Job Hunting Sucks. This Programmer Filled Out 250 Applications to Find Out Why::Shikhar Sachdev wanted to reveal what made the process so draining—so he spent 11 hours filling applications. Now he has tips for both job seekers and hiring managers.

  • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Or, hear me out, that brick wall is stupid in the first place. If you’re applying, you probably want the job. Just like if you’re listing for applications, you’re probably hiring.

    There’s a saying Sachdev likes, from computer science professor Randy Pausch: The brick walls are there for a reason. Facing and surmounting hurdles can help a person discover how much they want something. But if an employer erects too many barriers, “is an applicant really going to think, ‘That brick wall is there for a reason?’ Or is the applicant going to exit out of your website and go apply somewhere else?” Sachdev says. “I think it’s the latter.”

    • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      It’s dumb in dating as well as hiring.

      I mean, do you really want to limit your pool to people who are desperate enough to suffer such indignities?

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I mean, do you really want to limit your pool to people who are desperate enough to suffer such indignities?

        If you want the individual to be submissive, yes

    • Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you’re applying, you probably want the job

      In the sense that you would like a paycheck? Sure

      In the sense that you are remotely qualified for the position or meet any of the requirements? Not necessarily. And I don’t mean “This entry level position needs twenty years of experience”. I mean “Understands that python is a language”

      And a lot of those obnoxious timeouts and headaches are related to minimizing the “just apply for everything” impact on an applicant pool.

      • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        In the sense that you are remotely qualified for the position or meet any of the requirements?

        Sure there are people who blanket apply, but those should be the easiest to figure out. Job posters post jobs that don’t exist at the company and salaries are inflated consistently, that’s why there’s a law.

        You’re going to have to admit that the companies have the upper hand and neg the people looking for a job. During the pandemic, it was an employee’s market and now they’re trying to switch it back. That’s why the tech companies had agreements not to raise people’s salaries, etc.

        • Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This predates the pandemic.

          I have been on both sides of things. I have had to deal with the literally hundreds of applicants that are completely fake CVs or so underqualified that I would be better off grabbing a random kid at a high school job fair.

          And the reality is that if I have had to sift through hundreds of bullshit CVs, I am not going to be giving anyone “a chance”. Unless you specifically meet every single requirement AND look amazing on paper, you are in the bin because I already wasted hours of my life doing due diligence on the assholes.

          I hate everything about workaday. I hate that it incorrectly parses my CV in new and exciting ways every time AND means I need a new account for every company, if not every opening. But I also understand what happens if you ACTUALLY make it as simple as filling out a template once.

          And while the article is complete bullshit (gotta love the mysterious loophole of OPT as though it is some secret…), I do agree with the outcome. If you are a “skilled” worker going into a comparatively niche field, favor the openings that aren’t using workaday. My best interviews have been from using the automated linkedin application system that basically just sends an email. Hell, that is where my current job is from. But that is also because these were jobs in specific subsets of fields and not entry level positions or openings at Google.

        • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          I recently landed a new job where the salary range could be considerably higher than my last gig. Predictably, I was hired at the base of the range. It’s still more than my last job, but having been laid off from a struggling company, I felt no power to negotiate. Had I still been employed, it’s more likely that I’d have balked and said I want better than the base pay.

          Job listings are lies like people on dating apps using filters on their photos.