When I started in the workforce you went to the newspaper classified ads and looked at who was hiring. Then followed the directions in the ad, call a number, mail a resume, etc.
A few years later, webpage listings became the norm. You usually had to physically mail a resume and cover letter.
Having to mail or deliver a physical resume naturally limited the number of applicants. It took time, effort, and a little money to apply to a position.
Then e-mails applications happened. Free, fast and very easy. A relatively small amount of the audience looking for jobs royally fucked it up for everyone. Say you have a job listing that gets seen by 10,000 people. 5 applicants who read the job description applied and 1% of the audience sends a generic resume and cover letter without reading the job description. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is an issue.
So companies started screening via algorithms, keywords, convoluted application processes etc. The more companies screened, the more people felt they had to spam applications to get a job.
Then to make matters worse some companies started posting bullshit jobs. Jobs that were going to be filled by internal candidates, creating “applicants pools”, and even some fake jobs that they continuously post to be assholes. This straight up fraud stealing people’s time.
The whole AI thing is the most recent bullshit in an ongoing broken system.
This is why connections still are everything in the job market. That was true before as well of course, for the same basic reason, it allows employers and would be employees to just skip all this BS.
This is 1000% true. It will always be about networking and connections. This is why I support a federal jobs guarantee and placement program. Skipping the nonsense is key.
There is also third party recruiters for specialist positions such as IT, Law, etc. who are often the only entry point into a particular firms open positions.
At their best you used to be able to actually speak to them and they would go find a job for you. They would help you tailor your CV and cover letter to suit, prep you for the interview, etc. They are typically paid by the hiring company a significant percentage of your salary in installments if you get hired. You can pay for this service now, but getting a good one is hard.
I used to get direct contacts from them for positions that actually matched what I can do for a salary that would actually match what I am after. They used to have an actual industry knowledge and contacts.
Now, at their worst they spam people on linkedin with connection requests for positions that are completely unsuitable, AI has made this far far worse now. They often use a ghost position just to farm CVs for future positions, totally counterproductive if you wanted to tailor your CV for a position.
Hell, it might even give an advantage at this point. We may come full circle to the whole boomer notion of pounding the pavement, unsolicited calls, and firm handshakes. Lol
When I started in the workforce you went to the newspaper classified ads and looked at who was hiring. Then followed the directions in the ad, call a number, mail a resume, etc.
A few years later, webpage listings became the norm. You usually had to physically mail a resume and cover letter.
Having to mail or deliver a physical resume naturally limited the number of applicants. It took time, effort, and a little money to apply to a position.
Then e-mails applications happened. Free, fast and very easy. A relatively small amount of the audience looking for jobs royally fucked it up for everyone. Say you have a job listing that gets seen by 10,000 people. 5 applicants who read the job description applied and 1% of the audience sends a generic resume and cover letter without reading the job description. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is an issue.
So companies started screening via algorithms, keywords, convoluted application processes etc. The more companies screened, the more people felt they had to spam applications to get a job.
Then to make matters worse some companies started posting bullshit jobs. Jobs that were going to be filled by internal candidates, creating “applicants pools”, and even some fake jobs that they continuously post to be assholes. This straight up fraud stealing people’s time.
The whole AI thing is the most recent bullshit in an ongoing broken system.
This is why connections still are everything in the job market. That was true before as well of course, for the same basic reason, it allows employers and would be employees to just skip all this BS.
This is 1000% true. It will always be about networking and connections. This is why I support a federal jobs guarantee and placement program. Skipping the nonsense is key.
There is also third party recruiters for specialist positions such as IT, Law, etc. who are often the only entry point into a particular firms open positions.
At their best you used to be able to actually speak to them and they would go find a job for you. They would help you tailor your CV and cover letter to suit, prep you for the interview, etc. They are typically paid by the hiring company a significant percentage of your salary in installments if you get hired. You can pay for this service now, but getting a good one is hard.
I used to get direct contacts from them for positions that actually matched what I can do for a salary that would actually match what I am after. They used to have an actual industry knowledge and contacts.
Now, at their worst they spam people on linkedin with connection requests for positions that are completely unsuitable, AI has made this far far worse now. They often use a ghost position just to farm CVs for future positions, totally counterproductive if you wanted to tailor your CV for a position.
And now that we’re getting into Agentic models, which can click on websites for you, it’s probably going to worsen the Spam issue.
I do wonder if companies will eventually will give up and revert back to requiring paper mailed in applications. At this point it’s likely cheaper.
Hell, it might even give an advantage at this point. We may come full circle to the whole boomer notion of pounding the pavement, unsolicited calls, and firm handshakes. Lol
You described my life. I started my process during the email era as you put it. Hundreds of applications sent and little responses. It is fucked.