Job hunt stats

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:When I worked at my old company on average for every hundred Resumes HR would phone screen 10 then we bring in 3-4 and interview and hire one.

Statistically you had a 1 percent chance when you apply.

Hence the term Rage Applying. You splatter then out to first make it through Applicant Tracking System, then pre screening call.

I applied 500 jobs in my last big job search, interviewed 30-40 companies and got two job offers.


I’m curious about this scattershot approach. Were there 500 jobs you were qualified for, that interested you, in your preferred location and desired salary range? Or did you apply to everything? I’d imagine the odds are way lower this way than a more targeted search. Is it really just a numbers game?


My location was anywhere in the United States or Remote. In a real job hunt I try to do 10 hours a day job hunting. The job does not have to be posted. I run down connections, companies I want to work for, recruiters. I also apply overseas companies. And pretty much any industry.

500 applications only netted me two job offers. If I literally only applied 498 may have missed getting any job. Right now I am not job hunting but I still apply 2-3 a week and usually do 2-3 interviews a month. Job hunting is a job. I did an interview today for practice. Remember practice interviews really help. My resume and interview questions I really get good feedback. Good luck and start applying.
Anonymous
OP continuing to track.

28 applications
11 rejections
4 interviews in progress
> 1 screening call (waiting to see if I get an interview out of this)
> 1 first round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes)
> 1 second round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes)
> 1 technical exercise (submitted, we'll see how it goes)

Starting to feel a bit more positive that I may get something out of this exercise. Although I'm hitting the hard technical portions so there's still a good chance I'll wipe out on all of these I guess. :-/ Hope everyone else on this thread got good responses in the last week, too!
Anonymous
126 applications
About 12 were responded; some with recruiters, others with a first interview with hiring manager and their teams.
Two were more than second interviews. Came in second on those.
Spring definitely has brought more opportunities and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Anonymous
Definitely keep a spreadsheet and spend some time every day working towards getting a job. It took me a few months to find a job (2-3) immediately following grad school, but I worked tirelessly. More recently, it took me about about 6-6.5 months.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP continuing to track.

28 applications
11 rejections
4 interviews in progress
> 1 screening call (waiting to see if I get an interview out of this)
> 1 first round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes)
> 1 second round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes)
> 1 technical exercise (submitted, we'll see how it goes)

Starting to feel a bit more positive that I may get something out of this exercise. Although I'm hitting the hard technical portions so there's still a good chance I'll wipe out on all of these I guess. :-/ Hope everyone else on this thread got good responses in the last week, too!


OP back again with updates.
> 1 screening call (waiting to see if I get an interview out of this) -> got the first interview
> 1 first round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes) -> moved on to tech exercise
> 1 second round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes) -> they want references, which is encouraging but also daunting because it means I have to talk to my manager about the fact I'm job hunting (I know he'll give me a good reference but it's still scary)
> 1 technical exercise (submitted, we'll see how it goes) -> still waiting on this, which is sad because this is the job I want most

Hope everyone else is making progress too. It's interesting that so far all my applications that got to the interview stage have been progressing. I guess the resume screeners are good at guessing fit or I interview well.
Anonymous
Way to go, OP! You are doing something right with both your resume and interviews if you are getting the response you are.

My latest stats:

23 submissions

-1 screening, full interview, no offer
-1 full interview, waiting to hear back (the process is dragging on forever)
-1 screening interview, waiting to be invited to full interview
-1 online assessment prior to interview
-3 had the courtesy to let me know I was not a good fit

The rest are floating out there. I'm off to find some more good ones to apply to.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Way to go, OP! You are doing something right with both your resume and interviews if you are getting the response you are.

My latest stats:

23 submissions

-1 screening, full interview, no offer
-1 full interview, waiting to hear back (the process is dragging on forever)
-1 screening interview, waiting to be invited to full interview
-1 online assessment prior to interview
-3 had the courtesy to let me know I was not a good fit

The rest are floating out there. I'm off to find some more good ones to apply to.


OP here. Good luck all your in progress interviews! It’s really tiring to be doing multiple interviews at once but definitely better than the alternative, right?
Anonymous
Tomorrow would be 5 weeks unemployed.

So far 33 Applications total (1 internal referral, 4 recruiters) - 3 rejections
6 interviews, 2 rejections, 4 still considering

Internal referral was made 1st day of being laid off. No response yet. This internal referral would be my top tier choice.
I had a pretty good interview today, decent firm.
I have had a long standing offer for past 2 years to return to my pre-pandemic company. In the interest of maintaining career trajectory, I have to continue turning it down.

Health insurance runs out at end of this month. Looking at state sponsored health insurance after that and it is making me very anxious and sad for my kids. Wah!

Anonymous
Here was my stat 3-4 years ago when I wasnt actively looking: 1 application, 1 first round, 1 second round and 1 job offer at fed. I lived happily ever after as a fed. I did the opposite of spam applying, but targeted at the agency and job that was aligned with my skill sets.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP continuing to track.

28 applications
11 rejections
4 interviews in progress
> 1 screening call (waiting to see if I get an interview out of this)
> 1 first round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes)
> 1 second round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes)
> 1 technical exercise (submitted, we'll see how it goes)

Starting to feel a bit more positive that I may get something out of this exercise. Although I'm hitting the hard technical portions so there's still a good chance I'll wipe out on all of these I guess. :-/ Hope everyone else on this thread got good responses in the last week, too!


OP back again with updates.
> 1 screening call (waiting to see if I get an interview out of this) -> got the first interview
> 1 first round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes) -> moved on to tech exercise
> 1 second round interview (scheduled, we'll see how it goes) -> they want references, which is encouraging but also daunting because it means I have to talk to my manager about the fact I'm job hunting (I know he'll give me a good reference but it's still scary)
> 1 technical exercise (submitted, we'll see how it goes) -> still waiting on this, which is sad because this is the job I want most

Hope everyone else is making progress too. It's interesting that so far all my applications that got to the interview stage have been progressing. I guess the resume screeners are good at guessing fit or I interview well.


OP back for Friday check-in lol

28 applications
13 rejections
5 interviews started
> 1 screening call -> first interview -> I removed myself from the process since as my gen z friends would say the vibes were bad
> 1 first round interview -> technical exercise (not as bad as I thought it would be so yay for that)
> 1 second round interview -> references being checked
> 1 technical exercise -> two subsequent interview scheduled; wish me luck!
> 1 first round interview (waiting to hear back if they want to move forward)

This week I'm looking at my spreadsheet of applications and thinking that I actually had a pretty good response rate. Lots of nos of course, but I appreciate that most of them actually communicated their no to me, rather than just totally ghosting me.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Here was my stat 3-4 years ago when I wasnt actively looking: 1 application, 1 first round, 1 second round and 1 job offer at fed. I lived happily ever after as a fed. I did the opposite of spam applying, but targeted at the agency and job that was aligned with my skill sets.


That's the dream, honestly! This is OP, and I wanted to shift to a new role so I had to apply a bit broadly to make sure I got someone who would take a chance on my not quite standard resume. I'm lucky that I have a good job I don't hate, I just want to be doing something else somewhere else a bit more.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Tomorrow would be 5 weeks unemployed.

So far 33 Applications total (1 internal referral, 4 recruiters) - 3 rejections
6 interviews, 2 rejections, 4 still considering

Internal referral was made 1st day of being laid off. No response yet. This internal referral would be my top tier choice.
I had a pretty good interview today, decent firm.
I have had a long standing offer for past 2 years to return to my pre-pandemic company. In the interest of maintaining career trajectory, I have to continue turning it down.

Health insurance runs out at end of this month. Looking at state sponsored health insurance after that and it is making me very anxious and sad for my kids. Wah!



OP here. Oof, good luck! I really hope one of your 4 still considering comes through for you soon, or better yet the internal referral comes through.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Tomorrow would be 5 weeks unemployed.

So far 33 Applications total (1 internal referral, 4 recruiters) - 3 rejections
6 interviews, 2 rejections, 4 still considering

Internal referral was made 1st day of being laid off. No response yet. This internal referral would be my top tier choice.
I had a pretty good interview today, decent firm.
I have had a long standing offer for past 2 years to return to my pre-pandemic company. In the interest of maintaining career trajectory, I have to continue turning it down.

Health insurance runs out at end of this month. Looking at state sponsored health insurance after that and it is making me very anxious and sad for my kids. Wah!



OP here. Oof, good luck! I really hope one of your 4 still considering comes through for you soon, or better yet the internal referral comes through.


Thanks OP. While it s*cks to be unemployed, the hunt has given me lots of time to reflect on what I really want, what went wrong and where to focus mid-career.
Last job was definitely a positive stepping stone, I did not intend to stay there. I had been hoping to do this in 2 years time, but it occurred sooner than planned. This entire process has been a necessary and good experience to really reckon with the direction I want to go in.

I feel like I am at the end of possible places to apply that align with my goals. If none of these companies come thru, I have to downshift and return to the dead end of what I had been doing prior to the pandemic.

Your stats are more hopeful than mine, and it also looks like you are being very specific about what companies and roles you want too. Fingers crossed for you!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Tomorrow would be 5 weeks unemployed.

So far 33 Applications total (1 internal referral, 4 recruiters) - 3 rejections
6 interviews, 2 rejections, 4 still considering

Internal referral was made 1st day of being laid off. No response yet. This internal referral would be my top tier choice.
I had a pretty good interview today, decent firm.
I have had a long standing offer for past 2 years to return to my pre-pandemic company. In the interest of maintaining career trajectory, I have to continue turning it down.

Health insurance runs out at end of this month. Looking at state sponsored health insurance after that and it is making me very anxious and sad for my kids. Wah!



Follow up - in 6th week of unemployment.
Up to 42 (from 33) Applications total (1 internal referral, 4 recruiters) - 3 rejections
Turned down 2 offers (- these positions were a step backwards.)
Have a 2nd interview next week with the "pretty good interview" decent firm from last week.
But OMG my dream firm from 3 years ago called me in for an interview next week. I was SO certain that my recent email would fall into another void. This time, instead of emailing HR, I emailed directly to the managing director.

Wish me luck. Oh boy!
Last week I toyed with the idea of giving it all up and opening a bubble tea franchise...
Anonymous
Never give up. My last big job hunt I was laid March 2016, but informed I would still be there till 12-31-2016. I was fortunate I went to work every day for 8 months and basically job hunted 8am to 6 pm five days a week. 50 jobs or leads a week I apply to. I got my offer letter Xmas week 2016. I landed a 330k job with a 120k sign on. Of course I lose that March 2020. I started again and followed up on 3,000 leads and jobs. I started again March 2021. I had severance, unemployment and a five month consulting gig to keep me alive that year.

I applaud you guys. With your job hunting work ethic you will land something. The market is still good.

But each job search as you age gets harder. I did it at 36, 45, 55 and 58. I am sure I will do it again.

post reply Forum Index » Jobs and Careers
Message Quick Reply
Go to: