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Show HN: A Webapp to Auto Apply for Jobs

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

#91

Post by nathantotten »

mdavid626 wrote: post #82
nathantotten wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think hiring is completely broken. At least in IT. Developers don't understand HR people, and HR doesn't understand developers. For me "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 [....]" means absolutely nothing. Frankly, I do NOT know you or your company and in a job description there is nothing about the team, cultur…

Where I work, engineers hire engineers. You are right on some level that it is hard to know exactly what a company does, but for many jobs in software that isn't entirely true. Read the companies blog, look at their open source projects, use the product, and most importantly read the job posting. I really don't think you'll have to make something up if you really are a good fit for the role.

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

#92

Post by pdimitar »

accatyyc wrote: post #76
pdimitar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand and appreciate that -- plus I always write personalized messages. It's a very worthy time investment! That being said, many firms don't have enough information on their websites -- and even in their job application info page! -- about what do they do technically and what is their current need. That makes it hard to make a proper addressing to them while doing a sales pitch of your abilities and profile.…

That's some good feedback! I will try to think about making sure that our job ads contain enough information about the role. Hadn't thought about that. Thanks!

Something I've never ever seen a company do is...

Tell me what business need my work will solve!

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

#93

Post by pdimitar »

accatyyc wrote: post #78
lj3 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not interested in the generic "everybody." I'm intersted in accatyyc's experience specifically. Not every company bins generic applications. It would be interesting to see if accatyyc's company can afford to do so because they have a glut of qualified applicants or if they're artificially limiting their candidate pool for some other reason.

To expand on my other answer in regards to this - I wouldn't say we have a glut of qualified applicants. It's pretty hard to find the great developers, and the reason we bin the generic ones is that we have never found a fit through one of those. Also it simply takes too much time to move further with those applications. I'd rather be programming :)

Sorry to barge in yet again. IMO showing the job applicants the significance of their work if they are hired is motivating.

Many people aren't only about the money. I feel many employers grossly underestimate this point.

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

#94

Post by jeremyt »

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?

5 minutes of internet searching should find my email based on my username and bio :)

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

#95

Post by Tentakill »

ryandrake wrote: post #74
cwt137 wrote: post #16

My department just finished a cycle of hiring developers. We could tell which applicants mass applied to jobs and used a generic cover letter. They are probably was just playing the numbers game. Since they didn't care enough to at minimum change or add one or two sentences to make the cover letter unique to our job posting, they didn't get far in our hiring process.

How does this square with the "shortage of engineers" lament that tech employers have been repeating for years? If there are so few applicants, how is it that everyone is so picky?

There isn't a shortage of engineers, there's a shortage of highly-experienced engineers that won't need training. Companies would rather wait months to poach an employee trained by another company than take up the task of training entry-level employees themselves.

This is just my personal opinion being a recent college grad, but I feel like if companies were really so desperate for new engineers they wouldn't put multiple-years experience requirements on all of their entry-level job postings.

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

#96

Post by pdimitar »

jeremyt wrote: post #94
pdimitar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

5 minutes of internet searching should find my email based on my username and bio :)

But that could be unsolicited -- and is obtained by looking you up without your consent. I prefer getting your consent first.

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

#97

Post by mdavid626 »

nathantotten wrote: post #91
mdavid626 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think hiring is completely broken. At least in IT. Developers don't understand HR people, and HR doesn't understand developers. For me "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 [....]" means absolutely nothing. Frankly, I do NOT know you or your company and in a job description there is nothing about the team, cultur…

Where I work, engineers hire engineers. You are right on some level that it is hard to know exactly what a company does, but for many jobs in software that isn't entirely true. Read the companies blog, look at their open source projects, use the product, and most importantly read the job posting. I really don't think you'll have to make something up if you really are a good fit for the role.

It's working really well when engineers hire engineers. I've no problem with that. They don't ask questions like "Why do you want to work for us" or "What are your strengths" or "Tell me about a situation where ...". Not every company has a blog, open source projects and many of them have no public products and are privately held. So, I can see the job description and the website. I don't know if you are an HR person or not. No offense. I'm not against them, but have very very very bad experience with them.
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