Are there any real jobs out there at present?

[Sausage Surprise]

Have applied for nearly 30 "jobs" on Jobserve, Jobsite, etc over the last 3 days. At least 4 or 5 were very near matched to my cv. Only had one email and that just asked for 2 references

Did the same thing 12 momths ago and phone never stopped ringing.

Is it really getting that bad

[moorfield]

Yes there are - but the pool of competition has been and is increasing rapidly. If you're serious about these get on the blower immediately. The pimps I know never seem to bother with jobserve generated emails or replies.

[Peter Loew]

For one role I applied for there were apparently 500 applicant, for another there were 100 and so on.

But how many of these online applicants are a) Experienced, b) Good c) Actually have the right experience for the role?

That should narrow it down to about 5.

P

[deckster]

Yes there are - but the pool of competition has been and is increasing rapidly. If you're serious about these get on the blower immediately. The pimps I know never seem to bother with jobserve generated emails or replies.

Have to say it's the opposite in my experience. My mornings are largely spent scanning Jobserve, tweaking CVs and emailing them out. If an agent is at all interested they will ring within 2 hours of me sending the CV; without exception, if I haven't heard from them by the end of the day then they aren't interested and ringing them is a waste of time.

Personally I think things are picking up. I've been benched since October and didn't have a sniff until early December - five interviews that month and three more positive leads just this week, plus another interview this afternoon. Competition is still red-hot though - there must be an awful lot of really good people out there as I've never ever failed to get a job after interview before!

[chris79]

Have applied for nearly 30 "jobs" on Jobserve, Jobsite, etc over the last 3 days. At least 4 or 5 were very near matched to my cv. Only had one email and that just asked for 2 references

Did the same thing 12 momths ago and phone never stopped ringing.

Is it really getting that bad

In our area (north east) I would say yes.. I've been doing the same and there's hardly anything. Had a few phone calls but never amounts to anything material, either that or the rate offered is a joke (for contracting).

[Peter Loew]

Have to say it's the opposite in my experience. My mornings are largely spent scanning Jobserve, tweaking CVs and emailing them out. If an agent is at all interested they will ring within 2 hours of me sending the CV; without exception, if I haven't heard from them by the end of the day then they aren't interested and ringing them is a waste of time.

Personally I think things are picking up. I've been benched since October and didn't have a sniff until early December - five interviews that month and three more positive leads just this week, plus another interview this afternoon. Competition is still red-hot though - there must be an awful lot of really good people out there as I've never ever failed to get a job after interview before!

What area are you in? It was like that back when I was a techie, but not so much now.

[Sausage Surprise]

In our area (north east) I would say yes.. I've been doing the same and there's hardly anything. Had a few phone calls but never amounts to anything material, either that or the rate offered is a joke (for contracting).

I'm coming to the end of a contract in the NE but will pretty much work anywhere. Some of my applications have been for Amsterdam and Dublin.
I'll give it till the middle of next week and if I've had no joy I'll start phoning - which is something I've never had to do before as I agree with deckster's comments re: if an agent wants you they'll ring within 2 hours.

[zara_backdog]

Personally I think things are picking up. I've been benched since October and didn't have a sniff until early December - five interviews that month and three more positive leads just this week, plus another interview this afternoon. Competition is still red-hot though - there must be an awful lot of really good people out there as I've never ever failed to get a job after interview before!

Five interviews in Dec ! - any job offers come out of them ?

[Peter Loew]

I'm coming to the end of a contract in the NE but will pretty much work anywhere. Some of my applications have been for Amsterdam and Dublin.
I'll give it till the middle of next week and if I've had no joy I'll start phoning - which is something I've never had to do before as I agree with deckster's comments re: if an agent wants you they'll ring within 2 hours.

It used to be like that before the market became so saturated. The problem is the agent might not even see your CV in the flood of application he receives, not matter how good you are for the role.

[rootsnall]

I just managed to get my CV forwarded to a cliet for the first time in this job hunt and the agent rang me. BUT I then noticed they had posted the job on Jobserve literally 10 mins before phoning me so they'll be bloody swamped now and also set every agency in kingdom come onto the trail

The rate wasn't bad either, some clients aren't aware yet that there are hundreds of us out there.