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Question I've been applying to job postings for which I meet all the criteria, and I mean all of them. I figure that's one way to beat my competition — to really stand out. How much job competition am I likely to have if I do that? I was one of over 70 people they screened and one of 16 they interviewed. And it happened again, I didn't get an offer. I wasn't even a finalist. There has to be a way to minimize competition from the start, I just haven't figured it out. Is it really possible that 70

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Question

I've been applying to job postings for which I meet all the criteria, and I mean all of them. I figure that's one way to beat my competition — to really stand out. How much job competition am I likely to have if I do that? I was one of over 70 people they screened and one of 16 they interviewed. And it happened again, I didn't get an offer. I wasn't even a finalist. There has to be a way to minimize competition from the start, I just haven't figured it out. Is it really possible that 70 other applicants met all the criteria? I doubt it, so why do companies entertain so many candidates? How do I improve my odds from the start?

Nick’s Reply

Employers complain they can't find the right people to hire and I think it's because their recruiting is a herding task. They solicit too widely. This yields a preponderance of undistinguished candidates with a low probability of finding anyone that stands out.

Recruiting job applicants: More is not better

When employers post a job online, they're casting a wide net. But more is not better. And it's even worse because cattle-call "recruiting technology" makes it so easy to invite loads of marginal or even totally wrong applicants. It yields more of the same.

Look at the math. In your case 70 applicants were screened and 16 interviewed. HR will tell us "We got a lot of candidates to pick from!" This means they made 70-16=54 errors. That's a lot of wasted overhead. Imagine how often this plays out. Employers will routinely sort through thousands of applications, whether manually or via software. They believe (irrationally) that the more candidates they have to choose from, the better the hire they will eventually make. (See