Great observation Vee, I have an identical experience, so I can confirm everything you wrote, and add some more. I am looking for a new job for 2 years and I responded to 576 job advertisements on LinkedIn. In some 10% of cases I have got an automatic rejection message, I write about it here (https://bit.ly/3u31L3Z). In the rest just ghosting. I have 15+ years of expertise in a domain, and I am an active trainer in my expertise domain, but still, I have got not a single response. Hunting for a job brought me to burnout.

I have found that it is better to find a recruiter or hiring manager, and write directly to him with a link to the job posting I am referring to. It has got at least some responses this way and I was in some interviews, perhaps around 10 or fewer.

What more have I learned?

• Jobs advertised as remote meant “you have to be resident in the country, or in the city the company is”. I have had to explain many times, that full remote = anywhere on the land or high seas.

• Many jobs posts forward you to some third-party ATS app, which demands the creation of an account. I was advised by developers of such platforms, to stay away from them. It seems, once rejected by one company = forever rejected by all other companies. It is how the algorithm works.

• I witnessed many times that hiring managers or recruiters have had no idea I have applied for a position via their ATS or LinkedIn Easy.

• Many job posts are just a condensed mix of multiple positions into one. It shows recruiters have no idea what are they looking for.

• There is no difference between hiring for an entry-level position and CxO. I was interviewed by junior recruiters at the age below 25, with whom it was impossible to talk, as they knew nothing about what are they hiring for. (https://bit.ly/3AOUTLr)

• Quite a lot of interviews ended up after a few minutes, and have had only 2 questions – 1) do you what to be a contractor or employee (both answers were bad) and 2) how much salary do I want? Later I always choose to postpone after I will know more about the job. Simply because the amount of responsibility may differ, my profession is about traveling, but there is not clear who will pay for this. In a few cases, it was expected I will pay for commuting 500+ km, accommodation in a different location, and many more.

• I also often see that an applicant from another EU member state is automatically rejected, even if the EU is a common market and such practice is not legal.

• If recruiters communicate, they always do via email, from a no-reply email address, and they present themselves as a “recruitment team”.

• I have found quite a lot of fake HR accounts, that are used in job posts to create the impression there is a person recruiter. The such person often does not exist.

I have experience also from the other side, I was a hiring manager, too. So I have created training for recruiters, which I am offering them so they can get better in their profession.