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Comment by lbarrow | Hacker News Reader

I appreciate this guy taking the time to test this stuff out, but... 2.5 minutes per application seems really reasonable and short? Even the Post Office application that took 10 minutes seems fine. I get that you might have to apply to a lot of different jobs, but at that rate in 2-3 hours of focused work, you could apply to nearly a hundred different jobs.

The fact that it's that easy to apply belies the tone the article takes, which generally bemoans how hard job applications are. But they didn't demonstrate that it's hard at all! Moreover, the author even says in the beginning that they didn't use any of the products that help you, like LinkedIn Easy Apply.

Anyway seems interesting but this mostly just confirmed my perception that applying to jobs is pretty easy. Interviews, on the other hand...

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When I apply for a job it takes me at least an hour if not more. I adopt my resumé, write the motivation letter. If I spend less then 15 minutes it means I'm doing it as a requirement from the social benefits agency, for a job that I don't want.

> I adopt my resumé, write the motivation letter.

Only to find out that the other side didn't read that letter, and most didn't read the resume.

I know, because I asked.

Funny story. When I was going the coop workshops in uni they invited in some people from microsoft to talk about what they look for in a cover letter and they straight up said they don't read them.

That's good to hear because I stopped writing them because I started to feel like it discouraged companies from looking further.

I believe people in the hiring process are looking to work efficiently and a cover letter is just more stuff to read. They want to just read your resume because that's what will get passed around and what matters. Anything in your cover letter is mostly things they want to know in the interview.

This thread is interesting to me because I was told by my manager that my cover letter was a big reason they decided to interview me for my current job. Granted this was nearly 5 years ago, so things may have (read: have definitely) changed on the hiring front since then.

The actual application step might take that long, assuming you have all your supporting documents ready. The trouble is you often need to adapt your CV to the job & write a cover letter at a minimum. Depending how much you care about the job, this might include studying the job description carefully, reading the company website, and maybe even contacting the company to request more information. Then proof-reading and editing everything. It probably takes me at least an hour for most jobs, even if the actual submission of files only took 1 minute in the end.

2.5 is fine, but 10 feels incredibly long when half the time companies don't even both emailing back a rejection. Gives the thought "since they probably won't even see it, why don't I skip the 10 and apply to 4 2.5s?".

I also don't think 2.5 minutes is unreasonably long or much of a barrier. After spending an hour looking for relevant postings at companies I'm interested in, another few minutes to actually apply is not a big deal.

What is truly annoying though is creating new accounts for each company's application portal.

2.5 is extremely long if you just filled out the exact same information 2.5 minutes ago and 2.5 minutes before that and…

This doesn’t seem to account for finding meaningful opportunities, and in my experience, that has been the more time consuming aspect of the process.

> 2.5 minutes per application seems really reasonable and short?

That's what I thought as well. I suppose 2.5 minutes feels incredibly long if you're spending your day watching 10 second reels on TikTok and Instagram.

it's long if you don't have the connections to get a job through your network and need to sort of spray and pray to even get to a recruiter screen

Something you don't want to learn post-graduation: if you don't have the connections to get a job, you simply don't have a prayer.

i've been hired through online applications. current gig, actually.

but of all of my jobs, to include bartending and FedGov, that's the only one. the rest came through personal contacts.

i guess the military applies, but that's not really the same thing.

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