[7174n6]

Your spray and pray technique is flooding HR departments with AI generated applications. This blocks out people who are actually qualified for the role as they get drowned out by the "shameless" who apply for anything that "vaguely fits".

This is horrible advice and exactly why the job market is so broken.

[giantg2]

"This is horrible advice and exactly why the job market is so broken."

You have this backwards. The only reason they have so many applicants in the first place is that the sector unemployment rate is so high and companies play games with evergreen postings.

[ghaff]

>sector unemployment rate is so high

Except it's not. A lot of people just got used to quit job on Monday, have several offers by Friday (with a big salary boost) which was never the norm for professional employment.

[giantg2]

Go check the stats. Sector unemployment is about 6%. Full employment rate is considered 4%. There are numerous layoffs over the past two years. It's taking people a year or more and hundreds of applications to find new jobs. The IT job market has actually shrunk this year.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/it_job_market_july/

[ghaff]

That's still not "so high."

[giantg2]

Again, check the stats. 6% is higher than full employment rate, higher than the overall rate, and is above the median unemployment rate for the past 100 years. It would be even higher except the participation rate is falling.

[dragonwriter]

> It would be even higher except the participation rate is falling.

Prime age (25-54) labor force participation rate is steady and high (steady around the highest peak since the one at the height of the late-90s dotcom boom—which itself was the global maximum since the stat was tracked—for the last couple years.) Overall LFPR (16+) is dropping, but that's just the elderly population share growing.

[viraptor]

There's no good approach here. If you can't rely on hiring through the network, you need to apply. And then either you get hired or someone else. It's all broken, but we can't expect every single person to collectively choose the "cooperate" option in this massive game if prisoner's dilemma.

[wood_spirit]

Don’t blame the applicants. As the poster says, they have to do this.

[mystifyingpoi]

This. OP is playing by the rules. The rules are silly and dysfunctional, but at least in the short term, that's the winning strategy. I'd probably do the same in his case (or at least a combination of sending maybe 5 well-made resumes or cover letters, to the companies that are the most promising, + 95 "spray and pray" ones for random fishing).

[usernamed7]

You got it. If you KNOW the company is ACTUALLY hiring and is serious about filling the role, and it's a good fit; take the extra time. But spray and pray helps counter ghost jobs which are impossible to detect until hindsight.

[creer]

It's not a question of who to blame exactly. The poster's practice illustrates why sending resumes in response to job postings can't work anymore. From the point of view of the new hiring company or new job applicant, it doesn't matter who created the situation. What matters is what we do about it next. You can spray and pray but you certainly shouldn't expect it to "work".

For the poster: was their method a good use of their time? is the job "found" a good fit really? will they last in this position?

For the hiring company: was their method a good use of their time? is this person in any way a great fit? will they last in this position?

The poster complains that few companies sent him a rejection note! Why in the world would they? The poster was protective of their time, and should rightly expect the hiring companies to do the same.

[usernamed7]

what are you actually talking about.

Yes, the job i found is a perfect fit for me and my skillset. I did not fake my way into something.

and my point is: if you genuinely apply to a position and you never even hear back from them, not even to reject you, it doesn't make sense to only apply to a handful. again, emphasis genuine application; answered all their questions and the role is a fit for my resume. That's why you have to spray and pray.

[creer]

Were your applications that good of a fit? You sent 450 applications for one hiring. Very roughly speaking this means you expect the employer to carefully consider 450 applications for their one job opening (assuming roughly speaking, that everyone does the same). "Carefully" is clearly not gonna happen. You sprayed and prayed but the employer is hiring one person for that one position (not quite true) and can't just spray and pray themselves.

You may have indeed found 450 real and fictitious openings that would be a great match for you. Yes, not impossible. Still the practice puts the employers themselves in a position where these resumes and answers cannot possibly be read. Not carefully, not at all. Again no blame one way or the other. I'm just arguing that we cannot expect the employer to carefully consider all these applications. There is no point in being shocked / surprised / whatever by this. The sprayed and prayed applications will not be read carefully. The employer will find whichever shortcut to sift through the pile and will carefully consider only a handful of all these applicants. Or hopefully, will see the light and consider other kinds of applications - such as network leads (but there are other options.)

My argument is about what we do next. My answer is that it cannot be job postings and answers to job postings. That ship has sailed. (And nonetheless, congrats on your new job.)

[usernamed7]

> You sent 450 applications for one hiring. Very roughly speaking this means you expect the employer to carefully consider 450 applications for their one job opening

I think you misunderstand. I did not apply to the same job 450 times. These were 450 different companies/positions that aligned with my resume.

> I'm just arguing that we cannot expect the employer to carefully consider all these applications. There is no point in being shocked / surprised / whatever by this. The sprayed and prayed applications will not be read carefully. The employer will find whichever shortcut to sift through the pile and will carefully consider only a handful of all these applicants.

Which is exactly why one needs to apply to many jobs. Almost every job on linkedin has had over 100 applicants after it's been up for a few hours. If you just apply to a handful, there's little chance you'll find success.

I didn't mention it before, but a CFO friend of mine is the one who told me to spray & pray because it's what she had to do and encouraged me to do the same. She was initially against doing it herself, but she changed her mind. And she is a C-suite and is someone with a large network.

[creer]

> You sent 450 applications for one hiring. Very roughly speaking this means you expect the employer to carefully consider 450 applications for their one job opening

No misunderstanding. Since lots of people operate like you did - more or less - that's the more or less result.

> Almost every job on linkedin has had over 100 applicants after it's been up for a few hours.

Well yeah. If your job search is going to be answering postings on anything - if you START with the linkedin posting as a given - then you will be competing with hundreds of garbage applications. Yes of course. Which means the employer won't read these all carefully (not possible). And the interview process for these will be aimed at filtering the garbage. And you won't like it. Etc etc.

And no argument that sometimes it works. Of course. It's a common way to go about a job search and on average people do get hired in the end, after a lot of nonsense. Everyone also complains a lot about a broken and inefficient hiring process. The inefficient hiring process is co-evolved with this approach.

People also mention approaching the right people and being fast-tracked through the hiring process. That is also a thing.

[forducks]

Even if you're only applying to one opening per company per day, from a recruiter's perspective your application is likely to be equivalent in value to most of the 1,500 other applications they have still to weed out. Your advice boils down to "stop applying to tech jobs."

[Spooky23]

You get to fight with the army you have. This is what companies want… talent or qualification is not a primary objective.

[ipaddr]

Isn't blocking other applications a strategy?

[usernamed7]

my application was not "AI generated" nor was it for unrelated roles. Everything I applied to was in alignment with my resume. I would much rather be able to apply to a handful of jobs and for that to be enough. But I don't control the market, i can only participate in it.