Should I apply for a job which already has lots of Job Applications?

Should I apply for a job which already has lots of Job Applications?

It is common to see jobs advertised online with 100+ applications already received. I would be put off applying for such a job; however, a fatal assumption to make is that all applicants are appropriately qualified.

In partnership with HiringPeople, we have reviewed 40,000 job applications, and found a few key pieces of information.

  1. Indeed gets the most applications per role
  2. Across all sites, there was an average of 151 applications per job
  3. Only 6 applications were considered suitable per role (with 10 being potentially suitable)

With employers typically inviting around 5 candidates to interview, provided you are suitable for the job, the stats suggest you are likely to be invited to interview.

So how do you know if you are suitable for a job?

  1. Do you have relevant experience?
  2. Are you located close to the employment location (employers want to know that you won’t be undertaking a long commute, leading to you burning out). If you aren’t located close to the employment location, make it clear on your CV that you are willing to relocate.
  3. Does your CV accurately match key words mentioned in the job advert/description?

Experience

It is common for job seekers to not fully appreciate the skills they already possess, and which they use daily. Work through your skill set with someone to identify your unrealised skills.

Keywords

It is common for companies to filter CVs by keywords; this means that before your CV gets read by the employer, the contents have been analysed by machine.

For example, say you are applying to be a pizza chef. It would be common for keywords such as “pizza”, “chef”, “kitchen”, “team” to be looked for and expected, with various importance placed upon each one, with pizza probably being the most important. Unless your CV specifically mentions that you are skilled at making pizzas, there is a chance it will be immediately rejected, whether or not you have the relevant experience. If the job was to be a chef in an Italian restaurant, over a “pizza chef”, emphasising that you have previously worked in an Italian restaurant would be key in that instance.

In summary, you need to adjust your CV depending on the specifics of the job you are applying for.

How do I make my CV stand out?

Getting your CV to be read by a person over a computer and more importantly, then be memorable to the employer, could be achieved following these steps:

  1. Make sure your CV has been customised for the specific job you are applying for. Take time to read the job advert and make sure you include key words within your CV. Remember to include evidence of the skills and requirements asked for within the job advert.
  2. Be one of the first to apply for the job. Do this by setting up daily job alerts to get notified of all new jobs advertised. Either use a service to get notified about jobs from all of the leading sites at once, or sign up to job alerts individually at the top job sites (see below for some of the top job sites). Being one of the first to apply means you are more likely to have your CV reviewed. After an employer has received 100+ CVs, they are less likely to review the later ones, unless they have failed to find the right candidate in the first tranche.
  3. Use a CV template so that after you have successfully optimised your CV for keywords and skills required for the job. Your CV will then stand out and be memorable to the employer or recruiter.

Should I apply for a job with over 100 applications?

If the job advert makes it very clear within the description as to the closing date (this is quite common with larger companies and the public sector), you are likely to stand a better chance of success, especially if you have an optimised CV, as mentioned above.

Smaller firms are more likely to start reviewing and interviewing long before the published end date of a job advert, so your chance of success might be lower.

Insider info

When a company advertises a position, most job sites will keep the job advert live for 28, 30 or 42 days. Some will only be 7 days. This means that unless the employer actively removes the advert, they will continue to receive job applications.


About the Author: Joel Aldridge

Having perused an immense volume of job adverts, Joel is on an unwavering mission to guide companies towards enhancing the calibre and quantity of their applicant pool. He fervently promotes the inclusion of salary details in job adverts and emphasises weaving in a company's ethos and optimistic job perspectives to attract top talent.



Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified of new blog posts from Check-a-Salary