When should I forget about that application?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>So you like a company, you go to their career webpage, and you rejoice that there is a match between the position and your qualifications! You apply online, fill out all the details, submit a resume, and soon you receive an automated message to your email inbox confirming that the company has received your resume and will review it.
Happens all the time!!</p>

<p>So I have three questions: how long does it take to review your application? I mean when should you hear back - if you will be contacted - and when should you just forget about your submission?</p>

<p>Furthermore, some jobs have a time window: say a job posting expires March 15 and you submit your application March first, will you be contacted before March 15?</p>

<p>Finally, is this system applicable to entry level positions as well as experienced professionals?</p>

2

<p>You really never know. Some companies wait until the listing expires to begin contacting candidates, but some do it much earlier; others will wait several weeks after the listing expires to begin contacting people, especially if they had a lot of applications. Some companies have listings online but fill their immediate needs before taking those listings off; as a result, they may keep your information on file and contact you several months later. Don’t give up hope after any period of time unless you were told that your application would no longer be considered.</p>

<p>Also, make sure you continue to apply to other jobs until you accept an offer!</p>

3

<p>i’ve been applying to a lot of internships(150~200?) since last fall. A lot of times companies don’t even respond after I submitted my app. Other times they would be nice and send me a rejection letter. </p>

<p>I immediately forget where I applied to because I’m always shocked when company XYZ contacted me.</p>

4

<p>A lot of times companies will only post a position after they have identified someone they want to hire, other times it is a live position that they are actively looking to fill. It just depends on the company. I would recommend checking out Linkedin to see if you can find a recruiter from that company and connect with them and let them know the job id # of the position that you are applying for. Hope this helps. </p>

<p>I would love to hear how the job search is going for you. If you don’t mind taking a quick survey, it would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>[Job</a> Search Survey](<a href=“http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2HRHN87]Job”>http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2HRHN87)</p>

5

<p>thanks for your concern
I hear that companies will create openings a lot of times just as a formality for hiring a selected person; how often does that happen for entry level positions? this I do not know
I have took the survey, by the way</p>

6

<p>Companies do not create openings as a formality because it is a waste of time and money. Also it clogs your inbox when you get 1,000 resumes for 1 position.</p>

<p>For bigger companies, there are so many resumes that it takes time to sort. If your resume catches their attention, then they will call you within the week. If you do not get a response, it means they probably just threw your resume away or put it in a rejection pile.</p>

7

<p>so let me share my experience then, and i this may or may not support what has been mentioned in this post</p>

<p>last week i got two calls from two different companies:
the first one I had applied to on tuesday 10pm, and on wednesday 9am i received a call to schedule an interview!! mind you this is one of the US largest 20 companies, so i don’t know how many people applied, and the opening is still posted online until today.</p>

<p>on the other hand, the second call i received was from a company i can’t even remember how far back did i apply to, and for sure this is not the same size as the first!</p>

<p>the reason i asked this question, is because my job hunt is going to end soon, and i just want to make sure that i won’t receive a call after i sign an offer…</p>

<p>other than that, i realized that creating openings for formality is un-orthodox BUT i am sure it happens, of course i am not saying that every opening out there is for a job that doesn’t exist, or that if i didn’t get called this means the opening is bogus, however i am positive companies would do that every now and then… I know that one of the US’s largest companies does it (though not on a regular basis of course)</p>

8

<p>What typically happens is, sometimes companies start posting jobs/internships and suddenly the company goes on a hiring freeze or the position gets put on hold. Your resume might have been picked up prior to the freeze and when they were about to do their first rounds, the position was put on hold. Once there is a budget approval for the internship/job again, yours was the first batch they contacted.</p>

9

<p>As is the case for life in general, you can never have unlimited choices and succeed at the same time; if you have unlimited choices in front of you, it means that you have not made any choices.</p>

<p>If you get an offer, that is great! They will tell you that they have a position reserved for you and give you the terms of the offer. They will then either ask you your timetable for responding to them or they will give you a timetable of their own. Generally when you are given a timetable, you will get two to four weeks until the offer expires. At this point, you must make a decision. If you are holding out hope for another offer, that is smart. Make sure to reach out to other companies who have already interviewed you; let them know that you have received an offer, and you will likely have a decision from them within a week (if you get a second offer, you have the leverage to negotiate with companies for a higher wage). If a company contacts you for the first time, make sure to be up front with them in saying that you have an offer with a decision required by date X. You are then in the driver’s seat, as the company needs to operate on your schedule or risk losing you as a potential employee.</p>

<p>Once you have a good sense of what offer you want to accept, then just do it. Especially if the offer isn’t as good as you would have hoped, it is difficult to close other options, but certainly if you haven’t heard from a company for the first time by a week before the deadline for responding to an outstanding (in the literal sense of the word, of course) offer, it is probably time to stop considering it. </p>

<p>I can tell you a few things from personal experience. I was extended two offers (actually one a day after the first). Both companies offered good packages, though one was noticeably better than the other, but I made the mistake of not realizing I had leverage. I accepted the offer without even trying to negotiate the salary (I am pretty confident that I had the ability to do it, but I just had no idea how to do so). That wasn’t a big deal, though… having an offer in hand was just phenomenal. After I accepted it, I was contacted by multiple other companies with which I had applied and/or interviewed (five potential jobs in total), and I started kicking myself for accepting an offer hastily. Two days after being contacted for next steps with three government jobs, I was informed of a hiring freeze, which eliminated those opportunities. One job was still available, but the position’s starting grade was cut from GS-09 to GS-07. The last job was with a private sector firm, which proved to be quite disorganized. The moral of the story is that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.</p>

<p>The point of all of this is that you may sign an offer and have a company call you a minute later. But you will eventually have to make a decision of some sort, unless you decide to decline all of your offers in hopes of better ones in the future, and that just doesn’t make good business sense!</p>