Too many job openings, but no response ... what is wrong with HR?

by Gyaney

In recent job announcement in this group, I was not sure whether the announcement was genuine or this was a media stunt: to attact attention, because a UK based company wants to hire employees for .... in NZ. How would you know that it is a real authentic job opening? Why is there no URL link to the official website of the company? It might be a genuine announcement, but how would you confirm it to make sure that a desperate applicant is not fooled.

Well, there may be too many unemployed professional in this economically bad time. Thanks god, you don't have to spend penny to apply for the most of the jobs these days because everything is online, but you certainly lose your precious time, effort, and interest/motivation.

Why? 99% of the applications never get any response back by the HR people nor they ever receive phone calls, nor reply the emails. It is the trend not only in private companies (where time = money matters), but also in public organizations.

A week back, a HR personnel replied to my application, but disappointingly there was mass reply where all applicants (50+) email and name were disclosed to each other, and the HR personnel declared that the opening continues for another month ... tone was as if they there were no better fit in the list. By looking at the name in the list, I felt majority of them were from the same part of the world and new immigrants to US, and I believe their academic record can be ranked top 1%.

I watched one show on PBS, a few years back, that an engineer applied for job in 700+ openings, and got no response / no luck.

In this internet age, the new graduates around me are desperate in getting new job. Some tell how they got exploited by the so called employer. Some consulting companies in IT sector in US, hire desperate graduates, but it is a conditional employment. The employee has to return the salary in full in cash to the employer in exchanges for H1B with a legal min limit of US3,000/ month as salary. The employer, then asks for return of USD$ 4000/month in exchange of deposits of US$ 3000 - different deductions (Fedral/ State TAX + social security + medicaid + insurance if any) = Say, USD2250. The first 1000 USD goes to the employer's pocket off the record. Second month, the employee earns another 1750, and returns the 2250+1750 =4000 to the employer as cash, and cycle repeats. The so called employee does not work for that employer because the employer does not have any job, he does sponsors dozens of similar unemployed desperate young graduates, and makes living from such practices. When the market is so fluid, and young graduates are so desperate to maintain their immigration status, there are reasons why HR don't have to answer you and neglect your call. It is not surprising to me to not get any response to applications. The new graduates should know that they may or not get any response from the HR, but they should continue to dump (I do not call it a filing an application with a real hope that you will be hired) their applications in desperate hope of getting interviewed.

It is not only a problem with fresh graduates, it is also in teaching jobs. Recently, I got an email reply from one university that the search committee has had hard time screening the lucky or "usually preselected" applicant out of 150 applicants (PhD). The job market is terribly tough, and you want to be hooked no matter what is type of job you are asked to do.

What is the solution? Get a better reference. Without a good reference, you have almost no chance (99%) of getting job, no matter where did you get your degree (except the few league colleges), no matter what knowledge you have, no matter what GPA you secured. Some recruiters might give you a phone call, but your honey moon with the recruiters will soon fade away when they come to know that you are an immigrant. ... ... ...