Whats the response rate to applications these days?

Johnnytwostep

Surely if you had that many applications you would just thrown them up in the air and catch a few and throw the rest away.

Pennywise

AP007 wrote: »

Brassedoff you are a hiring manager? Say you got 400 CV's for a job you would read them all and the cover letters?

No, presumably, he'd give them to an admin assistant to categorise/weed them according to criteria was important to them for that position.

It's what I used to do when I was faced with a pile of applications that was simply too high for me to look at them all.

DKLS

AP007 wrote: »

Brassedoff you are a hiring manager? Say you got 400 CV's for a job you would read them all and the cover letters?

Where I worked up to recently which was a huge corporate, and I had access to the HR software system, which manages from posting the role online to issuing laptops, company cards and crackberrys The last role I advertised 120 people applied, within 3 clicks of pre-arranged search criteria, I had narrowed the candidates invited 4 people to interview and at that point I hadnt read a single CV.

The morning of the interviews, I read the 4 Cvs on the train in to work and knew who I would be hiring, thats a fairly indiscriminate and automated process, if your CV doesnt have the appropriate keywords it wont get through I would suggest this applies for most big corporates, so ensure you are using up to date role specific keywords.

Now I am working for a much smaller organisation, and have just put up a job ad yesterday and have read all of the 36 CVs that have come in so far. Some have been comedy gold and some beyond hopeless.

MrHR

I have to say there is still a massive number of applicants for roles in the London area, I work as a Senior HR Manager for a retail company and part of my role is recruitment of Management - The average position attracts at least 100 applicants however one i dealt with last week was over 500.

For a general retail role advertised online the minimum response i have seen over the past 18 months has been 750 but the more normal figure is 1,000 - 1,500 usually fighting it out for 2 or 3 jobs.

I have read a lot on here about CVs and covering letters and whilst i would encourage everyone to look at the content of theirs i have to say unfortunately when dealing with high volume recruitment many i doubt ever get looked at.

I do attempt in my role to look at each applicant however i am more interested in 'instant' information i can get from each applicant about their past experience, qualifications and salary expectations without having to read through a 2-3 page CV with covering letter.

Back on topic i was made redundant prior to my current role and had 10 years experience and a CIPD HR qualification - I applied for in the region of 700 jobs, Out of that i had 14 rejection e-mails and 3 interviews - Very deflating when you are searching for work and see a position that you have been declined for getting advertised again so i have to say in general regardless of what level in your career you are at many companies are very poor in responding and hide behind the 'High volume of applicants' and 'If you don't hear from us within xx days you have been unsuccessful' banners which in my current position i make it a priority to respond to every applicant within 1-2 weeks of the closing date as i know first hand how horrific it is not getting a response!

I really think companies need to review their processes especially in Retail as effectively people applying are in turn their customers and a poor recruitment experience can seriously damage the brand.

AP007

DKLS wrote: »

Where I worked up to recently which was a huge corporate, and I had access to the HR software system, which manages from posting the role online to issuing laptops, company cards and crackberrys The last role I advertised 120 people applied, within 3 clicks of pre-arranged search criteria, I had narrowed the candidates invited 4 people to interview and at that point I hadnt read a single CV.

The morning of the interviews, I read the 4 Cvs on the train in to work and knew who I would be hiring, thats a fairly indiscriminate and automated process, if your CV doesnt have the appropriate keywords it wont get through I would suggest this applies for most big corporates, so ensure you are using up to date role specific keywords.

Now I am working for a much smaller organisation, and have just put up a job ad yesterday and have read all of the 36 CVs that have come in so far. Some have been comedy gold and some beyond hopeless.

I have a tremendous amount of 'white boarding' on my CV but that wont work for companies that read CV's by hand as it were or those who sift out the ones who are not in work and don't bother with those.

Daedalus

AP007 wrote: »

I have a tremendous amount of 'white boarding' on my CV but that wont work for companies that read CV's by hand as it were or those who sift out the ones who are not in work and don't bother with those.

Whitewashing will get your CV rejected far more than it will ever get you selected, it comes across as an underhand attempt to decieve.

AP007

Daedalus wrote: »

Whitewashing will get your CV rejected far more than it will ever get you selected, it comes across as an underhand attempt to decieve.

who does it deceive when all the words mentioned on the white area are on my CV already?

Daedalus

AP007 wrote: »

who does it deceive when all the words mentioned on the white area are on my CV already?

So why whitewash?

See you stopped crying and unblocked me, might be hope for you yet.

AP007

Daedalus wrote: »

So why whitewash?

See you stopped crying and unblocked me, might be hope for you yet.

the work programme told me I HAD TO have it on my CV

Tell them its deceitful then as its not but pointless all the same

Its actually called whiteboarding

Daedalus

AP007 wrote: »

the work programme told me I HAD TO have it on my CV

Tell them its deceitful then as its not but pointless all the same

Its actually called whiteboarding

So what? Why are you relying on the work programme to find you work? Are they going to sanction you if you apply for a job without it? No. If they want you to use it use it only on the jobs they instruct you to apply for. Take some responsibility for your life.



Actually, there is no standard name for it.