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Comment by speeder | Hacker News Reader

When you are sending hundreds of resumes, how you manage that?

For example I've been looking for a job for eight months now. I did create multiple resumes for different industries (and languages, I have portuguese and english versions) but still, I've been sending resumes in mass, and got invited in these eight months to only two interviews... and one of them was kinda a scam (the guy looked like he wanted an employee, but in fact he was a publisher looking for people that will shoulder most of the risk)

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Are there really hundreds of different jobs or careers that you want? I have only ever tailored my cv and cover letter for the exact position that I was applying for so that they knew I knew everything about the company and what they were doing and why they needed me to help them solve their problems. When they read my Cv they are like thank god our search is over, this guy can do it. Because it you are going to get the job you can do it and you will do it! It might take some training and some extra hours to get up to speed if your experience isn’t an exact match but you can say that, I’m going the extra mile to make this relationship a success, to make this deal work so that we both get what we want. People want to work with people that are happy to be there. If there are hundreds of different jobs you could have to me that says you don’t really care about any of them. Find the one job you desperately want and go after that.

When I was first starting out of university, I sent about 40 CVs out, and just started copy+pasting different combinations of paragraphs together for a cover letter.

I did eventually get a job out of that, but since then I've never sent a cover letter, and just keep 1 file updated as I hit notable milestones at my current job.

Conversely I recently had a position I did actually really want because it aligned very well with my background before going into IT as well. I got through a phone screen and then got rejected after a 2 hour programming test which wasn't complicated enough to actually signal anything. Going after 1 job you really really want is going nowhere.

No, quite the opposite in fact. Unfortunately most of the ones I want I likely couldn’t get, so I apply the masses of ones I can.

To be fair though, I haven’t sent out hundreds applications in many years. In fact the only time I did was when I was trying to get my first job.

Well, what I really wanted to do I never see any job offers (close to the metal C programming), so I kind of settle for "second best".

I did starterd sending resumes only for a few positions that I really wanted, but I can't afford to be picky anymore.

Outside of CS jobs, sending out hundreds of CVs isn't unfamiliar.

I'm in biotech. Job searches routinely take 6-9 months, and hundreds of applications. The supply of good jobs is low and the demand is high. As such, it takes a while. Granted, I last searched for a job in the before times, so things have likely changed.

I've friends in legal, engineering, and other 'white collar' sectors. It took them a long time too.

Thanks for all the perspectives!

Maybe sending hundreds of resumes on mass is the issue?

I'm generally unemployed at the time. So it becomes my full time job.

Generally when I look for a new job it's about two solid weeks of applying for jobs, two solid weeks of interviews, a week of negotiation and bidding.

The only job I had where I didn't have at least 5 companies trying to outbid each other was my first.

I'm not special, I'm not even a good developer. I just know how to convey my worth in a way people understand, I'm also honest enough that people trust me relatively easily.

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