I can understand a "personalized" response to be unrealistic. But at least a simple automatic e-mail saying "Thank you for applying, regretfully the position is now filled" or anything indicating "don't wait for an answer" should be the norm. Especially with a lot of large companies indicating that an answer could take up to 2 months.
All it takes is an auto-responding filter. It is one of the shittiest feelings to send a resume to a company and get no response. I've done it many times, and I have had many no-responses. The feeling never got less shitty.
There is a learning opportunity for me to align my expectations and my credentials to the jobs I applied to. If I could identify that major road block, I could fix it. I could apply to fewer positions knowing what was appropriate or not. Everyone else could too and there would be less resume traffic overall.
If all it took was to apply, there would definitely be an opportunity for a data market: I would create submissions for the sole purpose of getting the credential response. From there I could build a map of what the industry is hiring. With that I can sell resume coaching services. (Amongst other data sales.)
The most likely reason is to stay "in charge" of your interviewing process. If Johnny sends in a resume and he is unqualified, what do you say? "Thanks, Johnny, but you are not a fit for our organization. Best of luck!" Form letter. Awesome - that makes someone feel better? Okay... Anyway, here's the problem: Johnny writes back and asks, "What is it that I could have done differently?" Do you respond? If you do, what do you say when he writes back yet again (and again and again)?
"Scott - this is the kind of guy you want to hire! He's persistent!" Oh really? So that's all it takes to get the job you are hiring for - persistence? Of course not.
"But you can take a guy like that and train him - he'll be great, I bet!" Will he? What's your proof? He's already shown you that he's trying to punch above his weight and that he's okay with that. He's already shown you that he's kind of a PIA. What makes you so optimistic about his ability to learn?
The point is that there are lots of reasons that employers don't continue the dialog, but this is a major one. No company wants to pay someone $25,000-$100,000 a year to reply to the Johnnys of the world ad infinitum. And as for companies getting interns to reply, that's just ridiculous IMO. What CEO wants interns to be in charge of replying to job applicants? That's awful. At BEST you can train them not to *#$& up a form letter.
When I'm hiring, I respond to each and every resume. 99% of them get a canned "Thanks for applying. Unfortunately, it's not a match, but we wish you the best of luck."
Is that so hard?
My personal answer? No. It's not.
You're programmers. Write a macro. Then tap the key.
> No company wants to pay someone $25,000-$100,000 a year to reply to the Johnnys of the world ad infinitum.
First, this is ludicrous; even if you're sending thousands or tens of thousands of these letters, you can have a process that doesn't cost but a penny or two more than REVIEWING the email in the first place does.
Second, any company that can't design good processes that work well and cheaply isn't a place where I want to work.
Yes, actually. To say that it isn't implies that either (a) you aren't doing much hiring, or (b) that the number of applicants you get is very small. For an admin position, we might get 150 applications. Of those, less than 50% will have met the stated job requirements/pre-reqs. Even if I were to automate it, how much time have I spent automating it? Maintaining it? And for each person, there's certainly a few seconds/minutes of "Let me make sure I get the name right..." And that's just one position. It is hard to do what you're saying, unless (a) you aren't doing much hiring, or (b) that the number of applicants you get are very small.
(I've spent 20+ years in the tech biz. I've probably hired a few hundred people myself. I've never been "too busy" to live up to the bare minimum professional standards of behavior. To me this smells less like being too busy - and more like being too arrogant.)
But at least a simple automatic e-mail saying "Thank you for applying, regretfully the position is now filled" or anything indicating "don't wait for an answer" should be the norm.
Let me frame this another way. Sometimes I find that Gmail doesn't always deliver my mail. It's rare, but it happens. A simple auto-reply can give people the peace of mind that they are at least being considered.
I don't think you are rude and you are right I haven't done a lot of hiring but I have done numerous interviews along the years and applied dozens of times. As a matter of fact I am currently applying right now.
I understand your point about the personalized response saying explicitely "you are not fit for our organization" or even more "you lack this and that". It could be opening a door to a "negociation" and lead to a lot of lost time. And when you have dozens or hundreds or applicants it really is not possible.
But this kind of response goes a long way from a simple "the position has been filled" when it has been filled, even if it is a month afterwards. This helps the candidate to understand that the company is not interested in his application anymore.
In my opinion it shows a lot from the company and does not cost "that" much of time it the process is automated (and I think it should be for the majority of cases).
In particular, I consider this worthwhile for resumes submitted at various career fairs. The process employed there frequently comes down to handing over a paper resume and being told "Thank you for your resume, we'll digitize it and put it into our system." This is far from reassuring, particularly after the first few times you get clear proof that your resume was never digitized at all. A form note simply acknowledging the submission provides your applicants with confidence that their resume is truly in your possession and a better feeling than applying to a black hole.
You respond back and say "Unfortunately, due to the high number of responses we received, we're unable to go into detail as to why we moved forward with some applicants and not others. We wish you the best in the future." Further responses go straight to the trash (unless they stand out enough to be placed on the never-hire-these-people-ever list).