Most Employers Don't Bother To Respond To Job Applications, Survey Finds

My wife and I own a small little coffee and ice cream shop that employes ten people. When we put an ad on Craig's List for a new employee we get two to three hundred responses. Two thirds of them haven't read the ad because they are either applying for a completely different job or are looking for something that the job doesn't offer (for example, if it's part time they want full time or if it's full time, they want part time). The majority of them don't bother to proof read their resumes or make any effort in sending out a resume that's readable. We may finally narrow the resumes down to ten people. We don't have time to respond to the other 290 applicants. Then, when you call the ten people for an interview, five of them don't return the phone call. You book an interview with five people and two or three of them don't even show up for the interview. As an employer for two different types of business, this is what we've come to expect.

To add some perspective here, when I started in HR in the early to mid 1990's, just before the widespread use of the internet, we may typically have received about 50 or so resumes or applications in response to a job posting. By the time I left my former position at the same company around 2009, we actually received 500-600 resumes in response to a position we had posted. The company was not huge and not all that advanced on technology, so we did not have the capability even of sending a "mass email" to follow up with the 500+ people who applied just for that one position, so following up with each person would have meant individual emails or phone calls (there were 2 people in the HR department). Had recruiting been our only responsibility, perhaps we could have attempted the task, but when you are also responsible for every other aspect of the HR department, you have to make choices as to how to spend your time the most productively.

boo hoo for HR being overwhelmed, isn't the entire work force regardless of job, overwhelmed. I have been searching for 6 mths in the healthcare field and have gotten 3 replies. And have applied at one hospital 52 times. That's ridiculous! And when I did have a job I was expected to do it no matter how overwhelmed. Imagine me telling you that your loved one died because I was overwhelmed and couldn't get to him. Tsk Tsk for such lame excuses

HR managers are overwhelmed. For every person who applies for a position there are four more who are unqualified which completely clogs up the system. Sending a response to each person who applies even with a canned email can be cumbersome especially for small to midsize companies who operate lean.

Send a very brief CV....your name,education,background experience(marketing,acctg.,engineering,computer specialty,etc.).Then list your top three accomlishments in current career.Forget $$ and all the other superfluous BS.Make it easy and quick to read.If they want more detail you'll get a call.

This is news?

Job-seekers have been complaining about this trend for years now--resume scanning computer 'bots now can many resumes, so a human eye never even sees them for evaluation. Why do you think so many firms now require that your resume be submitted over the Internet?