4 Tips on whether You Should Apply for an IT Job - or Not

We all know it: you apply for a job and never get any response. It shakes your confidence and you wonder why you even wasted time writing a proper cover letter and resume. Sometimes you never had a chance for that job anyway, but you can't know that as an applicant.

Resume.io suggests that job postings older than four months are most likely not worth the time. A LinkedIn report on recruiting trends states that, on average, companies take anywhere from "a few days" to four months to fill positions. Older postings are most often not reported as filled, but simply left until at some point the ad expires - if it expires at all.

Here are some things to keep in mind.

Too good to be true:

Lots of cash may be enticing, but an advertised salary is sometimes too good to be true. If you find a job ad with an unusually high income, better proceed with caution. That's not to say you shouldn't try to reach your desired salary, but rather that in such cases you're more likely to expect a payout commensurate with the location and skills required. Less reputable companies post advertisements with top salaries just to attract applicants. Instead of quoting the appropriate base salary, they assume some best-case scenario that has a big impact on salary - but doesn't reflect reality.

Which company am I applying to?

Lack of transparency is also a warning sign. It's better to keep your hands off an application if it's not clear from the ad which company you're actually applying to. Of course, one should not be overcautious. Often, recruiting firms are also hired to find applicants and not tell them the company until later in the interview process. This may be the case, for example, if a company does not want to make future plans public - in such a case, it may even be necessary to sign a non-disclosure agreement later on. Another reason for such secrecy is to keep out applicants who only want a certain company on their resume, no matter what the profession. If everyone knew that they were actually applying to Google, the pool of candidates would increase massively.

Who else is applying?

Some job boards also tell you how many applicants have already applied. This should be taken into account. In the case of advertisements with 300 applicants, the publication date can be decisive. If it is an old posting, there is little point in applying here. If the posting is still relatively new, this could also mean that the recruiters are overwhelmed by the high number of applications. Of course, this does not have to mean that you should completely avoid such much courted offers, but the chances of success are already somewhat lower here.

Other details:

Things like salary information or the ability to work remotely are often listed at the top of job boards. It is recommended to carefully read the descriptions for such jobs advertised by recruiting companies. You may not always see the name of the actual company, but the descriptions usually provide enough information that you can get a picture of the job.

No matter where you search for your next job, caution is always advised as soon as there is a feeling that something is not quite right.