How many jobs do I have to apply for

A tip for you: Don't just apply and wait to hear back. Follow up. Give the company a call a day or two after you apply. Employers receive hundreds of applications for each position, so anything you can do to stand out from the crowd is a good thing. If you can actually talk to the hiring manager often your resume will find it's way to the top of the stack, and if he can later say "this person was pleasant to speak to" so much the better!

It seems to just be the luck of the draw, I'm afraid. My girlfriend filled out one application online, and got a call the next morning; they wanted to interview that day. However, last time she had to job-hunt, it took months and months to find something. You're right, nobody calls or sends letters anymore. Although, I've heard that calling them yourself sometimes helps to keep them fresh in your mind. Not to the point of being a bother, but where they take notice that, hey, you're a go-getter. I don't know what the "secret" is to getting a job (or interviews), but I have heard that it's better to apply in-person and ask for a manager or whoever is in charge of hires. Try and get an interview on-spot. Seems to work well for some. I wish you luck!

Nikki do not loose Hope please. I know what you are saying and yes they are very rude but please do not loose Hope. See if you can find any Sites where you can actually put your Detail and to what Job you want to do and you might get somewhere with that but please do not loose Hope. Love and Big Hugs to you

im sorry you are haveing a hard time finding a job,dont give up hope im sure you will find a job just keep looking.but maybe you need to look at how you are filling out your applications.you must be putting something on it to keep employer from hireing you.let me give you a {hint}..if you have ever been fired from a job dont but it on a application.an employers dont like to hire people who jobs hop..so try an keep your application in order so you dont look bad.i wish you the best of luck finding a job.

I hate to tell you but i probably put out anywhere from 20-40 resumes through the paper, and online every week while waiting for the temp companys to call me for work. When my dad was out of work for a year he probably did about the same maybe a little bit more. The jobs are getting harder and harder to find and get. Good Luck in your search. HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY

I can't tell why those people are not calling. Could be many reasons, but the fact is that you never have to give up. May be you're not looking in the right place. Have you asked your friends about they're workplaces, if their bosses are highering. You should ask around your closest circle and then search in every other opportunity. I'll give an example. When my classmates started work in the summer, my first job was to ask them if there's room for me. Well the answer was negative, but I still wanted a job, I searched in the Net and I found some good offers. They were two-three not more and I phoned each of them. I managed only one interview, I went to the pizza restaurant where I wanted to apply for a job as a waitress and guess what! They said yes even though I dind't have the needed experience. So in this case, follow my advice and soon you'll see I was right.

ausnikki, I retired last year from nursing or so I thought until my dear son needed financial help so decided to try and help him out. Decided to try to go back into the work force but there is so much more involved these days that you almost need a degree to do babysitting! I applied for a job a few weeks ago in a different field but was willing to take on any requirements needed to qualify (as it is I know myself I could have handled the position quite well) but was sent a letter saying there were no clients in my area! I sat back and thought.....their saying I'm too old! lol For you something will come up and mostly when you least expect it, but don't give up! And as you say you are desperate to find one makes you try even harder!

Firms here in the UK say it is too expensive to notify each applicant that they won't be interviewed as sometimes hundreds of folks apply for just one job .. But if you have the money (!!) you can include a stamped addressed envelope and they will 'try' and let you know you were unsuccessful .. cheeky beggars .. All you can do is stay positive and apply for as many positions as possible .. even try for some which may not really be what you want to be doing .. at least it would be money coming in .. and you can then find the perfect job at your leisure ..

Maybe it is the letter you send with your resume that is not doing it.... Is that letter a bit "more of the same" standard letter, or do you state in one paragraph why this actual company is so attractive to you and why you want to work with them and only them!... That makes the letter so much more attractive and draws the attention to your resume. Im my working life I very often had to hire people and I was never too thrilled with the stupid standard letters that don't say anything about the applicant (apart from the resume, I mean. I am used to writing (I am /was a journalist)... If you want I can give you some help and maybe you - and other mylotters - will be more succesful in looking for a job!

I can totally sympathise with you. I'm in the same situation. I am however only looking for one type of employment.......Admin. If you like, we could catch up some time and I can look over your resume. I used to work for an employment agency years ago and the only problem with the resumes they do, is that they all look the same. And believe it or not, every agency seems to do them differently. You need to make yours stand out from the crowd. Have you tried temping? That could be a way to get your foot into the door with some employers. Keep your chin up, something will come along soon. ((HUGS))

I'm going to answer this discussion from the point of view of an employer. Say you are the HR person who has put out an advert for say a software engineer. In the advert it says you need to have skills in this, that and the other software, it also says you have to have a degree in IT and an MCSE qualification too. You know how many people apply for that job who don't have any of the skills required. If I'm offering a position at £50k and someone with none of the skills I require to fill the position replies to me, do I have time to respond individually to several hundred people who might do that? Well I might not but I actually do. Even though it might be a bog standard response I feel it's only polite to respond to each and every applicant even though I want to scream at them for wasting my time in applying for a job which they are neither qualified or experienced in. My job is not to sit there and sift through CVs all day every day. But I do at least reply to every applicant we get. I know many people in HR and recruitment positions who don't bother replying to 95% of the applications they receive. Now back to your dilemma. All I can suggest is that you check, double check and check again that you have read the job advert properly. If you cut down on the number of applications you are making and concentrate on ONLY applying for the jobs which you are actually fully capable of doing. If the advert is asking for skills you don't have, chances are they're not going to bother responding to you. If you have the skills required in the advert, make sure your CV and/or covering letter shows those skills somewhere. If you're receiving dozens of applications for one job, the recruiter is going to be scanning them for the relevant key words, once they've found those key words, then they will spend more time reading your whole CV and then you might have a stab at an interview. Don't lose hope but please think more about applying for jobs that you can actually do and jobs that you do actually want to do. It's important to apply for jobs that you will enjoy because you will then automatically sound more enthusiastic when you write your covering letter. By the way, applying for jobs online doesn't mean you can forget about covering letters. Use a covering letter/email to summarise your relevant skills and show that you have thought about the skills most relevant to the job and you POSSESS those skills. Good luck. xx

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i am in the boat. i have applied for so many jobs i am starting to lose hope and i have a degree

I would like to offer some advice to you that was given to me a couple of years ago. I had experienced the same thing. Going from job to job with no luck at all. Not once did I get called for an interview. Then a friend of mine told me, it's all about confidence. Confidence is key to appearance. If you walk in like you already have the job, you will most likely walk out WITH the job. Keep your head up, shakes hands with the person with whom you speak to that way they remember your face. Ask questions. This is a very important one to remember. Asking questions shows that you are truly interested in the job. Don't just give up after you apply waiting around for them to call you. Pick up the phone, ask if you could speak to someone in Human Resources about your recent application. Or better yet, go in and ask to speak to someone. You should always fill out your application on location. That way when you are done you could ask if there is someone there to speak with about the job. After using some of those tips, I landed a job within a week. Good luck to you.

Man, I know exactly how you feel. I resigned from a job I'd held for 17 years, last August, and had already started applying for a jobs a month and a half before that. By Christmas time I'd had one interview, and the personnel person came back to me and said the interviewer thought I was 'melancholy!' Since then I've had two more interviews, both within a week of each other, and got nothing from either of them. I've applied for over a hundred jobs, within a wide range of occupations. Most of the time I don't hear anything until I get the 'sorry we don't want you' letter. (Though at least almost always I get one of those, so that's something good about this town.) Finally I got casual data entry work late last year - evenings. I don't really want to do evenings, as my wife is at home on her own, but I've kept this job as it's at least something, and it proves to me I'm not entirely unwanted! LOL Now I have a temp job - only the second I've had - and it's extended so far beyond the original three weeks. I don't much like the place, but again it's something. And I agree with whoever said that you have to keep nagging the personnel places: they forget about you very quickly. I've kept a blog on the work thing. You can read it here: http://www.orble.com/mike-crowls-roving-report/ It'll all seem very familiar! But don't give up hope...a job is often just around the corner.

I know that here in Canada you have to submit at least 30 resumes before you even get an interview. You didn't say what type of work you are interested in doing, Have you considered doing some thing you have never done before but thought it might be fun. Just because you do not have experience in something, doesn't mean you can't do the job, you are more than able to learn. I will give you an example, a friend of mine had very few skills. but she loved to read, soup tin labels dictionary's if it was printed she would read it. She heard some one on the bus talking about a lawyer was looking for some one that was good at reading, he needed some one to search and research for is clients , She went to see the lawyer and he wasn't sure but gave her a try, she had to get all the information on a home that was being sold, Having never done it before she tackled it and in a few days time she not only showed up with the history of owners but all professional repairs, allotment titles, the works, Now a lawyers office has access to land titles, but the general public doesn't she got the information the difficult way by talking to and getting people to give information, long story short, She got the job because of her interest and initiative. so Please do not give up you perfect job is out there you just have to hunt it down and make it yours. Good luck

hello...do not lose your hope yet..work hard and do not give up and you will get a job one day. Sometimes I am wondering whether the employers have actually read all the resumes due to shortage of time,and they are even too lazy to send an email to notify the applicants. keep going and I am sure you will be like some mylot members posting a discussion topic''i get a job''later. good luck.

as for me, i attended several job fairs, passed countless resumes, and of all those companies that i had submitted resume, only two responded for an interview. both are employment marketing companies. so i wen to the first one, and asked me if i know how to use a certain web development application (PHP), and i told the interviewer that i know only a little bit for i just started studying that application. then the interview ended and told me that if i received a call from them within 7 days that means i passed. but seven days have passed, i still got no call from the said company. a few days later the second company call and offer me a job opportunity orientation, and i accepted the offer. so i went, listened to the speaker. after the orientation i accepted their services( i told them that i will be back for the application and payment for their service), a week later they called me back and asked me if i want to work in their company, of course i answered yes, and told me i can come to their office the next day for the final interview. around 9 AM, i was there sitting with another aspiring job seeker. During the interview, the interview told me that the application is only a project-based, which will only last a couple of months, without hesitation, i agreed. later in the afternoon i was already in a training. then a week later, i started working with the company as an encoder(we are 6 in the team for the project working on a graveyard shift, 9PM to 7 AM). a month later, i was transferred to the day shift, working with the regular employees. two months working with the company, then the first company called me for the final interview, so i told some of my colleagues about it. And i found out that the company i was working for and that other company were rival companies. so i declined the offer of the other for the interview. 9 months have passed, i am still working the same company. from encoder to technical support and network specialist. As for you, don't lose hope, and if you landed with one, do your best. By the way, i am working in an online job-fit matching company here in the Philippines, matching and endorsing job seekers to a position really fitted for them. Good luck...

If you have talent and self confidence it is just enough to apply for a single job

Hi, I can understand exactly what you're feeling right now... I also don't have a job as of the moment. I put my heart and soul on my last interview that I was so sure I'm gonna get the position but lo and behold they didn't even call to say that I didn't pass. I've been nursing a bruised ego for quite some time now and I really think that it's time for me to move on... but that incident somehow dampen my spirits and I can't make myself go out and apply for another job. When we were little they often told us that all we need to have a good life and a good job was to finish our studies... I'm starting to think that maybe our elders were misinformed hehehe. Anyway, all I what to say is that you're not alone, a lot of people are going through the same ordeal. It's just a matter of perspective, a little courage and a lot of prayer. Don't worry we'll eventually get that dream job in God's own time =)