The premise is that replying to just 5-10 job ads a week isn’t too efficient. As it may turn out, some of those are already outdated, others are fictitious, and the remaining few might ignore or reject you. A possible solution in this situation would be to apply for hundreds of ads so that your chances of landing a job would grow exponentially. Doing so manually doesn’t sound realistic, though.

Bots to the rescue

That’s where bots might give you a hand. The way they operate might differ, but the general idea is such: you choose the key parameters for your job search, attach a universal cover letter, and the bot applies for suitable jobs. In theory, the application-to-response ratio should remain the same: about 10:1. So, if you apply 100 times, you’ll end up with roughly 10 options to choose from. This seemingly provides you with more control of the situation.

In an attempt to increase my workload, I decided to test this method. The usual way of looking for a job didn’t take me far, even though I have a relevant education and experience. I applied to around 100 copywriting job ads in a month, but alas – some recruiters didn’t provide any feedback after interviews and completed test tasks, while others said that someone else got the job.

The whole process started to feel like a job in itself. That’s why, even though using a bot felt overwhelming and a little bit unethical, I finally decided to give it a go. After all, recruiters often use automated tools to sort through resumes and reply to potential employees, why can’t we?

How it went

The bot I used allows you to apply 200 times per day. Once I did that, I briefly reviewed the applications and canceled about 30% of them right away because I didn’t like the field or conditions. As I was doing that, I immediately started to receive notifications that my CV was being reviewed.

Within minutes, I received several offers to complete a test task or fill out a survey. I decided to complete only the ones I was genuinely interested in and ignore the rest. Most of them fell into the second category – the bot can’t be too specific. Since I wasn’t really desperate for a job, I only pursued a couple of offers.

I have to say, the whole process wasn’t as overwhelming as I expected it to be! It’s easier not to get too invested, keep your distance, and remember that you are not your CV when a program does the job for you. 

Something to keep in mind, though – you might find that some recruiters will mention special conditions (for example, to write a specific word in your cover letter) in their ads to avoid unattentive applicants, and the bot won’t help you there.

Pros: 

• You can receive a bunch of responses in mere minutes;

• You don’t get emotional about rejections.

Cons: 

• You still have to spend quite a bit of time reviewing your applications and answering to responses;

• The bot isn’t too specific, so a lot of the ads won’t suit you;

• If there are test tasks or other special conditions mentioned in the ad, the bot will ignore them.

Verdict

You can see the preliminary results of my experiment below – it’s been a week since I used the bot, so the numbers might change, but not dramatically. 

As you can tell, I withdrew quite a lot of applications (around 60-70) myself. So, I would say that from my experience, using a bot for job hunting is a great solution if you need a job ASAP and aren’t very picky. In the event where just about any job in your specialization will do, your chances of landing one are pretty high – dozens of recruiters will get back to you.

However, if you want a job at a company that aligns with your values or in a field that you’re truly interested in, the classic way of putting more thought into your cover letter, preparing, and applying might work better. Out of 200 ads, only about five genuinely interested me – I pretty much could have found them myself and applied manually. If you need some guidance on how to do that, stay tuned for our upcoming article on the topic, or refer to our tips here and here.