[pytrin]

> If an applicant takes the time to apply to your posting, why not give them a follow up regardless?

I'm not a hiring manager, but as the CTO I do review a lot of resumes incoming for technical positions we are hiring for.

The vast majority of applicants do not appear to be taking any time at all aside from selecting their resume to upload and clicking submit. It doesn't seem like they even read the job requirements, since 90% of them do not meet the minimal requirements we post. Some of them are not even developers, but they apply for a developer position.

If someone does appear to be relevant and did also include a cover letter relevant to the position, I will respond, regardless if they're a fit or not.

For me the biggest pain is the sheer amount of irrelevant submissions, which makes you numb after a while. This is why I don't believe in job postings anymore and mostly do headhunting.

Hope this helps!

[junke]

When I submit my application, I generally get a confirmation email ("You have successfully applied"). Some companies say "If you don't hear back from us before two weeks, consider yourself rejected". That is good enough for me.

[lj3]

> since 90% of them do not meet the minimal requirements we post.

What minimal requirements are those? Most companies post a laundry list of every little framework and tool they're working with looking for the unicorn that already has years of experience in the same exact stack. Years of those types of posts have trained engineers to apply anyway, since most employers don't really care if you have every requirement on the list.

[pytrin]

For example, we posted a job for a mid-level front end developer. We got a bunch of resumes from people who just finished a code bootcamp earlier this year, when we specified 3 years of front end development experience as the main requirement. Why does someone who finished a bootcamp 3 months ago and hasn't done any professional work yet thinks they should apply for a mid-level position, is beyond me.

Other candidates apply with 0 development experience - their resume frames them as "project managers" or "Search engine specialist" with no development related prior experience anywhere. I feel I wasted my time everytime I go through one of those.

[dx034]

Wouldn't it be pretty easy to send a standard email saying that the application was rejected? Maybe have 2-3 with different reasons, should fit nearly all cases. For the applicant it's still much nicer than hearing back nothing at all.

[madaxe_again]

That requires one to spend time reading and thinking about whether someone falls under "can't write a coherent sentence", "not remotely qualified", and "this is a cv?!".

We would always give detailed feedback to everyone who came to interview, but candidates who fell far from the field didn't get more than the automated reply. Originally I tried responding to everyone, but it's a sucker's game. It isn't just the time spent replying in the first place, even if it only takes a moment, it's the replies asking "why do you think you're qualified to tell if I'm qualified", "here's my creative writing piece from 11th grade, for a developer position, read it please", "I'll sue you, fucker! I know my rights!", "ok I understand can you teach me to program?", "ok I understand, here's my startup idea, what do you think?".

All it takes is one candidate who responds irrationally to a rejection and your entire day, and attitude to other candidates, can be blown up.

So, just like there's a bar for an invite to interview, there's a bar for a positive rejection.

[sameera_sy]

Yeah, Exactly. Each applicant is waiting forever to receive an update from their side regardless of what the end result is. It is so unfair from their side that they just stop replying on purpose.

[kutkloon7]

I find it hard to believe that 90% of the resumes is that bad. To be honest, I have never been in a situation where I have to recruit people.

You are basically saying that you don't send a simple email because people don't send you a proper resume. However, by sending you a resume they have already put in a lot more effort than you do. It comes across as very arrogant when you don't even send an automated mail. I would even argue that it IS arrogant.

[pytrin]

There is no way to automate it with the systems we worked with. We receive the resume through their interface, it doesn't go directly to our Email and doesn't share the contact details directly.

Honestly, if you'd seen the kind of resumes we received you would not think most candidates put any effort at all. Like another person said here, it looks like most of them are spamming all job listing on those sites.

[jarofgreen]

> To be honest, I have never been in a situation where I have to recruit people.

I have (tho admittedly, not in the tech sector). But I can believe it.

[slosh]

What about software that auto emails/ calls / text everyone not the new hire? is that too much to ask spend? what if someone like monster.com sponsored the service?

[nateps]

Check out Lever (YC S12) if you want a tool to help with more of this: https://www.lever.co/hire

I'm one of our founders and CTO, and we individually contact every applicant to our jobs. Lever has the ability to respond via a general email address for your company or your own email, so you can choose the appropriate level of personalization per email template.

[deedubaya]

Thanks for the feedback.

When you do hire, how do you collect/manage your applicants?

[pytrin]

We used to receive inbound from sites like Ziprecruiter and Indeed. Now I'm using the Stackoverflow Talent service to search for applicants that fit our requirements. I don't start conversations with more than 1 or 2 at the same time, so I don't really need an additional tool to manage them.

[deedubaya]

Thanks!

[erichurkman]

When you get to a certain size, if you've got the right culture, referrals will be a huge stream of applicants. For me, about 80% of our candidates are referrals.

I view referral rates as a trailing indicator of culture — if you enjoy working at company X, you'll refer your friends to work there, too. If you hate it or don't believe in its prospects, you won't.

[madaxe_again]

I thought so too - we recruited heavily this way.

There is however the ever present law of unintended consequences.

Referrals are often friends. People like working with their friends. Whoops, a clique forms. Whoops, the leader of the clique has decided that the clique is going on strike unless the leader is given a promotion and a raise, and the entire clique will quit if you don't. While you're mulling this over the clique explodes as it turns out the leader's lieutenant has been shagging the same married clique member as the leader.

You can't fire them without cause, you can't chasten them for how they conduct their personal lives, you can only hold your head in yourself if hands as you watch politics tear chunks from your business like coursing hounds.

So, referrals are good but I learned the hard way that one shouldn't rely on it - it leads to confusion over whose damn company it is.