
Show HN: I built a bot to automatically apply to jobs - jmopr
https://github.com/jmopr/job-hunter
======
robgibbons
For every recruiter complaining that this is a spammy spray-and-pray approach,
there are a dozen engineers spammed daily on LinkedIn with irrelevant blanket
offers. If anything, this little bot is a delightful and humorous response to
both recruiter spam and automated resume filters.

~~~
ryandrake
Sounds like a bit of an exaggeration. I'd love to see an actual profile that
literally gets spammed daily with "job offers". I might want to borrow a few
things from such a profile! I've never once gotten an unsolicited job offer
(in other words, reply back and the job is yours, sight unseen) out of the
blue on any platform, LinkedIn or otherwise. Maybe the occasional recruiter
contact, but come on.

~~~
dimino
I get emails most days (5 out of 7) from recruiters. They're mostly bots, but
if you put your resume on the wrong site, you get on a series of lists, and
can't get off of them.

~~~
mundo
Agreed. I also made the mistake of uploading a resume with a phone number to
Dice, and for about a month I was getting at least one cold-call per day.

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jc4p
When I'm reviewing an application, the most important thing to me is the cover
letter and the specificity in it. If you don't state why you want to work at
the company, how you think you could grow being a part of it, or even mention
the company by name explicitly, I ignore the rest of the application.

Spray and fire might work if you don't actually care about your job, but this
really seems like spam to me.

~~~
zippergz
Interesting. I've interviewed hundreds of people, and hired dozens of software
engineers and similar positions, and I can't remember a single time a cover
letter has made a difference. I rarely even read them.

That's not to say I endorse this spray and pray approach - just that the cover
letter isn't really the issue for me.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
I am the opposite. I have interviewed and subsequently hired very good people
primarily on the first contact, which is often a cover letter.

The CV also mattered, but in the end, both are just a vehicle to get an
interview.

~~~
geoelectric
To be clear, a cold-application cover letter? First contact, yeah, but I've
mostly seen it with handshakes, networking, or the type of letter that also
namedrops an internal referral.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
Not sure if we are talking about the same thing. I primarily tried to say that
I think the cover letter matters to me. One was so compelling I jumped at the
opportunity to talk to the person. Now a very appreciated colleague of mine.

------
jmopr
So I built this because I'm a recent bootcamp grad & I've found that it's
really hard to get my foot in the door. I'd really love feedback on how I can
improve this.

Here is an example of a page that gets link in my automated cover letter to an
employer: [http://job-
diana.herokuapp.com/users/jobs/07c5807d0d927dcd09...](http://job-
diana.herokuapp.com/users/jobs/07c5807d0d927dcd0980f86024e5208b)

~~~
garysieling
The biggest problem I've had with Indeed is a lot of applications disappear
quickly. If I were you I would try to reply back quickly if someone contacts
you as a result of this bot (once you get a few replies, you could make
yourself a script for that part as well).

I would also try to make sure you don't needlessly send multiple applications
to the same company.

------
DeBraid
This commit is hilarious. [https://github.com/jmopr/job-
hunter/commit/e31b36ea21946a2f2...](https://github.com/jmopr/job-
hunter/commit/e31b36ea21946a2f2af8db9a7cfbb8d26059d8d0)

------
cylinder
I am guessing this only works with the "Apply via Indeed" jobs. Yesterday I
was applying for jobs and extremely frustrated by how many corporations
require you to create an account on their platform and jump through many hoops
just to apply for a job. No thanks!

~~~
Animats
Now that's a job for a bot. By now, someone should have a bot that's smart
enough to figure out how to sign up with an arbitrary site. The comment spam
crowd seems to have that technology.

The next step in automatic job applications is something that customizes your
resume, based on what the job ad is asking.

There's a startup in this.

~~~
Decade
That's what I really, really hate about Taleo and iCIMS and Silk Road and
Jobvite and so on. They allow their customers to customize the application
process with arbitrary fields and click-through agreements, so you can't just
write a simple shell script to apply to all jobs that use that system. The
login is the least part of the process.

I heard that comment spam is often farmed to places with low cost of labor,
not necessarily automated.

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ztratar
This is the best possible way to burn bridges. The companies that take spammy
applications aren't the companies you want to work at.

~~~
vonmoltke
If I collated all the "companies that X aren't the companies you want to work
for" advice and followed it all, I would be unemployed.

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dlugo06
Dude this is cool but I would actually reduce your use of the word "actually"
by like a hundred percent. It actually makes you sound like you either don't
know what you're talking about or like you're overcompensating.

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bsmonaco
This is awesome, I wonder if and how this could grow to be used by academic
institutions to help support their alum to apply to jobs.

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Endy
As someone with experience around a recruiter - never put your real phone
number or email out on the web. It will be found. Whether it's industrious
sales-hungry recruiters or the sourcing agencies full of geeks on Google and
Exalead... it will be found.

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Ravikiran
Will the recruiter actually take this seriously? From a recruiter standpoint,
when someone applies - the applicant is required to understand, interpret and
apply accordingly.

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nikki-9696
The fact that this sort of thing is a thing is very sad. I'm so glad I have a
network and have gotten my jobs through word of mouth and in-person
introductions.

~~~
ludamad
It's made by a bootcamp graduate, not everyone is in such a luxurious position

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bsmonaco
This is awesome, I am curious if iterated how higher institution's career
center's could utilize this to help their alum attain jobs.

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rmason
Now someone needs to do this for dating sites ;<).

~~~
Chris2048
"You're less interesting in person" ;_;

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powera
If I were a hiring manager, I would straight-out reject anybody who was using
this, resume and candidate unseen (assuming I found out). If a person applies
to 100 jobs at once, it's unlikely they're going to want my position and I'm
better off spending my time talking to other people.

~~~
noxToken
>"It's unlikely they're going to want my position"

Well you just discounted a potentially great employee. They implemented a
solution to help apply for jobs. The application process can be absolutely
draining - especially when you're 25 applications deep with zero response.

What's the harm in reaching out to the candidate? If they aren't interested,
they'll decline the interview.

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jkot
I guess it works since you made on HN frontpage.

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jecjec
Nice, what bootcamp did you go to?

I went to App Academy and got my current job by building a bot that logs into
LinkedIn and applies to jobs.

