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.)

dakiol 6 hours ago | root | parent | next |

> 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.

In my experience, that's not my case. I found my last 2 jobs by applying to a post in linkedin... but I also contacted the recruiter that posted the job ad via DM. In my whole career (+10 years) I've never relied on my "network" to get a job (mainly because I don't have one).

commandlinefan 2 hours ago | root | parent | prev | next |

> rely on your network

This has been conventional wisdom for my entire (half century now) life, but every job I've been referred into has ended up being a nightmare. The best jobs I've ever gotten were the "cold approach" ones... hopefully those aren't going away forever.

HeyLaughingBoy 3 hours ago | root | parent | prev | next |

A better approach is probably to figure out what recruiter the company is using and contact them directly, indicating that you're looking for a job.

Even if they can't get you in there, they can link you up with other openings they have available.

sirspacey 6 hours ago | root | parent | prev | next |

I’ve worked in recruiting and with countless career coaches.

This is the best advice for anyone looking for a job. Thanks for sharing.

My friend Sarah’s company has some free resources that can help you get started if networking for a job feels uncomfortable: https://www.briefcasecoach.com/

devKnight 3 hours ago | prev |

Sounds like you might need to redo your resume. When i started emphasizing my cloud experience, it got me way more responses(from recruiters on linkedin)

Also word on the street is that a lot of recruiters are using LLMs to scan resumes. So including lots of key words in there, especially ones that show up in the actual job ad might be necessary to get beyond that filter