"we recieved over 300 applications...."

[cigarsmokingwoman]

just got a job rejection with that statement within it.

What chance do I have in this current climate? Everyone is being made redundant and competing for the same jobs. My area of expertise is one that has been particularly hard hit of late so clearly everyone with my type of skill set is competing with me. I do have other qualifications that I've been busy obtaining so I can diversify, but its still upsetting to get an email like that when I hiad spent time tailoring the CV and I am deliberately only applying for jobs where I feel I am a strong candidate. It completey sucks and scares me as I only have 3 montsh notice and what if I dont find anything by then? I have disabilities too so even less of an attractive candidate to employers.

Sorry just wanted to get it off my chest.

Just to put a slightly different spin on things - I paused a recent job advert after 120 applications. Of those 120, only four met the MINIMUM requirements for the role.

So in our case, every single person who properly demonstrated they met the minimum criteria was offered an interview - the volume of applications made no difference, as the overwhelming majority just weren’t suitable. 300 candidates doesn’t mean you’re competing with 299 good candidates!

Its very obvious to me who has tailored their CV and who really wants the job, compared to people who are either chancing their arm, or out and out applying for everything they can. Are you tailoring enough - omitting jobs that don’t add value, tweaking duties to match algorithms etc?

But in our case, you needed both qualifications AND experience, and some people were missing one or the other.

We recently advertised for a caretaker/site manager, £55K and house if wanted, got 2 applicants - one dropped out prior to interview.

The continued increase in the pension age, for women from 60- 67, means more people will remain in work, especially if the terms and conditions are good. I don’t really think employers have adapted to the change yet and some younger and mid-career staff will have to wait longer for career progression if older, more experienced staff remain in the workplace and continue to compete for promotion in their 50s and 60s.

Has anyone had success on Fiverr as a freelance worker? I can’t decide if it’s worth giving a go?

Try a local authority? If you declare a disability and meet the job spec you are guaranteed an interview.

I have a friend who has had hugely impressive jobs in project management. She was made redundant at Christmas and is now working as a cleaner in a hotel as just totally unable to get a job. It's so so difficult at the moment. Good luck.

I recruit staff at basic admin level and recently had 100 plus applications.
I appointed a graduate. She had been applying for jobs for ages and had no joy but I wanted to giver her a start.
And the reason why I remembered her.
She had seen my ad on Linked In and then called me to introduce herself. She made an impression. Then she followed me on Linked In.
She aced the interview and tests.
She’s done amazingly well since starting in my team.
You need to do something to stand out from the crowd like she did.
That call she made was the difference.

On the other foot - my grandson runs his own business and advertised a vacancy last month - 97 applicants - sent 33 invitation for interview and only 2 turned up - wow how poor is that

Can I join the club?

I'm desperate to leave my current workplace but the job market is so bad. I had an interview I was very excited about but it turned out they were looking for a unicorn - somebody with expertise in two very different things, think someone who is a qualified accountant as well as a senior graphic designer. Others are offering what I was earning in 2015.

I'm not agaisnt ChatGPT. It levels the playing field. However, unless you're tidying your application up its likely the company is reading the same phrases over and over in people's applications. I've been sifting and can spot AI a mile off because all the phrases are the same across applications.

Why is it never a news item, that thousands and thousands of good hardworking people are searching for a very limited number of jobs? Our social contract isn t working if people who want to work cannot, and don t start me on ' we need to bring in migrants as there s not enough people to do the jobs'!!!

Remember that men will apply for jobs when they only meet some of the criteria and women tend not to apply unless they meet all or the vast majority.

Apply for anything which may be suitable rather than is.

It's tough for grads out there. My son got down to the last 30 for a grad scheme of 15 places but not over the final hurdle from 5000 applicants!!

The challenge is that the tweaking/customising takes time and when you are only getting say 1/5 even bothering to respond it can get hard to keep doing that every single time.

I’ve been redundant. It’s tough.

Another challenge is recruiters using algorithms to auto-reject applications that don't contain certain words while also rejecting applications that "all sound the same" or "don't stand out" or "use the same phrases over and over."

I don't think I'd want to work for a company that can't spell "received".

I'm doing many of the things people suggest on here, but still with no luck.

Jobs that want experience are tough when you've only got the qualification - you need experience, to get experience! So even getting additional qualifications in my spare time to broaden my choices, doesn't seem to have helped me much.

I've been a SAHM for 4 years, recently started freelancing again because it's the only thing I've been able to find work in. I've applied for hundreds of jobs. Most of the time I don't hear anything or I get immediately rejected. I had someone refer me for a job 6 weeks ago, met the hiring manager for coffee, got on really well. The job was in a different field to what I currently do but had relevant experience. Had a formal interview followed by a final interview with a project and presentation. Thought it went well. Then got an automated email telling me the job was either no longer available or had been filled. So rude. I can't face applying for anymore.

OP I am joining you in your misery.

This is the nature of things at the moment.

I am desperate to move jobs,I have applied for a few jobs even those that I meet all the criteria and get an email back pretty quickly or sometimes not at all (those orgs are now blacklisted

Lol, I asked a recruiter this the other day.

If everyone is now using things like ChatGPT, to write cover letters, tailor their resume, insert all the same key words in their application as the job description, etc... how do you stand out?

Won't they all end up looking the same?

And if they all have the same key words, chances are people are just inserting them for the ticky box, do they actually have these skills? You then no doubt force hiring managers just to accept the first dozen applicants, because do they really want to interview a hundred people to see if they 'actually' have these skills?

But no one wants to do the jobs that the immigrant population do. So unless the British population are prepared to do physical, low paid or menial work we will need people to fill them. I can’t see any of the people who have commented on this post opting for a care role just because it’s there. And why should they if it isnt their skills set? First of all, to be a carer you have to …care. Or it’s terrible for the client. I would much rather people took these jobs that wanted them rather than because they only had that option.

I'm curious as to the category of job that gets all this applicants? In our school we rarely get more than a dozen applicants for any job, teaching or support.

I'm wondering if these are office jobs that involve mainly computer operation, and whether those jobs are simply being made redundant by automation.

It can be crazy numbers for some roles. As part of my role I & my team can see how many applicants we get for different roles and some of them get 400+ per 1 role, others get 2.

could have posted the same. I’m sorry OP I don’t have any advice

I have been an emotional wreck because I don’t know how or when things will get better.

Start using AI to do applications because they're all using AI to screen them.

what is your area/specialism of work?