jobs currently advertised/available, hence there is 23 people for every available job.

There will be a lot of people (those happy to sit on the dole for example) who don't even apply for one job. But there is also a lot of people who apply for more than one job - hence the figure of 23 seeming rather inaccurate in the real world.

In addition, it's also a nationwide figure, so in some area's of the country, there may be statistically 4 enemployed people for every available job, and in others there may be statistically 40 unemployed people for every available job.

If the ability to do basic maths was a requirement of the PA job that you advertised then maybe it would have been better to get the person who got that job to write your post. 2.3 million people divided by 1 million jobs is 2.3 people per job not 23.

killerpeaty

I went to a job fair in London, and chatted in depth with a few companies I was very interested in, I found out a lot about the company which made its way into my applications (CV/cover letter/competency questions). I got call backs from all but one of those I applied to in this manner, no I didn't get all the way through the applications (I had a family tragedy in November and performed horribly in the interviews which followed in the next month) but I genuinely think it helped me a lot.
Just remember that once you're finished chatting to whomever (assuming you choose this route) to jot down the key points you have learnt. But don't go into a talk without looking up the company first, even if you get your notebook out and look up who they are and the questions you wanted to ask them, they appreciate it. For example,I found out how many people typically apply to the job I wanted in one particular firm (500 per job yikes), whether there is a possibility for training, extra education, where, who, why (sounds stupid but this has surprised me in the past) and if they look through past applications for new job openings and they said yes!

This is the biggest tip I have... But you can also try volunteering, I've been told that it's appreciated that you are keeping busy rather than not having something productive to show for your time.
Best of luck with your job search! I'd love to know if you discover any new tips : )

6166lesley

Thanks for all your feedback - I am sure that the number was plucked from nowhere! they have no idea what being in the real world is about! I have redone my cv and asked a friend to double check it and will send a letter with each application - Fortunately I have a months breathing space being on gardening leave, and mortgage protection so will be okay for a couple of months. Touch wood. I have registered my Cv with agencies in and around the chester are so if anyone can think of anything else I could do it would be all appreciated xxx

Random_User_Name

In the most recent jobs advertised that the firm I work for, the following happened:

Admin / Office Job – around 200 applications. I wasn’t involved in this though, so don’t know about the quality of the applications.

Field Based Job – around 30 applications. This was mine to administer. Of these, I invited 4 – 5 in for interviews. One turned up. No word from the others to this day!

In my opinion, to stand out would depend on the type of work. I wouldn’t like to even guess what you would have had to do to stand out in the Admin role! For the field role, I was amazed about the lack of covering emails (there were a few “here is me CV for job” emails, but most had nothing at all!).

Write a covering email letter. Make it reasonably brief. Get your application in early.

Make sure that your email is spell checked, and is reasonably consistent for grammar. One little thing which really annoyed me was the use if “i” instead of “I”! It just stands out so badly!

Good luck with it though.

zagfles

Random_User_Name wrote: »

In the most recent jobs advertised that the firm I work for, the following happened:

Admin / Office Job – around 200 applications. I wasn’t involved in this though, so don’t know about the quality of the applications.

Field Based Job – around 30 applications. This was mine to administer. Of these, I invited 4 – 5 in for interviews. One turned up. No word from the others to this day!

That's because they probably applied for 50 jobs and got a better one

These sort of figures may sound scary but the average job seeker applies for maybe 50-100 jobs. If the average jobseeker applies for 100 jobs and each job has 100 applicants then there's a one to one match between jobs and jobseekers...

**Juice**

I know for the job I'm starting in January there were over 100 people who sent their CV in, we then had to fill in an application and 40 applications were returned, then they called back 10 for interview but only 6 could attend for various reasons, the 4 were called back for the second round of interviews.

MorayMintz

Head up your CV with a really positive personal profile showcasing all your key strengths. Identify and list your key skills - not just what you can do but also any specialist knowledge or sought after personal qualities you may have. Focus on your achievements - money made or saved, improvements suggested, competitions won, etc. Make sure you can prove everything you claim - ideally include evidence in your employment history. Check out LinkedIn profiles and copy anything you think works well [keep it truthful tho!]. Register with agencies and job boards that cover your geography or skillset as well as checking the big name job boards and jobcentreplus. Watch your local / trade press for news of firms who have won contracts or are expanding and check out the company's own website for any vacancies.
good luck

Muse_fan_2

One of the jobs I interviewed for had 100 applicants and we short listed to 10. In the end just 5 turned up! A lot of the applications were rejected because they did not meet the person spec as they had no experience in the field. I think the way to stand out is if you can get experience in the type of job that you are applying for - whether that be salaried or voluntary and do as much research about the company as you can. Basically you need to sell yourself and highlight why the company should employ you and not another candidate. Good Luck!

Yorkie1

The covering note is crucial too. We get speculative contacts / enquiries at work, but it's abundantly clear that it's a completely generic covering note with no thought having gone into whether the note or CV is relevant to our work or organisation. Doesn't really engage a potential employer if you haven't bothered to put any effort into the vital initial contact ...

hcb42

It is not that hard to shine among the crowd imho, and we have just recruited 100 people where I work....some applications are truly shocking.

for my direct report I probably had 100 applicants, I interviewed (or invited to interview) everyone who had anything remotely like the experience I had specified. This was about 8 people. I hired my role and offered two others another role in the organisation which they were slightly more aligned for.

The purpose of the application is to get the interview. The most important points then are to follow the application process as requested, and ensure a high quality cv tailored to the job role and a well written covering letter (or email) laid out professionally detailing why skills/experience are suited to the position/organisationand why applying for role etc.

If you manage that you will be in the top 10% automatically, believe me, we were inundated.