How Long Will You Have to Wait?
The Hardest Part
Kayla asked:
i’ve applied to a ton of jobs you guys have listed and haven’t gotten any emails back. do you know if these people are urgently hiring, how long it takes to get a response, or if i’ll even get one if they’re not considering me? it’s okay if you don’t know im just eager to get a response from a job. thank you!
First off, it’s definitely frustrating when you’re not getting much of a response to your applications. I totally sympathize. It's really probably more to do with the fact that many people are looking for work and there just aren't that many job opportunities right now.
To directly answer Kayla’s question, people don't post jobs unless they're hiring right now. I myself have personally seen a job notification in the morning, applied before lunch, got called in for an interview that afternoon, then received a text in the evening saying I was hired, and I was to report to work the following morning.
It’s not often that fast, but they will usually respond within a week, if they want to meet with you. Conversely, they will not respond at all if they're not considering you, so if you don't hear back, the only choice is to move on.
Not Your Fault
This doesn’t mean you’re unqualified, unlikable, and ugly.1 Picture the hiring process from their perspective—they post a job right here on TAPA, and within a few hours they’ve got a hundred resumes. They’re not going to look at every single applicant.
They’ve probably set aside a few hours for interviews, enough to talk with five to ten candidates. Rather than thoroughly reading each of those hundred resumes, they’ll skim through them in the order in which they were received. Once they find a half dozen adequate-to-good applications, they’ll stop reading.
That might happen after reading 50 or 60 emails. The rest go unread.
So when you apply for jobs, apply early. As quickly as you can. You should have a canned cover letter ready to go, with blanks to be filled in with buzzwords from the job posting. The resume already attached to the email draft, you can send it from your phone in a couple of minutes.
Don’t give up hope. Just keep trying.
Although it might.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I've been waiting for easily 5 years....I've applied for dozens and dozens of jobs on this list and I think I've had maybe had ONE interview! I know I am qualified for most of these positions - in fact, some may say I am "over qualified" (I HATE that expression!). In my particular case, I suspect it may have something to do with my age and the fact that I chose family responsibilities over my career! But somehow I keep applying because a career in the entertainment business is all I've ever wanted or known!
❤️