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Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

jobgen.io

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Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#41

Post by pdimitar »

jeremyt wrote: post #32
taietel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback. I built this as a senior in college, when my classmates and I didn't really have any useful connections to people in the industry. I did try cold-emailing and cold LinkedIn messaging people, but received few to no replies. It's definitely something that can be integrated into this webapp though, adding support for emailing/reaching out directly to hiring managers.

If you'll send me one of your cold emails, i'll tell you why you got no response. I've seen it all.

I am mostly a senior programmer but I'm still very interested in a fresh perspective about how do I contact business people. How can I reach you?

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#42

Post by Jaruzel »

taietel wrote: post #2

Hi guys, I built this after spending over 2 months applying to 100+ jobs on all the job boards and managing everything through a spreadsheet as a senior in college. I want to make the job seeking process easier for everyone so I built JobGen, a way to auto-apply to hundreds of jobs in 2 minutes. It's built with Rails on Heroku, and on the backend uses image recognition and DOM parsing to identify fields to submit you…

You can hide that ugly 'Choose File' button by putting it inside a hidden div, and then have a nice bootstrappy button in its place that relays the onclick event to it via javascript.

I only mention it, as I discovered how to do it (and auto upload) only a few days ago...

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#43

Post by brailsafe »

6stringmerc wrote: post #30
cpfohl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never gotten a job with a resume I didn't taylor for the job in question. Thoughtful tweaking is overwhelmingly the longest part of applying for any job. I've never found the 10 minutes (or so) of filling out the internet forms difficult.

On the first point, I've spent a lot of time tayloring for jobs in question and never got more than a form letter of rejection, if any, even though it was a short note of alignment with abilities. And, you're flat out wrong about the 'longest part' of applying for a job if you have to go through each company's individual "Job Applicant System" and fill out basic info over and over and over because the auto-fill syste…

I strongly agree with your second point. Especially for Amazon, Blizzard, and other companies that subscribe to multi-page registrant forms. I'll often come across a job posting, or a mention from a recruiter that just points me to the standard application portal. If I'm thinking "Hey this looks right up my alley, maybe I'll send them my resume. Long shot at best though" please don't make me do this. Running into these arduous forms turns a long-shot application on a whim into a long-shot 40 min enthusiasm crushing affair.

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#44

Post by pkaye »

bjt wrote: post #36
nathantotten wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone can't be bothered to spend 10 minutes writing a cover letter for a job they want then I would consider them unqualified. I don't want to work with somebody who refuses to put in a bit of effort to get what they want. I spend at least a few hours writing job posts. Why shouldn't I expect the same?

But you don't customize the job post to each applicant, right? So "the same" would be a developer spending a few hours writing a cover letter and resume that are sent to a bunch of potential employers without customization.

It is more common for the applicant to apply for the job so the job post has to be generic. Now if the company is recruiting someone unique they will approach them and tailor the opportunity to that person.

Also I don't think one has to spend a few hours to customize the resume. Make one for each industry you are considering and spend 5-10 minutes tweaking it for the employers you really care about.

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#45

Post by brailsafe »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #9
taietel wrote: post #2

Hi guys, I built this after spending over 2 months applying to 100+ jobs on all the job boards and managing everything through a spreadsheet as a senior in college. I want to make the job seeking process easier for everyone so I built JobGen, a way to auto-apply to hundreds of jobs in 2 minutes. It's built with Rails on Heroku, and on the backend uses image recognition and DOM parsing to identify fields to submit you…

Hmmm, and we built a Job Search tool that we initially intended as our internal tool to hunt for contract works. However, we end up aggregating all sorts of jobs. I'm thinking search job with our tool - https://getbetterluck.com/ and apply with your tool.

Are the keywords the only way to filter the aggregated results? I immediately ran into wanting to filter by region but I don't think full text keyword search would be so reliable

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#46

Post by sp332 »

mundo wrote: post #35
StavrosK wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When evaluating a developer, do you care more about whether they're a good fit for the job, or whether they spent more time than necessary applying for your job? I mean, how much time did you spend approaching each developer individually? Since you used an ad, I'm guessing zero. I'm not saying you should have tailored your ad to each person, but why do you care if they burn time for you, rather than evaluate them on…

Hiring managers don't look poorly on generic applications because we're prima donnas who want people to jump through hoops and waste time, we consider generic applications to be an indicator of a weak candidate. If it's not immediately clear why, imagine that you're a fantastic developer who can get any job you want. How many jobs do you apply for per day? Would you use a web app that automates applying to jobs, even…

You're not getting that many fantastic developers applying for your jobs. You're getting mostly average ones. Your process should be able to handle not throwing away qualified average candidates.

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#47

Post by accatyyc »

pdimitar wrote: post #41
jeremyt wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you'll send me one of your cold emails, i'll tell you why you got no response. I've seen it all.

I am mostly a senior programmer but I'm still very interested in a fresh perspective about how do I contact business people. How can I reach you?

Regarding job applications: when hiring people the first applications we send to the bin are generic ones. I really despise them because we get so many of them. We spend so much of time reading applications that if an applicant can't have the courtesy of writing a personal email it really leaves a sour taste.

So to actually answer your question - when applying, write why you are interested in the job. Make it at least sound like you know what the company you're applying to does. Ask questions about the job. If it's just some generic "I'm good at this and that" we'll just throw it in the bin even if you seem to have the skills.

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#48

Post by tomjen3 »

nathantotten wrote: post #20
StavrosK wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When evaluating a developer, do you care more about whether they're a good fit for the job, or whether they spent more time than necessary applying for your job? I mean, how much time did you spend approaching each developer individually? Since you used an ad, I'm guessing zero. I'm not saying you should have tailored your ad to each person, but why do you care if they burn time for you, rather than evaluate them on…

If someone can't be bothered to spend 10 minutes writing a cover letter for a job they want then I would consider them unqualified. I don't want to work with somebody who refuses to put in a bit of effort to get what they want. I spend at least a few hours writing job posts. Why shouldn't I expect the same?

Op did spend a few hours: he wrote a script. By definition he did what a programmer should do: find a solution that is automizable, then make it work.

If that annoys some people, well, that is why you apply to more than one job.

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#49

Post by nathantotten »

mdavid626 wrote: post #38
nathantotten wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone can't be bothered to spend 10 minutes writing a cover letter for a job they want then I would consider them unqualified. I don't want to work with somebody who refuses to put in a bit of effort to get what they want. I spend at least a few hours writing job posts. Why shouldn't I expect the same?

I don't understand this. I'm a developer, I create products. I'm not a professional writer. For me this means you value >>presentation<< more than my skills, despite I won't be a professional writer in your company...

I'm really not talking about something lengthy. But I get 100s of applications for every job post I publish. Most people who apply are frankly not qualified. If you are qualified, write a few sentences. "Hey, I saw your post for [...]. I thought this looked great for me because I have worked on [...] and I am super excited to learn more about [....]".

I am not asking for paragraphs, but show me you are interested. I honestly spend hours writing and reviewing the jobs I post and it takes probably 100+ hours total from a team to hire a person. We want to hire you, but you've got to help us. :)

Re: Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

#50

Post by nathantotten »

bjt wrote: post #36
nathantotten wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone can't be bothered to spend 10 minutes writing a cover letter for a job they want then I would consider them unqualified. I don't want to work with somebody who refuses to put in a bit of effort to get what they want. I spend at least a few hours writing job posts. Why shouldn't I expect the same?

But you don't customize the job post to each applicant, right? So "the same" would be a developer spending a few hours writing a cover letter and resume that are sent to a bunch of potential employers without customization.

We do for the most part. We might hire a number of people from the same position, but we typically write a post for each type of position or team.

Even at Microsoft this was often the case - of course there was a generic template, but you would put specifics to the role.

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