900 applications in 2020 and no job [Part 2]

KatrinaWaves

People are getting ‘bogged down’ (with a calculation that takes seconds...) because the person literally said each application had ‘a tailored covering letter and a tweaked CV, and 1/3 even required a full application form’ which is literally not possible to a high standard in the time scales they discuss. So to say ‘why are you concerning yourself with this when I could apply to 100 jobs in a second’ ya you could, but not in the way this person says they did! 

If they weren’t using their ‘amazing’ job application rate as a stick to beat someone with then I don’t think anyone would have given it a second glance, nor bothered to crunch the few numbers it would take to render their claims ridiculous. 

Dakta

If I'm allowed to be a bit more blunt, I did the maths really just to give a theoretic BS score to what was being said so I could gauge how seriously to take it.
Whilst the post has been responded to I don't think anyone actually suggests 100 serious applications have gone out in a working day window, though like you I do believe it's systematically and technically possible (we could write an app for it!) -  as long - as long as we remove 'serious' from that sentence. They wouldn't be serious applications, it would be... spam. Applications for applications sake with little prospect of success.

A little off topic but another reason to taylor a CV to each job is to ensure you don't get labelled incorrectly as spam or at least look suitable at the quickest glance. Unsolicited applications are a major problem for sifters, my old man when he ran a company had quite a lot when he tried to recruit a HGV driver and a shocking number didn't even have driving licenses.

I can't remember how many applications it took to find my last job (before i became self employed), I don't have a whole host of quais, nor experience in any particular field for that matter so I was looking for a general work. I'd estimate in a period of a few weeks I made about 20-30 applications, most didn't get responded to as you'd expect (irritating) - and you might find a few rants of mine in the past about it here - but interview for 3-4 and got offered one. Once I'd found a position I was interested in I would put a couple of hours into researching the company and CV tweakage. I'm not a recruitment guru, but even though the markets got a lot more competitive the 'apparent failure rates' been seen and mooted on here seems quite high.

AW618

Dakta said:

 I'm not a recruitment guru, but even though the markets got a lot more competitive the 'apparent failure rates' been seen and mooted on here seems quite high.

Well, it depends who you are.  Withh the best will in the world, some people, both on paper and in person, are just the very last person you would take for a job and only stand a chance if nobody else applies, and not always even then.  I mean, somebody has to be.  And I would argue that if immediately on being made redundant you start applying for hundreds of minimum wage night shift jobs 300 miles away, you must know that's true of you.

Manxman_in_exile

TeeTeeB said:

To anyone who says there are not enough jobs to apply for, try indeed.com, monster.co.uk, reed.co.uk, cv-library.co.uk, totaljobs.com, jobstoday.com, and jobsite.co.uk just to name a few. Look at the adverts posted within the last 24 hours and you'll see there are well over 100 entry level job vacancies to apply for.

Can't seem to edit my above post, was going to add a bracket after typing Asian culture lol. I'm not making any of this up. We Asians when seeing others putting in the effort also want to compete and invest the same or more effort, I notice in some cultures the general attitude is you must be lying, it can't be done, and just blame your misfortune on other people or blame the economy instead of stepping up your effort.

Out of curiosity, did you ever have the time left to put a bit of energy into deciding whether all this effort was just a waste of time?

For instance, what was your hit rate in terms of getting a job interview?  If it was only one in 20 (5%) you'd end up being invited to five interviews per day, or 25 per week*.  (Some weeks fewer, some weeks more, depending how they were scheduled).  Now I reckon 25 interviews per week is just about equivalent to at least 30 hours per week*, so when did you have the time to complete these other 100 applications per day?

That's assuming you were successful in getting an interview in only one out of 20 applications.  If that happened to me (ie only a 5% interview rate - and it certainly never did) then I'd quickly come to the conclusion I was doing something very wrong.  (Even a 1% hit rate would be at least five to seven interviews per week.)

One of my old bosses had a saying "work smarter, not harder".  100 job applications regularly per day is not working smarter - it's a brainless "hope some mud sticks to the wall" approach.  I suspect I can see why you had to make so many job applications, and it's got nothing to do with your Asian culture.  (Not sure why you needed to raise that in the first place?).

* That's assuming only five days per week.  If they were making literally 700 applications per week (which they haven't denied) that would be 35 interviews per week, or seven per day in a five day working week, which I reckon would take up 40 hours plus a week.

TeeTeeB

Dakta said:

If I'm allowed to be a bit more blunt, I did the maths really just to give a theoretic BS score to what was being said so I could gauge how seriously to take it.
Whilst the post has been responded to I don't think anyone actually suggests 100 serious applications have gone out in a working day window, though like you I do believe it's systematically and technically possible (we could write an app for it!) -  as long - as long as we remove 'serious' from that sentence. They wouldn't be serious applications, it would be... spam. Applications for applications sake with little prospect of success.

A little off topic but another reason to taylor a CV to each job is to ensure you don't get labelled incorrectly as spam or at least look suitable at the quickest glance. Unsolicited applications are a major problem for sifters, my old man when he ran a company had quite a lot when he tried to recruit a HGV driver and a shocking number didn't even have driving licenses.

I can't remember how many applications it took to find my last job (before i became self employed), I don't have a whole host of quais, nor experience in any particular field for that matter so I was looking for a general work. I'd estimate in a period of a few weeks I made about 20-30 applications, most didn't get responded to as you'd expect (irritating) - and you might find a few rants of mine in the past about it here - but interview for 3-4 and got offered one. Once I'd found a position I was interested in I would put a couple of hours into researching the company and CV tweakage. I'm not a recruitment guru, but even though the markets got a lot more competitive the 'apparent failure rates' been seen and mooted on here seems quite high.

Instead of making lame jokes about developing a bull*hit app to see how bull*hit my words are, let me tell you, I had an interview offer on average once per fortnight. I did fail a number of first interviews, and made it to a second interview a number of times, but the point is I got interviews. I received several job offers and was able to pick, and all of them paid rather well for entry level office jobs.

I also noticed for some odd reason I had to reset my password, probably because some moderator assuming I'm trolling because s/he is incapable of applying for the same quantity and quality of jobs I've been doing. Instead of doing petty things like resetting my password as if I'm some troll who doesn't remember my own email address so I can reset my password, learn to accept other people are simply more hard working than you in job hunting.

The average person in UK student studies 9-5 (or less if you include chatting) and barely puts in the effort, the average Asian literally studies from morning to night. That is the kind of ethic Asians develop since young age, we put in a lot of effort in job hunting after graduating. It's quite insulting when less incentivised job hunters accuse me and other hard working people of lying because we managed to put in this level of effort.

TeeTeeB

KatrinaWaves said:

People are getting ‘bogged down’ (with a calculation that takes seconds...) because the person literally said each application had ‘a tailored covering letter and a tweaked CV, and 1/3 even required a full application form’ which is literally not possible to a high standard in the time scales they discuss. So to say ‘why are you concerning yourself with this when I could apply to 100 jobs in a second’ ya you could, but not in the way this person says they did! 

If they weren’t using their ‘amazing’ job application rate as a stick to beat someone with then I don’t think anyone would have given it a second glance, nor bothered to crunch the few numbers it would take to render their claims ridiculous. 

I graduated with a 2:1 (averaged at 68%) from a top 10 UK university. It's not Oxbridge but my academics are quite decent. No one would have given anyone a second glance regardless of how good you think your application is. You have far too many people competing, it is a numbers game. You seem to think some people are so high and mighty they can afford to take their time applying for a few jobs and getting an interview when everyone else making hundreds of applications each week can't. The reality is you're not some golden egg, you're just another number in the large list of applications. Unless the employer is a friend of your relative they won't spend an extra minute looking at your application just because you spent several hours longer in your application compared to others.

jonnygee2

Honestly what an absolute load of rubbish to try and make the OP feel bad! Personally I think they need to slow down and hone their applications more. 

Agreed, it takes me about up to a day to apply for a job. That involves reading the job application carefully, rewriting the CV to make sure all the key competencies in the job ad are covered, reusing keywords from the job ad, rewriting the profile bit to match the job, researching the company and writing a bespoke cover letter based on the values of the company, and then quadruple checking everything before sending.

When I am recruiting, obviously generic and untailored CVs and covering letters get deleted in about the same amount of time it took to send them. Anyone saying that spending time and tailoring your applications doesn't pay off doesn't understand the way companies or recruiters think or the current jobs market. Maybe at an absolute entry level you can get away with something generic but you'd have a much higher success rate if you were spending time on them. Above entry level, just no way.

jonnygee2

Does anyone have any advice to stop me from becoming discouraged. There is no point in applying for jobs online but recruiters don't accept paper applications anymore. I'd like to go back to school but everything requires workplace experience. There's the NCS but it's atrocious. Is it worth paying a specialist i.e. a headhunter that specialises in getting individuals work? Do such organisations exist? I have money and would pay for a service. 

It's an incredibly difficult time to look for work. The majority of companies I know have hiring freezes in place and are cutting staff. There's not an easy solution and you are likely about to be joined by several million extra unemployed people too.

Follow all the employment/job application advice you can, and keep trying.

AW618

TeeTeeB said:

KatrinaWaves said:

People are getting ‘bogged down’ (with a calculation that takes seconds...) because the person literally said each application had ‘a tailored covering letter and a tweaked CV, and 1/3 even required a full application form’ which is literally not possible to a high standard in the time scales they discuss. So to say ‘why are you concerning yourself with this when I could apply to 100 jobs in a second’ ya you could, but not in the way this person says they did! 

If they weren’t using their ‘amazing’ job application rate as a stick to beat someone with then I don’t think anyone would have given it a second glance, nor bothered to crunch the few numbers it would take to render their claims ridiculous. 

I graduated with a 2:1 (averaged at 68%) from a top 10 UK university. It's not Oxbridge but my academics are quite decent. No one would have given anyone a second glance regardless of how good you think your application is. You have far too many people competing, it is a numbers game. You seem to think some people are so high and mighty they can afford to take their time applying for a few jobs and getting an interview when everyone else making hundreds of applications each week can't. The reality is you're not some golden egg, you're just another number in the large list of applications. Unless the employer is a friend of your relative they won't spend an extra minute looking at your application just because you spent several hours longer in your application compared to others.

You must have some serious personal issues that make you so unemployable.  A 2:1 from a top 10 university and you had to apply for hundreds of entry level jobs all over the country?  What was your degree in?

TeeTeeB

AW618 said:

TeeTeeB said:

KatrinaWaves said:

People are getting ‘bogged down’ (with a calculation that takes seconds...) because the person literally said each application had ‘a tailored covering letter and a tweaked CV, and 1/3 even required a full application form’ which is literally not possible to a high standard in the time scales they discuss. So to say ‘why are you concerning yourself with this when I could apply to 100 jobs in a second’ ya you could, but not in the way this person says they did! 

If they weren’t using their ‘amazing’ job application rate as a stick to beat someone with then I don’t think anyone would have given it a second glance, nor bothered to crunch the few numbers it would take to render their claims ridiculous. 

I graduated with a 2:1 (averaged at 68%) from a top 10 UK university. It's not Oxbridge but my academics are quite decent. No one would have given anyone a second glance regardless of how good you think your application is. You have far too many people competing, it is a numbers game. You seem to think some people are so high and mighty they can afford to take their time applying for a few jobs and getting an interview when everyone else making hundreds of applications each week can't. The reality is you're not some golden egg, you're just another number in the large list of applications. Unless the employer is a friend of your relative they won't spend an extra minute looking at your application just because you spent several hours longer in your application compared to others.

You must have some serious personal issues that make you so unemployable.  A 2:1 from a top 10 university and you had to apply for hundreds of entry level jobs all over the country?  What was your degree in?

AW618 said:

TeeTeeB said:

KatrinaWaves said:

People are getting ‘bogged down’ (with a calculation that takes seconds...) because the person literally said each application had ‘a tailored covering letter and a tweaked CV, and 1/3 even required a full application form’ which is literally not possible to a high standard in the time scales they discuss. So to say ‘why are you concerning yourself with this when I could apply to 100 jobs in a second’ ya you could, but not in the way this person says they did! 

If they weren’t using their ‘amazing’ job application rate as a stick to beat someone with then I don’t think anyone would have given it a second glance, nor bothered to crunch the few numbers it would take to render their claims ridiculous. 

I graduated with a 2:1 (averaged at 68%) from a top 10 UK university. It's not Oxbridge but my academics are quite decent. No one would have given anyone a second glance regardless of how good you think your application is. You have far too many people competing, it is a numbers game. You seem to think some people are so high and mighty they can afford to take their time applying for a few jobs and getting an interview when everyone else making hundreds of applications each week can't. The reality is you're not some golden egg, you're just another number in the large list of applications. Unless the employer is a friend of your relative they won't spend an extra minute looking at your application just because you spent several hours longer in your application compared to others.

You must have some serious personal issues that make you so unemployable.  A 2:1 from a top 10 university and you had to apply for hundreds of entry level jobs all over the country?  What was your degree in?

That's the wrong attitude to have, blaming oneself instead of accepting the reality each applicant is competing with many similar just as good applicants. I graduated in Chemistry, nothing wrong with me as I received an interview offer roughly once a fornight, and each time I went to the interview either the room was full of people or I can see from the sign-in sheet the company had been interviewing hundreds of people. It does not matter how much I stand out, there will be at least several dozen of applicants who all stand out and make it to the second interview. I had been applying for entry level jobs but they are decent paying entry level jobs with promotional opportunities in reputable companies. It's very competitive out there, it's a numbers game. The feedback I received from all the 1st or 2nd interviews I failed is I did really well but other applicants had stronger qualifications or more relevant prior experience or references from more reputable people giving them the edge.

If I'm unemployable as you say, I wouldn't have received so many interview offers despite failing in a number of interviews, and I wouldn't have eventually received several offers where I have accepted one. Problem people would have remained unemployed, clearly I'm not unemployable as you want to believe because you disagree with my job hunting ethic. I'm not saying job hunters should not tailor their applications, I'm saying they need to do this but keep the quantity of applications made each day even if it means sleeping 4-5 hours a night only. Prioritise job hunting, cut back social life, buy a week's shopping and try to eat foods not requiring cooking so you have extra time to job hunt.

Employers telling you need to spend more time tailoring your application is just giving lip service. If they receive more than 50 tailored quality applications, do you really think they will care about you? Your probability of getting that job is slim, and if you devote all your time in that application you risk wasting all your time and the only thing that employer will say is sorry better luck next time.