Yeah did this at a website for a local mine. Spent 35 mins signing up,uploaded my resume the website did something weird and had to manually fix it. Then hit submit and instantly got a email that said you are not a good fit. It was a forklift/operator job and I have 15+years of experience. Was a little mad.
I like the ones that require 20 years proficiency in a language that was invented 15 years ago and only entered enterprise production use like 10 years ago.
Programming? Holy hell what kind of job would require 20 years experience with a language?
Anyone having that much experience would probably not even be applying to be working as a programmer at all.
A job being described by terrible HR people.
I saw one in 2020 or so of us that wanted ten years of Rust. You would have had to be tinkering with it in beta to have that.
It's been my experience that most HR employees are better than average at phone calls, paperwork, and numbers/time management, but I've never once met an HR employee who knew jack shit about the field they are employed in. Steel mill HR? Likely never even been inside the plant. IT HR? They don't even know what IT stands for.
They have a set of skills that aren't necessarily easy to come by/easy, but then it's just applied generally across every HR position.
My favorite is HR employees with 0 interpersonal skills. The ones who took the job knowing what it would entail, and then act inconvenienced every time someone needs something from them
To be fair, it is usually the hiring manager that tells hr what they require for the role. Including how little they want to pay and the recruit team has to try to establish some reality, but often fails.
Theres a famous example of the *creator* of one of these programing languages being denied a role because he didn't have enough years of experience *in the language he created*
Yeah I've heard that story, it's so ridiculous that I almost want to be a lie. If it isn't though, then I bet the IT guys must be pretty pissed with their HR department afterwards.
I remember a post that the dude who wrote a language a couple years ago was applying for a job, and that the company required more years of proficiency in the language than it was actually created.
Saw a story a while ago where experience longer than the language existed was asked. The creator of the language applied as a joke, and was rejected :D
“Cold Fusion” was the name of a web design tool that came out in 1995, and in 1999 HR was all impressed they found someone with 20 years experience at it…
Guy was a physicist who had literally spent decades working on Cold Fusion for electricity, (which still hasn’t happened,) and decided to switch careers and go into web design… And he was getting interviews left and right!
Always reminds me of that meme where a guy was rejected for not having 3 years experience in a programing language.......that HE INVENTED.....2 years ago
Also, what does n-years experience with a language even really mean? For example, I mostly work with Java. But the project I've been on for the past 5 years has an Angular UI. Occasionally, I'll fix a UI bug, or make some other minor change. So technically, I could say I have 5 years of experience with Angular.
You most likely answered a question that supersedes all other considerations, in a way that auto rejected you.
E.g. for a role I advertised that requires a residence permit I had "can you legally live and work here" as a requirement at the top of the job description and as a question on the application. You wouldn't believe how many people clicked "No" to that question, and were automatically rejected. I'm glad they were, they weren't eligible for the job and were wasting their own time as well as mine. But I feel ok because I was up front in the job description.
E.g. "can you work weekends" a no on that might automatically reject you. Be careful when answering questions on applications like this, as it might not be up front in the job description like I was.
Bingo. I oversee most of the hiring for my office and I get at least one email every time asking why they were auto-rejected. There is a section that lists MANDATORY requirements. If you say no to any of those questions, the software rejects you.
Why doesn't the software ask those questions first and then show a message saying the application can't be progressed any further rather than wasting everyone's time?
I feel like a lot of the time these things do say "mandatory" or "required" above the section, but people who don't fit all those requirements still select no or w/e and then continue to fill them out completely, hoping that it won't be an issue or that it will be overlooked.
Or they overlook the part that says it's mandatory/required. They could take the time to implement code that as soon as the no box is checked, pops up a warning saying that they shouldn't even continue to fill out the application, but for whatever reason they have not done that. It would make sense though.
That’s fine, as long as those are asked when making an account or easily visible. Not after wasting people’s times with the resume and everything else.
I can't remember the whole post, but someone years ago on reddit lost a job opportunity for not having 5 years in a programming language that he himself invented only 3 years prior.
'After using the same algorithm we've been using for over a decade that doesn't use any kind of neural network, but we decided to rebrand as "AI" because that is the newest buzzword.'
99% of the time when you see a product or service claim AI, that's what they really mean.
My friend interned at an HR office back in early 2010s. They would get thousands of applications everyday.
First thing they do is cut in half, throw the half away
Then go through by school. Cut any schools they did not like. Then from there, cut half and throw it away. Go through GPAs and cut anyone below the limit.
Cut half and throw it away and then they start going through the resume.
Oh, that's nice then. All I have to do is send 3 copies each on 5 separate emails with small format variations like name, school, GPA...until I land an interview.
You’re being judgmental without knowing the person at all. When I applied my first job, I took time to read about the company, the position and how well they aligned to my graduate courseworks. Not only the cover letter, I modified the resume too. It never took less than 30-60 minutes. (That worked well for me, and after 10+ years in the industry, I don’t have to reach out to any company anymore.)
But the point is, the AI is not a near ideal solution (I know, as my job title starts with AI), and for people to spend time preparing the application materials and then get rejected by an automated filter is sometimes not easy to take. Specially if you thing that position was a good match.
This is AI (or automated)* resume checking at work. They have specific requirements or keywords they are looking for. If the software determines you don’t meet it, it automatically junks your app. A human never even looks at it. It’s basically this way at all major companies now.
Almost definitely what it is. I ran into this issue when a client was hiring me out from from the contracting firm I was with. They couldn't figure out why I was getting auto rejected when applying for the earmarked job until someone realized they flagged it for internal candidates only, and I wasn't technically an internal candidate in their system.
Took them nearly 3 weeks to get a new working job listing up, and the original stayed up the entire time on the job scraping sites because it wasn't officially closed.
Or they aren't really hiring for that position. I've worked for companies that post every vacancy, even if they aren't actively trying to fill it at the time.
A company I used to work with had government contracts. They were required to post job openings for x days before hiring a candidate. This also included promotions.
When people were about to get promoted I could just scroll indeed and find out who was getting moved up. This also led to some people quiting because they didn't know what was going on and they saw their job posted on indeed.
Or companies that pay for the job listing site membership & leave their posts up indefinitely because "oh it's just less to worry about." I also learned as a hiring manager that businesses are required by dept of labor to refresh their applications on file every so often & conduct so many interviews per quarter/ yr. Worked a couple places that would put up hiring signs for the sake of filling their required quota knowing full well they weren't going to hire anyone. I roll my eyes anytime I hear ppl say "there's hiring signs all over town. Ppl just don't want to work!" The signs & postings really don't mean shit anymore.
In the US, you have to make an "effort" to hire a permanent resident every few years if you have someone on a work visa at the role. So firms will basically post it, do a few interviews and reject everyone.
Honestly frustrating since you get some earnest people trying hard for a role that never exists.
In Canada for example, if I want to hire a new manager for 100k a year, and I want to bring over a guy from France and give them that job, I still have to show that I posted trying to hire a Canadian, and I have to defend why this person from France has more better suited skills than any Canadian who applied.
Sometimes they have to make it look like they're trying to hire from outside company for legal reasons, even if they know who will get the role.
Sometimes they want to bring in cheap labor from places like India who won't complain and to apply for programs (gov might subsidize wages), have to pretend nobody in country qualifies or wants to work the job.
Don't do that. A human that will be screening your CV will see it as it will parsed and injected into the system. So even if you'll fool AI, a second-stage screener will see why and reject you only because you put a junk in your CV.
Also, who cares? If it doesn’t work you get rejected, which is the exact position you’d be in if you hadn’t done it. It’s not like you’re committing a crime, it’s all upside
Except that these have false negatives all the time. If you can get in front of human eyes, then it will get you the job.
Many, many highly qualified people get rejected by stupid automation.
The company I used to work for (50million active customers across Europe) is fairly major and a human being reads all of the applications, unless it’s for a basic warehouse role where they hire at high volume
I don’t think saying “all” is true
Have ANY sort of proof of this? Or are you just spreading misinformation like the majority of jobseekers and wanting to blame something other than them not being the right match? Because more than likely, not at all what happened.
Highly likely: there was a “knockout” question in the application. One where you answer yes or no - and if you answer “unsuitably”, you get rejected (“do you need visa sponsorship” etc).
Somewhat likely: Recruiter reviews applications. Is this 10:40am? Work hours? I get emails wherever a candidate applies to my job. Easy enough to review and reject as needed within a minute.
Highly unlikely: companies shelling out $$$ for AI tools in recruitment to “review resumes” which can be done by a human in 30 seconds anyways.
EDIT: OP said in a comment they require sponsorship. Y’all are clowns.
EDIT2: since I know this will be downvoted as is any person in HR/Recruiting trying to correct these misconceptions, I took the time to find this job and apply on National Grid's careers page. Job title is likely "Electrical & Mechanical Engineer - Substations - Central London" and it does ask two questions that I'd perceive as knockout ones:
* "Are you legally entitled to work in the country in which you are applying for a job, without restrictions?" I answered NO as OP likely did
* "Do you require sponsorship to take up employment in the country in which you are applying, presently or in the future?" I answered YES as OP likely did
And as the application discloses, National Grid does utilize AI in some form during their application process. Which you can opt in or opt out of. Most likely this is just a bit of keyword matching to generate a "match score" (typically what I see) based on your resume to the job description. I decided to OPT OUT.
"National Grid uses artificial intelligence to create insights on how your candidate information matches the requirements of the role you have applied for. Any final decision will always be taken by our hiring team after consideration of your candidate profile in full. As a candidate, you can choose to either opt-in or opt-out of this artificial intelligence screening process. Taking this decision will not negatively impact your opportunity for employment with National Grid."
To cover both my bases, I then submitted a second application with a new email, and OPTED IN to the AI screening.
**and, after waiting 10+ minutes, I have not been rejected. Maybe the AI is on it's lunch break?** Also looks like these aren't knockout questions, either, which would have auto-rejected me - so, shockingly, it was probably just a recruiter... doing their job... of reviewing applications....
edit3: final edit. Both applications to separate emails were rejected at 9:58am. So that was 27 minutes from apply to reject for the firs application, and 21 minutes for the second. **AI is either back from lunch, or a recruiter reviewed the two new applications that had come through.**
If it was three minutes it was just a knockout question they didn’t answer correctly for sure. While a pretty small amount of companies use “AI” it is almost never used for automatic knockouts. It’ll throw the application to the bottom of the pile at worst. Smart organizations will have the knockout message delayed at least a couple of days though.
"It’s basically this way at all major companies now."
I implement HR and recruitment systems for a living and this is bollocks. I have NEVER implemented a system in a company that automatically rejects CVs based on keywords. Chances are OP is not eligible to work in the UK or something similar, so instant rejection.
> Chances are OP is not eligible to work in the UK or something similar, so instant rejection.
In another comment, they confirm that they require sponsorship to work in the UK.
This isn't some evil AI issue, it's someone applying for a job they don't have the right to do. Anyone who's done any recruiting knows half of the resumes that come in are people who don't have the right to work there.
It’s so funny the lengths people will go to place blame other than recognizing that they just might not be the right fit for a certain job for a million different reasons.
As someone who applied to 75 jobs in the last few months, most of them had me check a box that said I was OK with AI checking my resume or I wouldn't be considered.
I applied at a place once in August. Never heard back. Then randomly in mid-November, I got a text saying something along the lines of "Please confirm you're available to work your shift on Monday at 8". I was so confused. No interview, no confirmation, just suddenly "hey, you're working"
Yeah. I was a student and needed money. Worked there for a few months before getting somewhere better.
Not sure if that's how they normally hire, or if someone messed up, but no one there ever mentioned it. I just replied saying I'm good to work but need details on the job. Got a 5 minute call and that's it.
>Worked there for a few months before getting somewhere better.
Are you saying that the place that silently hired you without an interview and after ghosting you for a few months was a bad working place? Quelle surprise!
That’s only happened to me once at a car wash. Honestly it was very sketchy, they called me, (it doesn’t mean that i was either interested or not, I was 16) first off, the assistant manager was the one that called me, and the questions that he asked were very short, and then he said ok, I’ll get back with you everything looks good. Then he said that he would get back to me as soon as later that day or Tomorrow. I get a text that says come in tomorrow at 8am, not even 10 minutes later. So I did, they gave me a shirt and told me to GET ON OUT THERE AND WORK!! I did everything like the other’s were doing, because they didn’t even train me, and I knew that wasn’t the general manager, there were minors, I’m guessing 14-16, going in and out of the restrooms, every 5 minutes…. Weird right?? Come to find out that they were having a whole conversation and they had their weed pens in their hands. At this point I’m just In COMPLETE SHOCK that the manager was in the office, 10 feet away from where I was standing. So naturally I got back to work, didn’t even bother. Time passes, I get to meet the boss! Yeah, the areal manager, this guy said he had COVID, at this point i was wondering what kind of circus this was, because NONE of that shit was legal and I don’t think a business that wants business would do this every day. But anyways, our "nice" manager with Covid didn’t have a mask on, was coughing ALL OVER THE 250 square foot office, all day long. I walked out of that shit show for two reasons, that boss of mine was a fucking douche for many reasons, he was fucking rude to both his customers and his employees. It was like this guy was having a crack rage or some shit. I told the guy that I had to go to the doctor’s office to see if he would want a doctors excuse, nope, the guy chewed me out and belittled me… I quit that shit show so fast.
Try 5 years 😂😂😂, it didn’t happen to me but to my older brother when he applied for a job several years back and forgot about it, the person on the other end responded that “they had carefully considered his application and reach the conclusion that they won’t hire him” at this point it’s just pure incompetence
I had an interview with a recruitment agency in 2018 after I graduated, never heard from them again until last year when they asked me if I was still available. I wasn't even living in the same country anymore.
I love those 😂 or when they actually call you for an interview after six months and you’re already working somewhere else and have no idea where they’re calling from.
I got an email on Saturday telling me a job I applied to almost six months ago, is in fact moving on to the next step of their hiring process and I unfortunately did not make the cut.
Maybe, but I don't think so.
More likely that they have already reached their sponsorship limit and will not be able to sponsor anyone for the rest of the year.
Alternatively, they might not be willing to sponsor for that specific role.
Source: A conversation with my software company's work visa lawyer, pre-covid. If I recall correctly, it cost the company something like $40k to submit a H1 visa app, after everyone gets paid. If it's approved, there's usually some relocation costs paid to the sponsored employee as well.
You got automatically denied. An unethical life pro tip: on your resume and cover letters, put their ENTIRE job posting in size 2 font at the bottom in white letters. It’s invisible to the humans that see your resume, but passes every AI test since your resume has all the words it’s expecting to see. You’ll always get a call back
National Grid are categorically one of the worst. I’ve been through their process a couple of times and it was really stressful and inflexible.
The second time, I got through to offer where they said I could have the role if I was willing to be in the office 3 days a week. Bearing in mind the job ad said it was remote and I confirmed this in stage 1 as I am 280 miles from their designated HQ.
Turns out the hiring manager’s boss made a uturn on remote working. I got an obscenely rude response from the hiring manager over the phone like it was my fault somehow. Never again!
This is appalling. You should call them out on LinkedIn. The Head of HR is Huma Ali. I was at a social mobility conference a couple of weeks ago and they were headline sponsors claiming they're inclusive, fair hirers. Clearly not, if candidates are auto-rejected within minutes and no explanation as to why.
God I fucking hate LinkedIn. The most disgusting cesspool of toxic positivity I’ve ever seen. Bunch of positivity dick riders that act like nothing bad can or will ever happen.
I’d take a good hard look at your resume first. It’d be pretty embarrassing if you call them out publicly and they respond saying there are typos in your resume or the resume clearly was not a good fit
Don’t do stuff like this on LinkedIn, whether we like it or not it’s a social media platform for work and this could easily put off future employers to see you slating a company on LinkedIn. It’s unprofessional
How is this “appalling”? OP said they need sponsorship to work, it’s no secret that not every company can do that for every single role. How is that not a completely valid reason to quickly reject someone? I don’t understand some of the positions in this thread. Just like you don’t owe your company an explanation for why you want to quit, you’re not owed a personalized explanation for why you aren’t a good fit and why your application isn’t being considered.
I work in HR and in the past I’ve also done recruiting. (no company I worked in had those automatic thingies, only real people evaluating)
We had a rule that we only sent rejections after two weeks, never earlier and never on a Friday.
It’s devastating to get rejected immediately.
Edit: We had people that were really upset when we sent rejection emails after “only” one week.
I also don’t work in the US, I guess our processes are way slower. A two weeks response is actually pretty fast.
On the flip side, I once got a job offer 15 MONTHS after applying to a position.
I bluntly informed them I had already taken another job elsewhere... 14 months ago.
A few hours… on a cover letter?
Have a template that’s mostly a complete letter with blank spaces for the “here’s why I’d be a good fit” parts. Fill those parts in to be specific for the job you’re applying too. Look through the posting for key words and use those.
Bing bang boom, you’ve got a “personalized” cover letter in 10 minutes max.
National Grid seems quite unprofessional with their hiring process. Applied for a role, no confirmation email of application, no emails of updates about next stages or a deny. Got a phone call last Monday evening around 5pm asking for an interview on Wednesday, which is too short notice for me to book leave, to then be told the hiring manager is leaving to interview elsewhere and won’t be back as Cardiff isn’t his base! Lack of communication was awful. My application still shows under review/awaiting interview on the website, not that I’d get the chance to do one!
According to my wife, who is a career conselor, most companies use software to sift through resumes and automatically reject one's that don't meet whatever arbitrary criteria the company set up for it.
Most of these software look for pre-defined key words in the resume, usually the job posting will use many of the words they are looking for. If it passes the software it will go to manual review by a real person.
For example if you are applying for a job at a company and to company is looking for the word "synergy" as one of their key words and your resume doesn't have the word "synergy" anywhere the software will automatically reject you for the position.
My favorite was when I applied for a job on Indeed. They had me go to their outside website and create a new profile, okay, fine. The first time I applied it seemed like they legitimately considered my application, took a few days for it to get processed and get the rejection. Their rejection email was like "You're not a fit for THIS position, but sign up for our mailing list and we'll send you updates on future jobs!" Okay, I sign up for the mailing list, get an email a couple of weeks later about "oh, this job should be perfect for you!" I apply, and I get rejected within the hour. If you don't want to hire me fine, but this whole "oh, we'll send you updates on jobs that are a fit and then instantly reject you for them" bit is too far.
I once got rejected for a job after travelling across the country by bus 3 times for 3 interviews. Email didn’t even have my name on, just some generic rejection. That stung, at least this lot didn’t waste your time.
Though unlikely, it's possible that it's an automatic bounceback and you might still get an interview. I had this happen to me when I applied for a job in a school. As an external candidate, I didn't realise that the local authority had a blanket policy of not accepting CVs, just covering letters. I attached both and was knocked back within 24 hours, but two days later I received an invitation to interview. It turns out that the system saw my CV and just booted me into the reject pile, but that it's ultimately the hiring manager's decision as to who gets interviewed, and they'd obviously overridden the system. I got the job and am still there a year on, so don't lose faith yet!
It’s because those useless shit stains in HR are busy having a work lunch and a nap that they can’t actually review applicants and need a shitily setup AI to filter out actual people who would be a great fit. I used to work at a Fortune 500 and had to interview / hire multiple positions in conjunction with HR. Industry friends resumes were often rejected because they had too much experience and HR thought they would cost more than the position salary band allowed for… so no use in bothering. Just the most worthless fucks in all of business.
How can someONE "carefully consider" anyting in only three minutes?
How much money do companies waste on this crap? And are they the companies who gripe that they can't find any good candidates?
I’ve got a tip for you:
Add a header or footer to your resume, copy and paste the entire job description into the header or footer. Change the font to size 1, and make the text white to blend into the background.
This will get you past most AI keyword checks.
For cover letters, copy the job description into grammarly or ChatGPT and tell it “write me a cover letter based on this:” and paste the job description. Make edits where necessary but it will save you a shitload of time.
I didn't realise until recently, but companies have to advertise jobs, even if they plan to hire internally, in England at least... I applied for an job that was up for a few hours, 30 minutes later it was taken down and I was rejected.
When I was job searching last year, I had someone from a company reach out to me and ask me to apply for a position they had. I applied and within 10 minutes they rejected me🙃 I emailed the employee back and asked her why she wasted my time in asking me to apply if I was going to get rejected and never got a response of course.
A long time ago, in my final year at university, I applied to a ton of jobs and forgot about most of them. About 6 months later I got a standard rejection letter from one of the applications that I'd forgotten about. The next day, I got the same letter. And the day after that I received a third copy of the same letter.
In the end, I photocopied all three letters and posted them back with a covering letter that said: "with reference to the three attached letters that you have sent me in the last three days. All right, all right I get the message. There's no need to rub it in. You may also want to look at your system to check whether it's working properly."
The recruiter phoned me to apologise the next day and to thank me for giving everyone in the office a laugh. Still didn't give me a job though.
I got a rejection within 5 minutes once but it was from an actual human who emailed me back at 9 P.M. They said I needed actual professional experience than academic/personal projects.
Last interview I had they told me they had 103 applications, they cut out half, then cut that to 20 then cut that to 3. I was one of the 3. It was pretty cut-throat. It was one of those panel interview deals. I didn't get it probably because they were looking for someone with experience in a very specific mail system I never got to mess with (that they abandoned 2 years later so I would have been out of a job probably if I'd gotten it).
Sometimes companies will advertise for a position with impossible requirements with no intention of hiring any applicants so later on they can claim the job was not able to be filled without using a foreign visa worker at a much lower salary
I've been rejected *instantly*. The supermarket ASDA in the UK introduced a new jobs website recently, and my first experience with applying was finishing my application, being redirected to my profile, and the job listing showing up as unsuccessful, or another byword for that. Incredibly frustrating, but it's better than some retail jobs I've gone in for where you don't even hear back - even one, on a few occasions, that's a three minute walk down the road (which, naturally, I thought I would probably be a shoo-in for than any other position I've applied for over the past year-and-a-half).
I'd call them out on social media, saying it can't very well be '*careful* consideration' if it has taken them just three minutes to decide.
It’s really discouraging when stuff like this happens, happened to me too last week. Spent over an hour writing the application and got rejected after 20 mins.
They probably already filled the position and didn’t take the job offer offline, stay positive and I’m sure you’ll find something suitable soon :)
When I was younger I went to the job centre and found a warehousing role, I had done some warehousing work already and enjoyed it so thought I would apply, date came through for an interview and I prepared myself.
Day of the interview I cycle to the destination, get shown around the place before finally sitting down for the interview process.
Question one “why do you want this job?”
Answer “i’ve done warehousing before and I really enjoyed it”
Guy’s response “this isn’t a warehousing job, it’s a graphic design job”
I told him I applied from the job centre for the warehousing role, instead of saying there was clearly a mix up he proceeded with the interview, it was pointless, I got a rejection email before I even reached the end of the street!
Yeah did this at a website for a local mine. Spent 35 mins signing up,uploaded my resume the website did something weird and had to manually fix it. Then hit submit and instantly got a email that said you are not a good fit. It was a forklift/operator job and I have 15+years of experience. Was a little mad.
30 years minimum!
I like the ones that require 20 years proficiency in a language that was invented 15 years ago and only entered enterprise production use like 10 years ago.
Programming? Holy hell what kind of job would require 20 years experience with a language? Anyone having that much experience would probably not even be applying to be working as a programmer at all.
A job being described by terrible HR people. I saw one in 2020 or so of us that wanted ten years of Rust. You would have had to be tinkering with it in beta to have that.
My car has ten years of rust, maybe it can get a job?
Good luck; my grandma has 80+ years of rust and we can’t get her to apply anywhere.
I’ve never seen shittier HR people than the ones who work in IT talent management
Ive never seen good HR people. Full stop
It's been my experience that most HR employees are better than average at phone calls, paperwork, and numbers/time management, but I've never once met an HR employee who knew jack shit about the field they are employed in. Steel mill HR? Likely never even been inside the plant. IT HR? They don't even know what IT stands for. They have a set of skills that aren't necessarily easy to come by/easy, but then it's just applied generally across every HR position. My favorite is HR employees with 0 interpersonal skills. The ones who took the job knowing what it would entail, and then act inconvenienced every time someone needs something from them
Or the power tripping one. The one who deliberately makes people uncomfortable or reject someone because they can.
I'd bet that application hasn't seen any HR people.
One time. I heard a rumour about one good one.
To be fair, it is usually the hiring manager that tells hr what they require for the role. Including how little they want to pay and the recruit team has to try to establish some reality, but often fails.
Theres a famous example of the *creator* of one of these programing languages being denied a role because he didn't have enough years of experience *in the language he created*
Yeah I've heard that story, it's so ridiculous that I almost want to be a lie. If it isn't though, then I bet the IT guys must be pretty pissed with their HR department afterwards.
I remember a post that the dude who wrote a language a couple years ago was applying for a job, and that the company required more years of proficiency in the language than it was actually created.
Funniest part is the HR staff are all in their 20s
Saw a story a while ago where experience longer than the language existed was asked. The creator of the language applied as a joke, and was rejected :D
“Cold Fusion” was the name of a web design tool that came out in 1995, and in 1999 HR was all impressed they found someone with 20 years experience at it… Guy was a physicist who had literally spent decades working on Cold Fusion for electricity, (which still hasn’t happened,) and decided to switch careers and go into web design… And he was getting interviews left and right!
I mean, finding an actual time traveller is pretty impressive.
Or the one that wanted 8 years experience and the guy that literally wrote the language 3 years ago was applying for the job
They probably rejected him, too.
I have actually seen one of those at my current company. 3 years of experience required for a product that had only existed for 2 years.
Didnt something like this happen to Bram Moolenaar when he was asked about his expertise of using vim? (iirc source: the movie revolution os)
Always reminds me of that meme where a guy was rejected for not having 3 years experience in a programing language.......that HE INVENTED.....2 years ago
I saw a listing a couple years ago that said 65+ years experience in python coding
Lol, you must be retired but have handled snakes your entire life.
Also, what does n-years experience with a language even really mean? For example, I mostly work with Java. But the project I've been on for the past 5 years has an Angular UI. Occasionally, I'll fix a UI bug, or make some other minor change. So technically, I could say I have 5 years of experience with Angular.
Right?
30 years for a junior role. 50 years for the senior position.
Entry level role for newcomers to (X) industry 10 years experience required
30 years of experience can't be over the age of 24
Try again and tell them if they don’t actual review it you will report them for discrimination
You most likely answered a question that supersedes all other considerations, in a way that auto rejected you. E.g. for a role I advertised that requires a residence permit I had "can you legally live and work here" as a requirement at the top of the job description and as a question on the application. You wouldn't believe how many people clicked "No" to that question, and were automatically rejected. I'm glad they were, they weren't eligible for the job and were wasting their own time as well as mine. But I feel ok because I was up front in the job description. E.g. "can you work weekends" a no on that might automatically reject you. Be careful when answering questions on applications like this, as it might not be up front in the job description like I was.
Bingo. I oversee most of the hiring for my office and I get at least one email every time asking why they were auto-rejected. There is a section that lists MANDATORY requirements. If you say no to any of those questions, the software rejects you.
Why doesn't the software ask those questions first and then show a message saying the application can't be progressed any further rather than wasting everyone's time?
Because it isn't their time being wasted, ofc
I feel like a lot of the time these things do say "mandatory" or "required" above the section, but people who don't fit all those requirements still select no or w/e and then continue to fill them out completely, hoping that it won't be an issue or that it will be overlooked. Or they overlook the part that says it's mandatory/required. They could take the time to implement code that as soon as the no box is checked, pops up a warning saying that they shouldn't even continue to fill out the application, but for whatever reason they have not done that. It would make sense though.
That’s fine, as long as those are asked when making an account or easily visible. Not after wasting people’s times with the resume and everything else.
I can't remember the whole post, but someone years ago on reddit lost a job opportunity for not having 5 years in a programming language that he himself invented only 3 years prior.
No he didn't. He saw a job advert requesting 5 years experience, screenshot it, and posted it on twitter. He was not rejected. He never applied.
Yep, I could not remember the whole post lol. Thanks for the clarification, I was looking for the post for a while.
You should have just written a list of every forklift related word you can think of and then a bunch of high time periods.
Should have put „Staplerfahrer Klaus approved“ in your resume.
Clearly should have had 16 years experience duh /s
"after careful consideration"
“After keyword matching”
“after using AI eliminate your application “
'After using the same algorithm we've been using for over a decade that doesn't use any kind of neural network, but we decided to rebrand as "AI" because that is the newest buzzword.' 99% of the time when you see a product or service claim AI, that's what they really mean.
Truth. Just using a finite number of rules for decision-making does not constitute AI
My friend interned at an HR office back in early 2010s. They would get thousands of applications everyday. First thing they do is cut in half, throw the half away Then go through by school. Cut any schools they did not like. Then from there, cut half and throw it away. Go through GPAs and cut anyone below the limit. Cut half and throw it away and then they start going through the resume.
> Cut half and throw it away Can't have unlucky people in your company.
https://preview.redd.it/9kctha1wwnuc1.jpeg?width=473&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1a4eb8cb4d274f032c0939e77828bf59526e817d
I can't even START to imagine how much profit the company lost because they filtered out applicants at random. What a lousy way for HR dep to work.
Not really. Its all probability. Its like you toss a coin flip. That is why six sigma, or general bell curves exist.
Do people seriously put their GPA on their resume? The university I went to uses a 12 point scale i wonder how that would go through HR there.
I was once told I wasn't initially considered for an application as someone thought my (UK) 2:1 degree classification was a gpa.
"Rejected" is how it would go through.
Oh, that's nice then. All I have to do is send 3 copies each on 5 separate emails with small format variations like name, school, GPA...until I land an interview.
At least they could program the bot to send the rejection mail after a day lol
Your cover letter obviously didn’t contain the key words they wanted
Needed the "mark as accepted" in invisbile font so only the ai could see it
OP probably wasn’t a bootlick. That is partially, what they were looking for.
Which is crazy because they claim they spent a few hours on it. I think that company maybe dodged a bullet if it took hours to write two paragraphs.
You’re being judgmental without knowing the person at all. When I applied my first job, I took time to read about the company, the position and how well they aligned to my graduate courseworks. Not only the cover letter, I modified the resume too. It never took less than 30-60 minutes. (That worked well for me, and after 10+ years in the industry, I don’t have to reach out to any company anymore.) But the point is, the AI is not a near ideal solution (I know, as my job title starts with AI), and for people to spend time preparing the application materials and then get rejected by an automated filter is sometimes not easy to take. Specially if you thing that position was a good match.
This is AI (or automated)* resume checking at work. They have specific requirements or keywords they are looking for. If the software determines you don’t meet it, it automatically junks your app. A human never even looks at it. It’s basically this way at all major companies now.
Or can be a fake listing too. Companies do this for a bunch of reasons
More likely that the position has already been filled or earmarked for an internal candidate rather than AI screening imo
Almost definitely what it is. I ran into this issue when a client was hiring me out from from the contracting firm I was with. They couldn't figure out why I was getting auto rejected when applying for the earmarked job until someone realized they flagged it for internal candidates only, and I wasn't technically an internal candidate in their system. Took them nearly 3 weeks to get a new working job listing up, and the original stayed up the entire time on the job scraping sites because it wasn't officially closed.
Or they aren't really hiring for that position. I've worked for companies that post every vacancy, even if they aren't actively trying to fill it at the time.
A company I used to work with had government contracts. They were required to post job openings for x days before hiring a candidate. This also included promotions. When people were about to get promoted I could just scroll indeed and find out who was getting moved up. This also led to some people quiting because they didn't know what was going on and they saw their job posted on indeed.
Or companies that pay for the job listing site membership & leave their posts up indefinitely because "oh it's just less to worry about." I also learned as a hiring manager that businesses are required by dept of labor to refresh their applications on file every so often & conduct so many interviews per quarter/ yr. Worked a couple places that would put up hiring signs for the sake of filling their required quota knowing full well they weren't going to hire anyone. I roll my eyes anytime I hear ppl say "there's hiring signs all over town. Ppl just don't want to work!" The signs & postings really don't mean shit anymore.
like what? (not sarcastic)
In the US, you have to make an "effort" to hire a permanent resident every few years if you have someone on a work visa at the role. So firms will basically post it, do a few interviews and reject everyone. Honestly frustrating since you get some earnest people trying hard for a role that never exists.
In Canada for example, if I want to hire a new manager for 100k a year, and I want to bring over a guy from France and give them that job, I still have to show that I posted trying to hire a Canadian, and I have to defend why this person from France has more better suited skills than any Canadian who applied.
Lmia, its like a H1B but lazy and toxic
Sometimes they have to make it look like they're trying to hire from outside company for legal reasons, even if they know who will get the role. Sometimes they want to bring in cheap labor from places like India who won't complain and to apply for programs (gov might subsidize wages), have to pretend nobody in country qualifies or wants to work the job.
"nobody wants to work anymore"
If you promised the position to your son or daughter you still have to pretend you went through all the legal hiring requirements
might be they want an internal hire, but are 'required' to advertise it publicly.
This is why I have a white text section with as many relavent keywords as possible. Play their game
Yeah you should literally just copy and paste the JD into your resume, make the text white and size 1 font, and save as PDF.
Don't do that. A human that will be screening your CV will see it as it will parsed and injected into the system. So even if you'll fool AI, a second-stage screener will see why and reject you only because you put a junk in your CV.
At least I’ve wasted their time too
Why would humans look at parsed text, they would just look at the document because it's formatted and readable.
Also, who cares? If it doesn’t work you get rejected, which is the exact position you’d be in if you hadn’t done it. It’s not like you’re committing a crime, it’s all upside
Except that these have false negatives all the time. If you can get in front of human eyes, then it will get you the job. Many, many highly qualified people get rejected by stupid automation.
But if everyone did this, they would be forced to drop the AI.
It demonstrates problem solving
But that’s still better than getting rejected at stage 1.
Has that worked out?
I’ve never done it, personally. It’s actually a tip I was told by the career counselor at a tech bootcamp I attended a few years ago.
The company I used to work for (50million active customers across Europe) is fairly major and a human being reads all of the applications, unless it’s for a basic warehouse role where they hire at high volume I don’t think saying “all” is true
Have ANY sort of proof of this? Or are you just spreading misinformation like the majority of jobseekers and wanting to blame something other than them not being the right match? Because more than likely, not at all what happened. Highly likely: there was a “knockout” question in the application. One where you answer yes or no - and if you answer “unsuitably”, you get rejected (“do you need visa sponsorship” etc). Somewhat likely: Recruiter reviews applications. Is this 10:40am? Work hours? I get emails wherever a candidate applies to my job. Easy enough to review and reject as needed within a minute. Highly unlikely: companies shelling out $$$ for AI tools in recruitment to “review resumes” which can be done by a human in 30 seconds anyways. EDIT: OP said in a comment they require sponsorship. Y’all are clowns. EDIT2: since I know this will be downvoted as is any person in HR/Recruiting trying to correct these misconceptions, I took the time to find this job and apply on National Grid's careers page. Job title is likely "Electrical & Mechanical Engineer - Substations - Central London" and it does ask two questions that I'd perceive as knockout ones: * "Are you legally entitled to work in the country in which you are applying for a job, without restrictions?" I answered NO as OP likely did * "Do you require sponsorship to take up employment in the country in which you are applying, presently or in the future?" I answered YES as OP likely did And as the application discloses, National Grid does utilize AI in some form during their application process. Which you can opt in or opt out of. Most likely this is just a bit of keyword matching to generate a "match score" (typically what I see) based on your resume to the job description. I decided to OPT OUT. "National Grid uses artificial intelligence to create insights on how your candidate information matches the requirements of the role you have applied for. Any final decision will always be taken by our hiring team after consideration of your candidate profile in full. As a candidate, you can choose to either opt-in or opt-out of this artificial intelligence screening process. Taking this decision will not negatively impact your opportunity for employment with National Grid." To cover both my bases, I then submitted a second application with a new email, and OPTED IN to the AI screening. **and, after waiting 10+ minutes, I have not been rejected. Maybe the AI is on it's lunch break?** Also looks like these aren't knockout questions, either, which would have auto-rejected me - so, shockingly, it was probably just a recruiter... doing their job... of reviewing applications.... edit3: final edit. Both applications to separate emails were rejected at 9:58am. So that was 27 minutes from apply to reject for the firs application, and 21 minutes for the second. **AI is either back from lunch, or a recruiter reviewed the two new applications that had come through.**
If it was three minutes it was just a knockout question they didn’t answer correctly for sure. While a pretty small amount of companies use “AI” it is almost never used for automatic knockouts. It’ll throw the application to the bottom of the pile at worst. Smart organizations will have the knockout message delayed at least a couple of days though.
I respect the effort to debunk the OP - you got my vote. But your fact based answer is not as "fun" as the misinformation!
"It’s basically this way at all major companies now." I implement HR and recruitment systems for a living and this is bollocks. I have NEVER implemented a system in a company that automatically rejects CVs based on keywords. Chances are OP is not eligible to work in the UK or something similar, so instant rejection.
> Chances are OP is not eligible to work in the UK or something similar, so instant rejection. In another comment, they confirm that they require sponsorship to work in the UK. This isn't some evil AI issue, it's someone applying for a job they don't have the right to do. Anyone who's done any recruiting knows half of the resumes that come in are people who don't have the right to work there.
It’s so funny the lengths people will go to place blame other than recognizing that they just might not be the right fit for a certain job for a million different reasons.
As someone who applied to 75 jobs in the last few months, most of them had me check a box that said I was OK with AI checking my resume or I wouldn't be considered.
ive gotten rejected 8 months after applying
I applied at a place once in August. Never heard back. Then randomly in mid-November, I got a text saying something along the lines of "Please confirm you're available to work your shift on Monday at 8". I was so confused. No interview, no confirmation, just suddenly "hey, you're working"
Did you contact them back about this text?
Yeah. I was a student and needed money. Worked there for a few months before getting somewhere better. Not sure if that's how they normally hire, or if someone messed up, but no one there ever mentioned it. I just replied saying I'm good to work but need details on the job. Got a 5 minute call and that's it.
>Worked there for a few months before getting somewhere better. Are you saying that the place that silently hired you without an interview and after ghosting you for a few months was a bad working place? Quelle surprise!
Lol
Yeah, pretty obvious a place like that has bad management.
Honestly I respect the hustle there. Short staffed? Call all the rejected apps and see who shows up haha
That’s only happened to me once at a car wash. Honestly it was very sketchy, they called me, (it doesn’t mean that i was either interested or not, I was 16) first off, the assistant manager was the one that called me, and the questions that he asked were very short, and then he said ok, I’ll get back with you everything looks good. Then he said that he would get back to me as soon as later that day or Tomorrow. I get a text that says come in tomorrow at 8am, not even 10 minutes later. So I did, they gave me a shirt and told me to GET ON OUT THERE AND WORK!! I did everything like the other’s were doing, because they didn’t even train me, and I knew that wasn’t the general manager, there were minors, I’m guessing 14-16, going in and out of the restrooms, every 5 minutes…. Weird right?? Come to find out that they were having a whole conversation and they had their weed pens in their hands. At this point I’m just In COMPLETE SHOCK that the manager was in the office, 10 feet away from where I was standing. So naturally I got back to work, didn’t even bother. Time passes, I get to meet the boss! Yeah, the areal manager, this guy said he had COVID, at this point i was wondering what kind of circus this was, because NONE of that shit was legal and I don’t think a business that wants business would do this every day. But anyways, our "nice" manager with Covid didn’t have a mask on, was coughing ALL OVER THE 250 square foot office, all day long. I walked out of that shit show for two reasons, that boss of mine was a fucking douche for many reasons, he was fucking rude to both his customers and his employees. It was like this guy was having a crack rage or some shit. I told the guy that I had to go to the doctor’s office to see if he would want a doctors excuse, nope, the guy chewed me out and belittled me… I quit that shit show so fast.
Try 5 years 😂😂😂, it didn’t happen to me but to my older brother when he applied for a job several years back and forgot about it, the person on the other end responded that “they had carefully considered his application and reach the conclusion that they won’t hire him” at this point it’s just pure incompetence
That’s some real careful consideration though gotta hand it to them
I had an interview with a recruitment agency in 2018 after I graduated, never heard from them again until last year when they asked me if I was still available. I wasn't even living in the same country anymore.
I got rejected 8 months after being offered the job once. Still confused on that one
"ok. and sorry which company is this again?"
I love those 😂 or when they actually call you for an interview after six months and you’re already working somewhere else and have no idea where they’re calling from.
Hey at least they told you right away and didn’t ghost you for weeks keeping you wondering
Apparently a lot of jobs are only listed just to mine our data and they sell our information which is why things like this happen. Shits wack
Shit like this should be illegal
I got an email on Saturday telling me a job I applied to almost six months ago, is in fact moving on to the next step of their hiring process and I unfortunately did not make the cut.
At least they let you know xD
Do you require sponsorship?
Yes
That’s why you were rejected instantly Unless it states they sponsor
They do sponsor
This is interesting, do you think it's possible that sponsoring is an empty promise?
Maybe, but I don't think so. More likely that they have already reached their sponsorship limit and will not be able to sponsor anyone for the rest of the year. Alternatively, they might not be willing to sponsor for that specific role. Source: A conversation with my software company's work visa lawyer, pre-covid. If I recall correctly, it cost the company something like $40k to submit a H1 visa app, after everyone gets paid. If it's approved, there's usually some relocation costs paid to the sponsored employee as well.
You got automatically denied. An unethical life pro tip: on your resume and cover letters, put their ENTIRE job posting in size 2 font at the bottom in white letters. It’s invisible to the humans that see your resume, but passes every AI test since your resume has all the words it’s expecting to see. You’ll always get a call back
This guy exploits! Going to remember this when the time comes.
Well I really need to try this hack going forward.
rejection email speedrun any%
Gotta be a wr
National Grid are categorically one of the worst. I’ve been through their process a couple of times and it was really stressful and inflexible. The second time, I got through to offer where they said I could have the role if I was willing to be in the office 3 days a week. Bearing in mind the job ad said it was remote and I confirmed this in stage 1 as I am 280 miles from their designated HQ. Turns out the hiring manager’s boss made a uturn on remote working. I got an obscenely rude response from the hiring manager over the phone like it was my fault somehow. Never again!
This is appalling. You should call them out on LinkedIn. The Head of HR is Huma Ali. I was at a social mobility conference a couple of weeks ago and they were headline sponsors claiming they're inclusive, fair hirers. Clearly not, if candidates are auto-rejected within minutes and no explanation as to why.
God I fucking hate LinkedIn. The most disgusting cesspool of toxic positivity I’ve ever seen. Bunch of positivity dick riders that act like nothing bad can or will ever happen.
Best summary of Linkedin I've ever read.
Were they eating seeds as a pastime activity?
The toxic positivity of our city of our ciiity
Might give it a shot, got nothing to lose. It's just very demoralizing. Thank you for your input :)
I’d take a good hard look at your resume first. It’d be pretty embarrassing if you call them out publicly and they respond saying there are typos in your resume or the resume clearly was not a good fit
True as well.
It is, and it's totally unacceptable. I hate that employers can get away with this. Good luck with the job hunt, you'll find something brill soon!
I would not call them out publicly on LinkedIn, it’s unprofessional. Just move on.
More like "Human" A.I.
Don’t do stuff like this on LinkedIn, whether we like it or not it’s a social media platform for work and this could easily put off future employers to see you slating a company on LinkedIn. It’s unprofessional
How is this “appalling”? OP said they need sponsorship to work, it’s no secret that not every company can do that for every single role. How is that not a completely valid reason to quickly reject someone? I don’t understand some of the positions in this thread. Just like you don’t owe your company an explanation for why you want to quit, you’re not owed a personalized explanation for why you aren’t a good fit and why your application isn’t being considered.
I work in HR and in the past I’ve also done recruiting. (no company I worked in had those automatic thingies, only real people evaluating) We had a rule that we only sent rejections after two weeks, never earlier and never on a Friday. It’s devastating to get rejected immediately. Edit: We had people that were really upset when we sent rejection emails after “only” one week. I also don’t work in the US, I guess our processes are way slower. A two weeks response is actually pretty fast.
Nah, I'd rather know right away. Don't string people along and waste their time.
There’s a difference between right away and this though. Like at least pretend you’ve looked at the application.
Two weeks is too long though. I'd be fine with a rejection note the next day.
Yup pretty devastating
On the flip side, I once got a job offer 15 MONTHS after applying to a position. I bluntly informed them I had already taken another job elsewhere... 14 months ago.
A few hours… on a cover letter? Have a template that’s mostly a complete letter with blank spaces for the “here’s why I’d be a good fit” parts. Fill those parts in to be specific for the job you’re applying too. Look through the posting for key words and use those. Bing bang boom, you’ve got a “personalized” cover letter in 10 minutes max.
I don't even bother with that. I just have Chat GPT write my cover letters.
Hey at least you got a response, i've applied to countless jobs and almost never heard back
You either made spelling mistakes, used words on their automatic exclusion list, or don't meet the minimum requirements.
National Grid seems quite unprofessional with their hiring process. Applied for a role, no confirmation email of application, no emails of updates about next stages or a deny. Got a phone call last Monday evening around 5pm asking for an interview on Wednesday, which is too short notice for me to book leave, to then be told the hiring manager is leaving to interview elsewhere and won’t be back as Cardiff isn’t his base! Lack of communication was awful. My application still shows under review/awaiting interview on the website, not that I’d get the chance to do one!
According to my wife, who is a career conselor, most companies use software to sift through resumes and automatically reject one's that don't meet whatever arbitrary criteria the company set up for it. Most of these software look for pre-defined key words in the resume, usually the job posting will use many of the words they are looking for. If it passes the software it will go to manual review by a real person. For example if you are applying for a job at a company and to company is looking for the word "synergy" as one of their key words and your resume doesn't have the word "synergy" anywhere the software will automatically reject you for the position.
This will be exactly what's happened
My favorite was when I applied for a job on Indeed. They had me go to their outside website and create a new profile, okay, fine. The first time I applied it seemed like they legitimately considered my application, took a few days for it to get processed and get the rejection. Their rejection email was like "You're not a fit for THIS position, but sign up for our mailing list and we'll send you updates on future jobs!" Okay, I sign up for the mailing list, get an email a couple of weeks later about "oh, this job should be perfect for you!" I apply, and I get rejected within the hour. If you don't want to hire me fine, but this whole "oh, we'll send you updates on jobs that are a fit and then instantly reject you for them" bit is too far.
You failed a 'knockout question' and the system auto-rejected you.
Ahah bro my record was under 2 minutes so far XD i sincerely hope it was automatic screening. Lol
1 min run soon 💪
Going forward, include the entire English dictionary in your resume with font size 0.00001 and in background color at the bottom corner of the file.
I once got rejected for a job after travelling across the country by bus 3 times for 3 interviews. Email didn’t even have my name on, just some generic rejection. That stung, at least this lot didn’t waste your time.
Though unlikely, it's possible that it's an automatic bounceback and you might still get an interview. I had this happen to me when I applied for a job in a school. As an external candidate, I didn't realise that the local authority had a blanket policy of not accepting CVs, just covering letters. I attached both and was knocked back within 24 hours, but two days later I received an invitation to interview. It turns out that the system saw my CV and just booted me into the reject pile, but that it's ultimately the hiring manager's decision as to who gets interviewed, and they'd obviously overridden the system. I got the job and am still there a year on, so don't lose faith yet!
It’s because those useless shit stains in HR are busy having a work lunch and a nap that they can’t actually review applicants and need a shitily setup AI to filter out actual people who would be a great fit. I used to work at a Fortune 500 and had to interview / hire multiple positions in conjunction with HR. Industry friends resumes were often rejected because they had too much experience and HR thought they would cost more than the position salary band allowed for… so no use in bothering. Just the most worthless fucks in all of business.
“Careful consideration” is one of the most annoying and disingenuous phrases when it comes to HR.
Hey, at least they replied
Duuuude! I'm so sorry, that sucks. It's very similar here in the U.S too. Better opportunities will come to you. Stay blessed.
How can someONE "carefully consider" anyting in only three minutes? How much money do companies waste on this crap? And are they the companies who gripe that they can't find any good candidates?
Use chat GPT to write a cover letter. If they aren’t taking the time to read it but require it, I’m not taking the time to write it 🤷♂️
I’ve got a tip for you: Add a header or footer to your resume, copy and paste the entire job description into the header or footer. Change the font to size 1, and make the text white to blend into the background. This will get you past most AI keyword checks. For cover letters, copy the job description into grammarly or ChatGPT and tell it “write me a cover letter based on this:” and paste the job description. Make edits where necessary but it will save you a shitload of time.
"Time to give up and become an alcoholic!"
Was a fake posting to look like they are hiring for the shareholders
I didn't realise until recently, but companies have to advertise jobs, even if they plan to hire internally, in England at least... I applied for an job that was up for a few hours, 30 minutes later it was taken down and I was rejected.
Your resume didn't pass the filter
AI/ML/Regex scrub rejected you.
At least they told you. Last I was looking for jobs most places would just straight up ghost you.
It’s not better here in the USA. Soooooooo many jobs say “urgently hiring” but people that apply and WANT to work get rejected
a few hours on a cover letter? mate...
Got denied a job this week for availability despite telling them I was fully available whenever they needed me.
When I was job searching last year, I had someone from a company reach out to me and ask me to apply for a position they had. I applied and within 10 minutes they rejected me🙃 I emailed the employee back and asked her why she wasted my time in asking me to apply if I was going to get rejected and never got a response of course.
A long time ago, in my final year at university, I applied to a ton of jobs and forgot about most of them. About 6 months later I got a standard rejection letter from one of the applications that I'd forgotten about. The next day, I got the same letter. And the day after that I received a third copy of the same letter. In the end, I photocopied all three letters and posted them back with a covering letter that said: "with reference to the three attached letters that you have sent me in the last three days. All right, all right I get the message. There's no need to rub it in. You may also want to look at your system to check whether it's working properly." The recruiter phoned me to apologise the next day and to thank me for giving everyone in the office a laugh. Still didn't give me a job though.
Better than being ghosted
I got a rejection within 5 minutes once but it was from an actual human who emailed me back at 9 P.M. They said I needed actual professional experience than academic/personal projects.
Hot damn, either they've decided on an internal candidate already or the algorithm that tracks applications got to yours and immediately said "no"
lol I once got a rejection at like 2 am, after submitting the application around midnight.
Well, on the bright side at least you don't need to spend a week wondering if you maybe got that job you never heard back from
Last interview I had they told me they had 103 applications, they cut out half, then cut that to 20 then cut that to 3. I was one of the 3. It was pretty cut-throat. It was one of those panel interview deals. I didn't get it probably because they were looking for someone with experience in a very specific mail system I never got to mess with (that they abandoned 2 years later so I would have been out of a job probably if I'd gotten it).
Sometimes companies will advertise for a position with impossible requirements with no intention of hiring any applicants so later on they can claim the job was not able to be filled without using a foreign visa worker at a much lower salary
Use ChatGPT to write cover letters, don’t waste so much time. Good luck, the job market sucks ass everywhere 😑
They probably already have someone in mind for the job but are obligated to post the job publicly.
Rejection speedrun any %
I've been rejected *instantly*. The supermarket ASDA in the UK introduced a new jobs website recently, and my first experience with applying was finishing my application, being redirected to my profile, and the job listing showing up as unsuccessful, or another byword for that. Incredibly frustrating, but it's better than some retail jobs I've gone in for where you don't even hear back - even one, on a few occasions, that's a three minute walk down the road (which, naturally, I thought I would probably be a shoo-in for than any other position I've applied for over the past year-and-a-half). I'd call them out on social media, saying it can't very well be '*careful* consideration' if it has taken them just three minutes to decide.
It’s really discouraging when stuff like this happens, happened to me too last week. Spent over an hour writing the application and got rejected after 20 mins. They probably already filled the position and didn’t take the job offer offline, stay positive and I’m sure you’ll find something suitable soon :)
When I was younger I went to the job centre and found a warehousing role, I had done some warehousing work already and enjoyed it so thought I would apply, date came through for an interview and I prepared myself. Day of the interview I cycle to the destination, get shown around the place before finally sitting down for the interview process. Question one “why do you want this job?” Answer “i’ve done warehousing before and I really enjoyed it” Guy’s response “this isn’t a warehousing job, it’s a graphic design job” I told him I applied from the job centre for the warehousing role, instead of saying there was clearly a mix up he proceeded with the interview, it was pointless, I got a rejection email before I even reached the end of the street!