Context: Searching for a new senior level software development job over a 9 week period in summer 2025.
- Focused mostly on data engineering and backend roles that are in-person or hybrid in the SF Bay Area.
- Leads from recruiters on LinkedIn were much more likely to lead to interviews+offers.
- The winning offer came through my personal network.
- I mostly used Hiring.cafe for prospecting. They’re a scraper with an interface I didn’t hate.
i feel like that half of them did not even reply is like kind of really bad and if feels like these werent like real listings to begin with? I dont know but it feels and sounds incredible rude and unprofessional to not reply to all applications. Exspecially since it should just be an automated process, so it feels fishy when companies dont even do that.
We get 100s of automated applications per day for a position we recently opened. 99% are automated and no where near meeting the requirements. We try to give everyone a review and a reply but it is a massive task, unfortunately. We do not have dedicated personel to handle these matters so it costs engineering time. The current situation for online software dev job application sucks for everyone.
I guess what I am trying to say is: If you don’t get a reply to an application it is likely because you are drowning in noise and someone at the other end is struggling to keep up.
What are these things exactly?
Do you mean someone has a bot to apply to stuff no matter whether they are interested in the job?
Or even worse, that there is no real applicant on the other side?
I have only taken technical rounds, so have no idea of what the HR experiences.
I don’t know precisely how they are automated, but a pile of applications came in seconds after opening the position. I think I heard talk about online services that you can pay to do the bottling, but cannot remember the name(s). I personally know people who wrote their own bot to do this.
It looks like most applications are from real people, but impossible to tell without a deep vetting honestly. Malicious people running several “fake developer accounts” (for remote work, which is all we do) collecting paychecks until fired, or simply spying, is a known problem in the industry, but not something I have experienced first hand. Yet.