Deals.Woot

I feel your pain. I started looking and applying for jobs the sr. year of my bachelor’s degree. No luck so I thought I’d make myself more marketable by taking master’s classes while I was applying for things, partially just to hold of loan collection. Finished that master’s degree, no luck with jobs. Started another master’s and have it about half done, no luck. I stopped counting at 100 resumes out; one not so serious skype interview. Now I substitute teach and do minimum wage temp work.

I get frustrated how he HR systems kick an applicant out for the smallest things, one year short on education or experience or something like that. I could do just about anything if someone would let me convince them and give me a shot.

Hang in there.

I feel your pain, but it's been like this for a long time. I'm not old enough to have had a job pre-internet, but my parents mentioned having to go through similar hoops. Yes, they actually got to look at someone, but they still had to fill out application after application and take personality tests before they got an interview.

You probably were not declined after you received an interview because they were already intending on hiring you in the first place. The filling out applications/personality tests is the first part of the process.

[Continued] I have deep sympathy for the frustration that @claudicina and others feel, when it seems as though there are no open doors, and no possibility of finding a key for them.

I do think that one thing that used to allow people that face time has either vanished, or is so overwhelmed with applicants that it might as well have. That's the job fair concept I referred to previously.

When so many people are out of work, it becomes very difficult for any one candidate to stand out in a place like that. It used to be a good way to look at marketability, even if you weren't really looking for a job at the time. Now, those places are so crowded that many recruiters fight over who has to man the stations, because it's so crowded and overwhelming.

There aren't easy answers to this. I may come back later, if I think of anything helpful.

Every job I've ever applied for (since 1991) started with the written word. It wastes a lot of time to talk to candidate after candidate who doesn't meet the basic requirements. So they need to screen them using a resume and cover letter.

If you can't create a decent resume and cover letter, than have someone do it for you. If you don't have a buddy who will do it for free, then there are folks who will take your money and do it for you.

I'm not directly in charge of hiring and firing, I've been involved with interviewing candidates for many years. By the time I'm in an interview with a candidate, they've already passed the resume screen, the phone interview with HR, and possibly a first interview with my boss- meaning they look good on paper, and don't raise any immediate red flags, and myself and some others are called in to do a sanity check on their skill set and personality fit.

In short - this has been happening for a long time. Good luck with your search.

@tsfisch: My resume is seriously awesome. I have a friend that is a career counselor at BSU, and she does resume's for a living. For my graduation present, she made me an updated resume, and a resume/CV. She told me what I had before was good, but the gift she gave me was amazing. I am not an egotistical person, but her resume, makes me look GOOD.

Filling out applications online can seem to be a waste of time. I am Senior Mechanical Engineering student with a Marketing minor and started filling out job applications last September. It wasn't until I went to a career fair (end of Oct) that I landed 3 interviews in person and 1 over the phone interview.
2 of the jobs I interviewed with were the same job, but at rival companies. I didn't get past the first interview with one, but the other I made it all the way to them flying me to their headquarters for interviews.
I ended up getting 2 job offers within the same week and got to pick from the two. I took the offer that was my dream job (Technical Sales also known as Engineering Sales).
What I learned from this was that all those applications I filled out online I might have been the right candidate but none of them got to hear me out and know who I really am unless they talked to me in person.
I think that career fairs are the best way to go to get your face in front of recruiters.

It's a lot easier to fill out and submit those job applications online than to have to research at libraries, career centers or the yellow pages and hand write applications, then apply a stamp and put in the mail.