Job Ads / Number of applicants

jobseeker999

Hi folks, was laid off recently with very little notice, I had been working in this position for 11 months. This is the second time in the last 2 years, first time around it was after I had been employed for 10 years, the company went bust. It took me 6 months to find the new job.
Anyway, to cut to the chase when I was out of work the last time it was hard going to find a new job but persistance eventually paid off after numerous applications and a good few interviews but got there in the end, this time I've started to notice a few niggles, firstly the job sites all seem the same; irishjobs, recruitireland, jobs ie, monster all seem to through up the same lists of jobs, what on earth differentiates these websites from each other?
Another thing that I believe is unnecessary is websites that tell you how many people have applied for a role, Linkedin is doing this as are a number of English sites, it's only a matter of time I suspect before these Irish sites follow suit. I don't really want to know that 96 people have applied for a role that I thought I was well suited for! This is the sort of figure that Linkedin is showing for a few roles in Supply chain / purchasing in Dublin. If that many people are applying on Linkedin it must be in the high hundreds on the traditional sites.
I understand there is always going to be competition for jobs out there but it is just too easy to apply for roles these days and I suspect people are applying for all and sundry! I just feel that my application could quite easily be missed in the avalanche of other applications!
Apologies for the rant, just not overly optimistic about getting back out there anytime soon.

Who Knows?

Hey,

Keep the fight! I know what you mean though about these "recruiters". I had to explain to one what a PhD was.... Anyway, I know you're not keen on site but Dole.ie is on site that pulls all of these other recruiters together. Seems ok? Smae crap at teh end of the day.

I had a guy onto me yesterday asking if I (or anyone else I know) would be interested in a job in the financial services sector? Would ya have a background in this or.....? I could try pass on your details...

Mr. Loverman

I agree one of the biggest problems is the amount of people applying for each job. There are a couple of things I will say about this though:

I know for a fact most jobs receive a lot of "not a chance" job applications. These are people who are not qualified for the job or who have an awful cover letter and CV. So I wouldn't be too disheartened about all of your competition. In general if you are suitable for the position there is a high chance they will want to talk to you.

What you need to do is write a cover letter which immediately catches the employers eye. For example, let's say I was applying for a supply chain role with McDonalds.

The first thing I would do is try to find out the name of the person who either posted the job advert or who will be reviewing the job applications. You may be able to find this either in the job advert or by doing a bit of googling. If you can't find it, don't worry about it.

You want your cover letter to really quickly show you are qualified. So I would write something like this:

Dear Mary

I am applying for the Supply Chain position as advertised on RecruitIreland.com.

I have 3 years experience working as a Supply Chain professional and have a BA in Supply Chain Management. My previous role at SomeCompany included most of the tasks outlined in your job advert, so I believe I would be a good addition to you team.

...

Or something like that. As you can see, within about 2 seconds the person reading your job application can see you are probably suited for the role.

Most people don't do this so use it to your advantage.

maneno

Hi,
Sorry to bump someone else thread, just saw the opportunity and willing to grab it,
I am interested in the job in financial services if you would be willing to pass on my details, I will be grateful,
Out of a job for some months and its doing my head in,
Thanks in advance

Mrs OBumble

OP, ouch, that's tough at 11 months, just when you were going to get some rights again.

Agree it's hard, I was 2.5 years between IT contracts, did lots of nothing and various tempign jobs inbetween

But TBH, I'd love to know how many other people had applied.

As Mr Loverman says, there will always be some timewaster apps.

But knowing whether it's 3 or 30 or 300 or 3000 others that I'm competing against would give me some idea of how much effort to put into an application for a not-quite-the-right-fit job.

So I would love to know how many applicants there were.

Delancey

I know somewone who claims to be applying for 60 jobs a day !! A complete scatter gun approach and so far has not even got a single interview.