There's no substitute for meeting people and creating genuine relationships, and there's no way to "hack" or speed up that process. That really is a numbers game: you may make 20 friends, and only one of them results in a job. But each friend requires genuine time and effort.
As far as being a senior in college, what about talking to alumni, especially recent ones? What about connections from internships?
Machines can't do the most important part of finding a job, which is to increase the number of people in the world who know your name and like you.
> That really is a numbers game: you may make 20 friends, and only one of them results in a job.
Comparing the difficulty and social capital required to maintain 20 friends to having an app send out job applications is...not even in the same ballpark? People seem to have vastly different interpretations for the word friend, but making 20 friends certainly isn't trivial.
Having to wait that long for a better job shouldn't be necessary. Keep in mind, the goal isn't to get the best result, it's to get a better result than where you currently are.
So to actually answer your question - when applying, write why you are interested in the job. Make it at least sound like you know what the company you're applying to does. Ask questions about the job. If it's just some generic "I'm good at this and that" we'll just throw it in the bin even if you seem to have the skills.
That being said, many firms don't have enough information on their websites -- and even in their job application info page! -- about what do they do technically and what is their current need.
That makes it hard to make a proper addressing to them while doing a sales pitch of your abilities and profile. And I refuse to engage in vague guess-work, too.
Thank you, I realize some people might not have responded because I didn't have enough info to go on to try and tell them why would I like working with them.
Tell me what business need my work will solve!
For almost everyone else, there are two problems: not enough applicants and no infallible way to screen them.
Hiring is (and should be) the most difficult thing a company does. It's the most important thing a company does for sure.
> the reason we bin the generic ones is that we have never found a fit through one of those.
That's an interesting bit of pattern recognition and something I hadn't considered.
> I'd rather be programming :)
Haha, fair enough. :)
Many people aren't only about the money. I feel many employers grossly underestimate this point.
This. If the job you're applying to pays >= 50k/year, you owe it to yourself to take 30 minutes or so before you apply and find a way to differentiate yourself and make a connection. Ideally you reach out to someone on the inside that you have a shared experience/interest with, but if you can't, just prepare a highly personalized cover letter explaining why you're excited about the position and a great fit for it. For a position with 50 applicants maybe 3 of them will have done this, and those 3 are likely the first ones to get called in for interviews.
Treating job applications like an indiscriminate numbers game is doing a disservice to yourself and the companies you apply to.
Anything more than that would be better spent on things that improve your chances for every job you apply for (improving your resume, adding to your github, taking a course, etc).
Personal attacks aren't allowed on HN and cheapen your response.
Many other commenters, including myself, are responsible for hiring and immediately discard applications that aren't tailored.
When someone spends time customizing their application, it means my company is near the top of their list. That indicates a higher potential for a good fit.
If someone is mindlessly applying, there's a good chance they're wasting time for both of us. Only a big, badly-run organization would hire people from pools of robo-applications. I've never heard of any organization that has been happy hiring someone who did no research on the company ahead of time or didn't really care if they got the job or not.
I applied for companies directly and ended up getting the exact same job through a staffing firm instead. For getting in the door, it's a big help starting out.
That said, I think you can apply to jobs with a single click on LinkedIn (and I assume StackOverflow?) so that has kind of been solved. Ish.
And, you're flat out wrong about the 'longest part' of applying for a job if you have to go through each company's individual "Job Applicant System" and fill out basic info over and over and over because the auto-fill systems are garbage 80% of the time. Redundant data entry is overwhelmingly the worst part, and Employers/HR people love to pretend that's not the case.
Let's say I've worked with roughly 1,000 people throughout my 20 year career. Let's say generously 20% of them I worked with closely enough that they know who I am and have a vague sense that I'm an awesome worker. 20% of those I've actually developed a friendly relationship with beyond water cooler chit chat, where we'd trust each other enough to be willing to help with a job search. Maybe 20% of those are now in companies where I'd want to work. And further 20% of that list are in positions so close to the hiring manager at one of those companies where they could actually speak up and have some influence on a decision. We're down to one or two people in the entire industry.
These numbers are guesstimates (pretty much match my own situation), but I just don't see how "networking" is the silver bullet everyone says it is. I'm sure when it works it really works, but I wouldn't rely on it.
Think of it like sales. Salesmen don't only sell to people they happen to run into at home or at the office. They go out of their way to target (ie: chat up and befriend) people who buy what they sell.
I couldn't find any data suggesting that it's true, but I did find this survey that backs up my assessment: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-survey-reveals-85-all-job...
But it's not at all a numbers game if you only apply to companies where you have some human connection. For privileged people, that means a relative, family friend, or friend.
For others, who have no useful connections, it's possible to make these connections by cold-messaging people on LinkedIn, especially alumni from your school. I have friends who have done this right out of college and only applied to 3 or 4 companies before landing a job they loved.
I'd argue that a tool like this encourages and facilitates a dead-end method of applications.
EDIT: Let me rephrase this a different way. Sometimes, when you're not finding success, it's not because of too few attempts. It's because your conversion rate needs to be increased. In this case, the conversion rate of "send generic app" is very low, whereas the conversation rate of "tailor your app to the specific opportunity" is much, much higher.