If you’ve been around recruiting long enough you have probably heard (but hopefully not directed towards you) the phrase ‘post and pray’ recruiter. In the event that you are unfamiliar with it check out the definition (with examples) from one of my new favorite sites (Paul McFedries Word Spy):
Whether you admit to it or not everyone has high hopes (and wishes) anytime they post a job. Sometimes a posting works out well and you get a couple of good candidates but many times they don’t and you feel utterly ignored by all of mankind.
That got me thinking a little bit about how potential candidates view things – are they more likely to send in their info for a job if it was as easy as hitting ‘send’? So, a couple of days ago I put together a one question survey that asked just that – “Are you more likely to submit your information to a job if all you have to do is email a resume vs. fill out an application?”
After receiving 520 results (I know that’s not a huge, huge number but I think it will do for now) the answer is a resounding YES (420 or 80.8% said so).
One of the things I like to do on surveys that I put together is to give the people who respond a chance to add their own two cents through a comment box and this time the response was a bit overwhelming (140 comments).
While some were answers you would expect to find in a survey like this there was one that stood out as ringing true with me:
“Excellent question!! Those applications take a long time to fill out. If a person has a full-time job (usually > 40 hrs/wk) and family responsibilities spare time is precious. A person has to be highly motivated to find and take the time to fill out the application.”
This comment leads to a very important question – could organizations be driving away the ’passive’ talent that they so desire because of the fact that an application is required instead of just sending in a resume?
Just answering for myself (and probably everyone else out there) – if I was just passively open to listening to new opportunities the likelihood of me taking 15 minutes to fill out an application is oh, about 0%.
If you want to see the ‘official’ results and read all of the 140 comments that were left you can download the PDF here (Application vs Resume Survey Results).
Now that you have learned a little something about what job-seekers think I would surely appreciate it if you would take 30 seconds a fill out an anonymous survey (a whole two questions) that I will use to share with job-seekers about what recruiters think. You can find the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/82GVZY6 and will be able to read the results in a couple of weeks on my job-search blog.
Until next time – good hunting and good luck!
That’s way PPC is the best way to go. You simply pay for the quality candidates you receive. If you don’t get candidates, you don’t pay. LinkUp is the best bet for posting positions.