323. Over 500 Job Applications and No Interviews - What Is Wrong?

So you have submitted 500 job applications in the past month and haven't had one interview. Why not? What do you have to do differently? Is the job market just that bad? Are these just ghost jobs? Is AI just ignoring my resume? Should I add a portfolio? Should I use a cover letter? These are the questions we will answer in today's episode of DevQuestions.

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

So you submitted 500 job applications in the past month and haven't had one interview. Why not? What do you have to do differently? Is the job market just that bad? Whenever I have people tell me they have submitted a massive number of applications and haven't heard back from anyone, I know they're doing something incorrectly and they're missing a lot of opportunities. So let's talk about how to improve your odds of success in the job hunt on today's episode of DevQutions.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Software development is more than just writing code. So let's talk about the rest of it. Specifically, let's talk about improving your odds of getting a job as a software developer. Now, I'm going to start by giving you the bad news up front. If you've applied to hundreds of jobs and have not been able to get even an interview, you're doing something wrong. Now, the first step in fixing the problem is acknowledging the truth. Unless your goal is to not get a job, you're failing your goal, right? So it doesn't matter what any other circumstances are, if you're not achieving your goal, you're failing, right? You're failing your goal. And yes, employers can be dumb and the process can be horrible. The system can be rigged, but it's still up to you, right? Even if all of that is true, even if there is nothing going for you, if everything's stacked against you, at the end of the day, it's on you. The bottom line is this no one owes you a job. You have to prove to them that you are their best option. And that can be really hard. And yes, in this economy right now, their jobs are fewer than they have been. And yes, things are getting tighter, things are getting harder. But the reality is that you still have to survive in this pool. It's not just a matter of, oh, well, I guess I'll walk away. If you can, sure, that's great. But the people are succeeding in today's circumstances with bad interviews, with bad job descriptions, with bad employers who are doing a poor job of getting the word out there. People are succeeding. So let's look at why you aren't getting interviews. And this is a list of one through eight. Um, these are different things, and it could be. Not everything here will apply to you, but a lot will. So, number one, you're applying to jobs that are outside your skill set. I see people a lot apply at jobs where they just don't fit in. It's not their job. It's it's not going to be something that will work for them. And then they count that as part of their, well, I applied to 100 jobs in the past week. Well, yeah, but if you applied to 50 of them where you're not even qualified, well, then you didn't apply 100, you applied a 50. And yes, sure, I'm not saying don't apply at jobs you aren't somewhat qualified for, but not fully qualified for. That's definitely something you should do because every job description is a bit of a pie in the sky best case scenario. However, you need to make sure you don't have an overinflated view of yourself. You need to honestly look at what your real experience is, what you can actually do, and then figure out what that might be. You may have been in the industry for 10 years as a software developer, and you might still need to be applying for junior level roles. That's hard to swallow. Because you say, well, I have put my time in, I've got 10 years in. Yes, but are they 10 years of experience or one year of experience 10 times? Do you actually have skills that have that have grown over time, or do you have the same skills just doing the same thing over and over again? Did your job actually push you to do new and different things? Or were you just fixing the same things over and over again in a way that doesn't apply to anybody else in the industry? Be careful not to have an overinflated view of yourself. Otherwise, you're gonna discourage yourself by applying to jobs where employers are gonna look at you and say, not qualified, and just do an auto-reject on your resume. Number two, your resume does not clearly communicate your technical skills. Too often, people look at the resume from their perspective and they think, well, I know what this means. And so they put something on there that isn't very clear. Or they fill the resume up with filler, with filler words like team player and you know, works well on team. Who cares? Don't say the things that are just generic things. You need to be very specific. You need to have a technical resume, meaning it's focused on languages and frameworks and what you did with those things. And you need to make sure that you're focusing on clear communication that's not overwhelming. Because if you have 50 bullet points of what you did at one job, it's not getting read. None of it's getting read. And so that's another skip. And you might say, well, but they're not, you know, they're not paying attention. This is not your life story. What you need to communicate to the potential employer is that you can do the job they're looking for. That's what you need to communicate. Not your life story, not all the things you have done. You need to show off that you can do what they're looking for. So clear communication. That may mean that you, that really should mean that you hand your resume off to someone who doesn't know anything about you potentially. Or even if they do, maybe it's your spouse or your friend who knows what you do, like knows you're a software developer, but doesn't know what that means. Have them read your resume and then ask them, what are my skills? And then have them review to make sure you're not putting filler in, that you're not overly stuffing it, that it is focused, that it is clear what you do, and it's clear how much experience you have in what you do, and it's clear how much of an impact you had at the organizations you worked for. Clearly communicate your technical skills. Number three, you aren't customizing your resume to the job. This gets people a lot. They'll say, I have you know, three, four, five different resumes. No, no, you want to have one resume per job. And yes, that means every time you apply to a job, you customize your resume. Now, that does not mean you rebuild your resume from scratch. However, you need to make sure that your resume matches what the job description is asking for as closely as possible. Not lying, but match it as closely as possible. What do I mean by that? Well, if an employer is asking for 10 years of.NET experience, you need to make sure you show off 10 years or as much as you have of.NET experience, not C experience, not VB.NET, dot net experience. Because the first person to read your resume is not a technical person, almost ever. The first person to read your resume might not even be a person. It might be an ATS system, it might be an AI, it's actually kind of your best bet in some ways, or it might be an HR person. So that person doesn't know necessarily what C sharp is and doesn't know that C sharp is a.NET language. So when they say we need 10 years of.NET experience, and you say I have 12 years of C sharp experience, they go, that's a different language, um, so it doesn't really match up. So we're gonna go with a person that said they have eight years of.NET experience. So you need to make sure that your resume matches that job description. The terms it uses, these the nice to have's, highlight those somewhere if you have them. Make sure that you are coming as close as possible to using their wording. So, yes, this means tweaking your resume every time you apply. And people say, well, Tim, that's too slow. Like I have I have to go faster. I'm I'm applying to 400, 500 places a month and I'm not getting any responses back, I can't slow down. But here's the thing: you're trying to increase your odds of success. If you have a 0.1% odds of success and you can move that to 0.5 or 1% odds of success, that is worth more than applying to 10 more places. You want to increase your odds of success for every single job you apply for because there's only a limited number of jobs to apply for. So this is not a race to get to the end of Indeeds listing. This is not a race to apply to every every specific job in the area. This is a race to give the best possible application every place you apply, so you have the best possible odds of getting to that next step. So make sure that you're customizing your resume to the job. Number four, you don't have a portfolio to show off what you can do. Not everyone wants to have a portfolio. People say, well, it takes time, and you know, what I put in the portfolio, and you know, I have this portfolio of stuff I did in college. Those don't do that. Um, you want to create a portfolio to show off what you can do. And here's why. Again, not every employer is gonna look at a portfolio. Not every employer is gonna say, yes, I want to see that. However, some will. And I have been there as a hiring manager. All these things I've seen done by people. So I have been there where the resume doesn't show me a lot. And I'll have a couple of people where the resume is pretty much the same thing. It's almost a copy paste. It's not because they're different people, but pretty much the same. And so if one person has a portfolio that shows off the code they can build, that can be the tipping point for me, where I go, oh, I can look at their code and go, yeah, I kind of want, I want to see that person in interview because that code intrigues me. Now, on the other hand, if your portfolio is terrible, they might look at that code and go, yeah, I don't want to see that person and reject you. So don't just put junk in your portfolio. Make sure your portfolio represents who you are as a developer. But here's the key. If your portfolio represents who you are and you get rejected because of your portfolio, that's actually kind of a good thing because what it's showing you is that you're not right for that role. Maybe you're applying too high compared to your actual skills. Okay. Number one, you're applying to jobs that are outside your skill sets. So your portfolio should represent who you are. And that portfolio should have in it things that are as close as possible to what you want to be doing as an employee. So this means that I've had people apply to my job so they they gave me a game development portfolio. Nothing wrong with that in itself. But I have to squint to figure out is this person able to then build line of business applications? Because the code is not lineup business code. So I have to figure out are they a good developer and could that maybe potentially translate? And so I'm thinking through is how do I see if this person is a good enough developer that they could also do this other thing? I have to think about it. Whereas if they write code where I go, I actually want that in my business tomorrow, well, that's a lot closer to the reality. So I don't have to squint as much. I don't have to think about are they a good developer? I can look at that code and go, ooh, I actually want that code. Or that's a really interesting way of doing that. We have something similar, not the same thing necessarily, but something similar that could use that type of logic and that type of developer to work on it. So it shows me, it kind of puts you in that role early where I can see you in that role before you actually even come in the door. And that can be a big deal. Number five, you aren't making use of a cover letter. If you have the opportunity, absolutely make use of a cover letter. And obviously, a cover letter should be specific to the role again. Do not submit a generic cover letter. That's just don't do it. But a simple, not long, not paragraphs, maybe just a couple of lines or one paragraph, maybe a bit more, but that's it. You want to be as simple as possible. But what that allows you to do is it allows you to highlight things that might not be super obvious in your resume, but are valuable things. So you can kind of tell a bit more of a story, again, a sentence or two to tell a bit more of the story behind something, or you know, you can highlight something from the job application and say, I did that at this role, and that's why I have eight years of experience in C sharp at that role, because I did what you were looking for there. You know, some kind of way of highlighting, or even pointing out how your experience in a different language actually would make you better for this role, right? So use that cover letter. If you can point out how you have connected with that company, or you are interested in this role because of X, Y, and Z, or how you think you might be a good fit for and list something that either they didn't even talk about, but you know from research in the company, or that you saw in the job posting that intrigued you. Point that out because you this is your one opportunity to actually talk to the person before you even get into the interview. Take advantage of the cover letter. Number six, you aren't following the directions of the job posting. Again, I've posted for a number of jobs. I have interviewed lots of people. And typically what happens is when I when I post for a job, I'll get hundreds or even over a thousand applications in 24 hours. If a thousand people are applying for a job, I have to be ruthless in trimming down that number. I cannot interview a thousand people. So, what's the first thing I do? The first pass I take, and I have a list, I have like eight, eight different stages of interview, you know, going from getting your application all the way through to hiring you. And the first stage that I go through is I see, did you follow the directions of the job posting? If you cannot follow directions, you immediately drop off my list. You're not actually applying. You're you're just spamming out your resume, hoping that somehow I will stumble across it and go, oh, I want to hire that person, even though they're not really applying for the right job. Don't do that. Okay. So when I see, when I post something, I'll usually put an instruction or two in my posting that needs to be followed. And if people don't do it, then I know they're not really paying attention. And I don't need employees who can't pay attention to even the job posting. Okay. So a big one for me is for my company, when I've hired, you know, recently, I've said, hey, we're a work-from-home company, but you have to be in Texas, specifically in the Dallas, Texas area. This is important. Now, the number of people who have applied who say, I'm not going to relocate. I'm working in Maine, or I'm working in Florida, or I'm working in, I'm not willing to work, relocate, but you know, it's a remote job, right? Well, I told you in the job posting that yes, it's a work-from-home job, but you need to be in the Dallas, Texas area. So you didn't list the directions. And so those get immediately rejected. I can't hire you unless you're in the Dallas, Texas area. Actually, just the Texas area, but I want you in the Dallas, Texas area because of in-person meetings we have once in a while. So those directions immediately weed out a bunch of people. Now, to be clear, I've had people apply who didn't live in the Dallas, Texas area, but who told me I'd be willing to relocate to take this job. That still gets you considered because you did listen to the directions. And even though you weren't, you know, currently in the area, you said, if I were to get hired, I could relocate. So you're saying I could fulfill that requirement. And so you actually listened. So make sure that you're following the directions of the job posting. Number seven, you aren't utilizing your connections to skip the line. It's not what you know, it's who you know, right? Well, that is actually true to an extent. And I don't care if you are frustrated with that. I don't care if you think that that's unfair or whatever. This is the reality of the world. And we cannot change the unfairness. All we can do is work within the system. So get to know people. Talk to them. Say, hey, are there any jobs opening at your company? This is what I'm looking for. If you find you're going to apply to a job, figure out if you know somebody that works in that company or could put you in touch with somebody that works in that company. Utilize your network to say, hey, you know, put a good word in for me. Or, hey, can you let them know I applied? Because that can help you skip the line. That can get your resume skipped over that first ATS or AI scan, especially, and maybe even bumped past HR to get to actually interview with somebody. So utilize your connections. And then if you don't have connections, start making connections. It's important. Number eight, this is an important one. Again, when I said that I get a thousand resume or applications in a day, not an exaggeration. That's a lot. So even after I weed out the people who didn't follow directions, there's still hundreds on my list. And here is number eight is the one that really hurts a lot of people. And that is you don't stand out from the crowd. If you are just like everybody else, then why should I hire you over any of those other people? How do I tell that you are better than anybody else? This is partly going back to your resume doesn't clearly communicate your technical skills. But if you're not standing out, then I might not see you because I'm looking through a sea of people. Now I work really hard to review every single job posting, even the ones where I know you're not even paying attention to the job posting and you just applied. I try and pay attention to all those things. However, not everybody does because it's an overwhelming task. If you're getting in hundreds of applications a day, you can't spend 10, 15 minutes looking through all these things. You need to make sure that you're able to have a resume that stands out, that can be can stand out within 30 seconds of review. So you need to make sure that you're doing everything possible to be a better developer, to have more experience, to have more to show off, to have more of the uh the keywords that are in that uh posting in your application, to have a cover letter that shows that you can do a job, that has a portfolio that shows off that here is proof that I can do the job. Like these are all things that will help you stand out from the crowd. Because if you're just like everybody else, then there's no reason to hire you over anybody else. So if you've just watched a few tutorials and done a few demo projects, it's not really good enough. You need to show that you can do the job. If it's your first job, you need to work doubly hard to show you can do the job. So, too many times people will think that their resume should stay on its own. And yet they don't review the resume or customize the resume. And then when I look at their resume, it's just not exciting. There's nothing there that kind of pops off and says, yes, this person is gonna be great. It's very hard to show off that you can do a job in one piece of paper, one page, by the way. So if you aren't working very hard to jam-pack that full of value without jam-packing it full of text, then you're just gonna blend in. You need to stand out from the crowd. That's not colors, that's not fanfare, that's about showing off that you can do the job better in some way. Show off that you've won a coding contest, or show off that you have X number of certificates of completion, even of courses. Show off that you have create a blog or that you have a coding TikTok channel. Whatever the case may be, stand out from the crowd. That will get you noticed much easier than just being one more generic resume that looks like everybody else's. Getting a job interview is a tough process. You're competing against a large number of applicants and you need to stand out. Okay. So the things that I mentioned in this video will improve your odds of success. And that's what you're going for. It's not about being perfect, it's not about it working every time. It won't. But what you're doing is you're improving your odds of success. So it's gonna help you stand out compared to your fellow applicants. Someone is going to get hired for these jobs. And that's the thing. People tell you, well, they're ghost jobs, or they're, you know, for the most part, they're real jobs. And people are getting hired. And yes, maybe there are ghost jobs. Maybe there are jobs that are posting that are never filled. That may be. However, that's not all of them. There are jobs out there, there are companies out there that are hiring. And if you are putting your best foot forward, you are more likely to get an interview and go through the next steps in the process. Someone is going to get that job. So the question is, why not you? All right. Thanks for listening. And as always, I am Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions. When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCorey.com and enroll in a course.