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Where do they get sent to when a candidate fills one out and submits it? How often are they effective in landing a job or interview? Any other information would be appreciated.
For us, they go to HR, who then sends them to the department hiring manager. I don't understand what you mean when you ask how effective they are. Everyone who applies does not get an interview however you cannot get an interview without submitting an on-line application.
They fall into a deep dark hole where they are reviewed by a Rabbit carrying a time piece. Those that drink the right potion will be invited in to play a game of chess. The ones that don't die playing get to meet the Queen of Hearts. She'll pick the one she can tolerate the most and they will get the job.
For us, they go to HR, who then sends them to the department hiring manager.
For popular jobs, what I understand is that they get filtered by HR, based on how well the candidate meets the requirements. A hiring manager does not want to take the time to sift through hundreds of applications.
For my company, it goes into the jobs db from which HR can query to sift through all the applicants that have applied to a particular opening. As a hiring manager, I get resumes to review from HR (after they've sifted) and from employee-direct referrals.
At my last company and two companies before that, I skimmed every cover letter/resume received and made an initial decision to TBNT, hold, or interview. I was a hiring manager.
The company before the last I was not a hiring manager but was in operations management. Resumes/applications came in through Career Builder. I reviewed each and passed the ones that met the minimum requirements on to the hiring manager for the particular position. Now and then there would be someone that really grabbed my interest for any number of reasons, and I gave those priority to the hiring manager, and sometimes followed up with a phone call to make sure the hiring manager saw it. The ones that didn't meet the minimum requirements or were disqualified for some other reason (usually because of an e-mail address like "yo420dude@" or "hotmama69xxx@") just sat in a "reviewed" folder forever.
Large employers use a data base that ranks applicants based on their qualifications for the job. That software is very intuitive but not perfect. The applications that pop up as likely qualified are then are reviewed (without individual IDs) as meets or not. When the pool of meets is large enough the recruitment is closed and the best qualified apps are called to the attention of the hiring manager. If no one suitable is found the recruitment can be reopened and the ranking resumed.
The HR department may sit on your resume for over half a year or longer. Most websites where you apply indicate they keep your resume on file for about a year. If you need to reapply after a year originally, you may have to start over with a new application or log in.
I have been contacted as long as 9 months after applying for a job online with no referral, just pure applying online. This was a company with about 250 employees, so not very large as compared to some. It may take longer to hear back from even larger companies. On average I would think the turn around time to get an interview would be much shorter than 9 months.
Online applications are basically a crapshoot. A friend of mine who worked at an Investment Bank told me they never even looked at online applications and told me to not even bother with them. All the posts in the thread so far are correct but policies differ from company to company. To the OP, you don't have anything to lose applying online except for your time. That said, don't expect a lot of success from applying online. You are better off networking by going on informational interviews, cold calling, and asking friends and families about people that they know who are in the industry/company that you are interested in.
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