An Old client of mine asked me "I have applied for a lot of jobs on LinkedIn to no response. Do the recruiters even view these job applications?

Well, I won't answer from a recruiter's perspective since that's not my field, but I'll share what I assume to be valid someone else might have a better explanation or narrative. But there are several reasons I think might be why you might never hear back re: your application to a LinkedIn job posting.

These reasons, incidentally, are true for job postings on any site, whether LinkedIn, Pnet, Indeed or any other site that offers job postings:

• You are not considered a good match. This may relate to:
• Insufficient relevant experience. Maybe your experience is too light for the role in question. Maybe you have that experience but it wasn’t communicated in either your resume or LinkedIn profile. Maybe you applied for a role that’s the wrong seniority in light of your experience. Whatever the case, your degree of the match was not considered quite right
• Wrong geography. If you are not in the desired geography, your other qualifications are not relevant. Many employers are not eager to consider candidates not already local to their area. Most candidates will assume international positions that are actually directed to certain geographical areas.
• Enough other applicants preceded you. If they received 250 applicants and you were #250, the odds are good that the recruiter considers enough earlier applicants strong enough, It's possible that they may never really see yours.
• The job posting is not a high priority. This is the thing that you will never know as a job seeker: whether that job posting sits on the recruiter’s priority list.It might happen that a recruiter posts a job description but due to competing other priorities, they are not able to follow-up with applicants within the timeliness they would have liked. Most recruiters experience this situation, but because it’s not in their best interests to tell you this, they won’t. That’s the simple and ugly truth.

So then what? It's exhausting sending too many applications that never get a response right? Here are a few tips that might turn things around:

1. Make sure both your Resume and LinkedIn profiles are up to date with all the relevant information and professionally optimized.
2. To avoid disappointment, apply only to roles where you are a good fit based on the Job description linking it back to your Education, Experience, and Skills.
3. When searching for Jobs make use of the filters: There's a filter that lets you sort Jobs based on recency. Applying to the most recently posted Jobs may up your chances of your CV being actually screened by a recruiter rather than applying to a job that's already sitting on hundreds of other applicants.
4. Reach out to your connections more especially the ones working at your targeted companies, there might be referral programs, and being referred by someone internal may up and escalate your chances of securing an interview.
5. Don't lose hope, keep applying. The odds of securing an interview are never constant, especially in this mostly congested job market.

If you need us to have a look at your CV and LinkedIn don't hesitate to be in touch and utilise our great services.