Data collected from Oct 6th, 2023, until today. All data collected by me.
Applied to 61 job offers on different sites (LinkedIn mostly, but also some minor Spanish job sites). All of them were for Django or Python backend developer (asking for Django, FastAPI or Flask), mostly mid/senior level, but some of them even were for junior level, just in case.
For companies to say that they can’t find workers, it’s curious to see why so many don’t even give you the time of day.
Yeah. Today I read an article saying last year there was a huge increment of layoffs on IT, and “75% of companies can’t find what they are looking for”, so I guess they’re looking for slaves. Or someone who can read the job application emails.
They only want senior developers (and probably for the price of junior developers).
Yes. Today I had the last interview (before accepting the current one), and they offered me less money, for a job position where they require +4 years of experience. Well, I’m almost there, but the top salary they want to pay is just high for a junior…
Especially larger companies are sometimes structurally unable to effectively hire people.
I’ve been involved in the hiring process of a large company (>100k people at the time). The process goes something like this. The team lead needs a Java dev, announces that to the department head. DH whips out the standard dev requirements, these include some technologies that the department doesn’t use anymore, and some the department may would like to use in the future.
That shebang goes to HR. They fluff everything up, add some aspirational stuff, like AI, so they sound more interesting.
Obviously, nobody fits the bill, HR will throw out anyone who doesn’t confuse them enough with lies or jargon.
And even if you do get through, internal politics might get you. We had a pretty good candidate once, who was highly competent and had experience in teaching and training junior devs. He interviewed with two teams. My team gave him good grades, but we suggested that the other teams, full of fresh graduates, might profit more from his teaching experience. That was turned into “they don’t want him”, even though we explicitly said, he’s a good hire. He didn’t get the job. Absolute shame.
Most companies structure layoffs so that they retain as many high skilled workers as possible. That means that in times like these the market is awash in underperforming candidates. Finding good hires can be even harder than normal.
Makes sense.
Man, I can say sometimes you’re right. But I have an open position on my team, I’ve received over 100 applications and something like 85% of them have no relevant experience. Do you actually expect me to try and talk to all of them? I do what I can and interview who I think fits best. It’s not perfect science but I have to work with what I have.
I mean, a bog standard rejection email at least would be nice. Being entirely ghosted sucks, at least with a rejection I know not to keep thinking about that job.
Yeah. Standard rejection emails are good. I have gotten some really nice rejection emails. I haven’t dwelt on them long enough to know what sets them apart.
I have gotten a couple of rejections and thought: huh, I forgot I applied there. I have been wanting to do a diagram like this for my current job hunt, but I think I am getting a higher percentage of rejections than OP.
Hello fellow candidate, we’re moving forward with other candidate, thanks for your time, regards.
That’s all what I need, tbh.
Even:
No
Would be better than nothing.
Kinda rude, but yes. Better than ghosting us.
Seriously, sharing this bad feeling with you all and seeing we’re not alone, make me feel better about it.
I agree with you. If I interview someone, I make it a point to get back with news(good or bad) asap. I don’t sit on it. I give the information to my recruiter and ask the recruiter to get on top of a response.
I don’t know if we respond to candidates that don’t get interviews. I can recommend it. I’m sure our recruiting software can do it.
I think it’s hr people justifying their existence by doing “market research” when there’s no actual open position
Congratulations on the job, hope you find it tolerable and that it pays well!
Thank you!
Actually, I hope so. The team seems pretty nice, also the rest of the company. Also, considering my previous job, I think almost any position with good salary is worth. Being unemployed is stressful.
Damn just 60 applications? Nice.
That’s what I was thinking… I’m over that amount already and I have one interview so far. Though to be fair I’m applying to co-ops which I guess might be more competitive?
49+3+10 = 62 not 61 so the numbers are off somewhere
True! I made this using SankeyMATIC, but I should generate it using Python, Pandas and Plotly (which was my very first idea) to avoid this.
Also, instead of 10 first interviews, were just 9. Good eye.
49 + 3 + 8 + 1 = 61
You add the leaf nodes.
1 offer. Rejected by interviewee because company didnt give any salary benefits info until the very end.
You gotta make it a point to ask what the pay range is in the first interview or you’re wasting your own time. If they won’t tell you, the job isn’t worth your time anyway.
At one time the HR gave me the numbers but at the end of the process they told me there was a mistake (or it wasn’t the fixed salary but include benefits that you are not sure to get). Happened twice
This has been my experience. They just lie and string you along.
The last time I was looking for a job, I applied to SpaceX (this was before Musk went off the deep end) and I didn’t hear back. Then a year later I get an email telling me my application was denied…. after I’d been working for LinkedIn for ten months.
Several years ago, I got an offer. I said I was interested in, and no response until 4 years after that, when the same peson, send me the same offer, like “hey, are you still looking for job?” xD
When there’s multiple people involved with hiring this happens all the time. When you get 100/1000s of applications many get stuck in some in-between status like contacting/shortlist when they should be denied. If you’re used to ERP/CRM where there’s no way to abandon a ticket unless you mark it resolved, LinkedIn and indeed feel pretty loose by comparison and it’s easy to miss things like that.
It just makes them seem incredibly unprofessional. It would be much better to just not contact me at that point. Giving me a reply almost a year later is completely unnecessary.
Yeah unprofessional/bad practice, I would flip off the notifs and just decline behind the scenes.
My stats (fullstack dev) :
1 job application -> rejected after first interview
no other job applications written, just has a face to face chat with the leadership and their friends at different events. At the interviews, I showed some of my opensauce projects that I did for fun -> 2 consecutive jobs in a decent environment with decent pay.
Had to write a cv after I got one of the jobs, just so their paperwork is complete lol
I have some of my projects linked into my personal website, which is available through LinkedIn and rest of sites. But during interviews they never ask, and idk how to feel about it.
As a manager, I won’t ask for code by the time someone is in the interview, but I’ll read anything shared/linked before that. Usually, that’s a GitHub link toward the top of their Resume/CV.
I would say that during the interview is too late to share source code, but one candidate brought in a big binder full of source code. It was a good interview. I read their code and asked them questions about it. It was bad code (as lots of “good enough” code is), but they actively engaged in a discussion with me about how it could be improved. I hired them.
Edit: I’ll always read a candidates source code if I can find it. Linked from your website might be too subtle for me on a busy day, though. Depending how prominent your site is on your CV, and how prominent your code is on your site.
As an applicant, I’m really thankful for your response! Actually, and thinking it deeply, during one of the very first interviews I got, the interviewer asked me about my opensource collabs and projects on GitHub. But looks more like he just read it over, and that’s all.
Look on news.ycombinator.com “who is hiring” thread posted on 1st weekday of each month. Lots of senior backend jobs there, many remote.
In the end I found something which I really like. But the search was painful, due to the bug amount of no responses. Not even a call to ask me about my background, or an email saying they’re going to move forward with other candidate…
But 49+3+10 is 62
Off by 1 error. They’ll fit right in!
Already explained, I made this with SankeyMATIC and made a missed the count. 9 1st Interviews, not 10.
49+3+9 is 61 :D
What’s your level of experience like? Always curious how that affects the hit rate
Currently, mid/senior. Some companies give me senior grade, but for most of them I’m still in mid level (+3.5 years of experience as backend developer, almost 7 years coding)
Ya that’s the same boat I’m in. HR always feels like a PITA though. Mentors have always told me I’m worth senior but my spreadsheet says otherwise
Some Spanish newspapers and blogs are blaming “the remote work trending” for this, and claiming 97% of companies can’t find good candidates. Well, maybe this is because they’re looking for devs who waste their time into going to the office, because productivity, when there is studies which say working from home has even better results.
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Actually, the otherwise. Unless you’re pretty senior, since remote work is going to disappear, finding something which fits on me is complicated.
Zero = false, no?
