Ask HN: Recruiters, how many hours after a job posting is too late to apply?
14 points by charliebwrites 7 hours ago | 10 comments
Tech recruiter, I've got a question for ya:
I'll see a job posting I'm interested in on LinkedIn and will go about my day for a few hours, only to find after I've returned that over 100 people have applied.
I'm assuming at a certain point, it becomes a pain to go through 100s to 1000s of resumes, so you pick a cut off point.
What is the cut off point?
Is it really required to jump on the role the minute its posted?
What can we do to help optimize our job applications to at least get eyes on it?
bityard 7 hours ago | next |
I am not a recruiter. But my experience, backed up by _plenty_ of anecdata here and on Reddit, is that applying for jobs on LinkedIn and other job listing sites is GIGANTIC waste of time unless you already have a connection in the company you are applying for.
I myself spent the better part of my free time in 2023 scouring LinkedIn for potential jobs. I was careful not to overreach, I only applied to jobs where I was sure I had the skills they were looking for. The whole year, I got ZERO responses. Until I noticed that one of the companies I was applying for looked familiar. A few minutes of digging revealed that an old co-worker of mine had moved to that company a few months prior. I called him up, we chatted about the company, he agreed to refer me. Long story short, I got the job.
If you are serious about finding a job, you HAVE to rely on your network. It's how I have landed 100% of my civilian jobs over the past 20-something years. If you don't have a network, the second best time to plant a tree is now.
(I suppose you could also work with an independent recruiter, but a lot of companies won't work with them because they charge the hiring company a fee. I don't have any experience with recruiters.)