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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

Honestly, this doesn't sound much different than a year ago, five years ago, or ten years ago. Companies never seem to be serious about hiring: they go fishing but never reel anyone in, they ghost you after a few communications, they reject your application with automation, and even if you have an internal referral, the referrer is usually only able to do "Go apply through the normal funnel and if you get through the automation, I'll vouch for ya!"

I've got ~20 years in the industry, including startup-sized companies, medium sized companies and FAANGs. Every job hunt for me is still around 100 applications : 10 interviews : 1 offer. These ratios have remained pretty reliable through bull and bear hiring markets.

I suspect people for whom "jobs are falling off trees" are rarer than HN commenters might have you believe.

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> Every job hunt for me is still around 100 applications : 10 interviews : 1 offer. These ratios have remained pretty reliable through bull and bear hiring markets.

This rough estimate agrees with the data I've collected from my own job hunting. My data say 100 applications : 14 interviews : 3 offers, specifically.

When I looked for a job 6 months ago, I had the same experience. A dozen applications and no responses. Working with recruiters that put me in front of a hiring person was how I ended up finding my current job.

I don't mean this to come off as insensitive but having a pipeline conversion of 10% on both steps of the process feels quite low to me. Both numbers are very different from my own experience: with a 'true FAANG' name on resume, the application to interview rate should be more around 50-90%. For interview->offer, if you grind out system design and LeetCode, you can get to 40-75%. These numbers are quite attainable for junior/mid-level/senior roles, though there is more variability / poorer predictability for staff-level roles.

Speaking from experience as well as the experience of former colleagues. Of course, you may find that you don't want to grind out prep to increase the latter conversion, which is also fine. Just wanted to provide another data point.

> Every job hunt for me is still around 100 applications : 10 interviews : 1 offer. These ratios have remained pretty reliable through bull and bear hiring markets.

Same here. But, I'm horrible at selling myself.

> I suspect people for whom "jobs are falling off trees" are rarer than HN commenters might have you believe.

I don't think so. The people for which jobs are falling off trees are those who have spent at least 10 years building their brand and their network. It reminds me a bit of this comic I see on occasion: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRwe2qaU8AAwLE5?format=jpg&name=...

And it's accurate for me. I'm lazy. That's why I became a programmer to begin with.

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