I am just curious to fellow hackers (software engineers) here, when you were applying for a job, how many companies did you approximately apply in total? How many of that called you for an interview? How many acceptance did you get?
Apply for internships in my first three years, I typically applied to 20~30 companies, and would get 5-10 interviews, leading to 2-5 offers.
In my senior year, (now), I applied to 4 (Google, Mozilla, Facebook, Inkling). Interviewed at all of them, and got two offers and one "come back next year". I hope the one I accepted could potentially lead to a full time position when I graduate next year.
Graduated May of 2008 - Sent out 10s of resumes - Two interviews (not a great GPA) - got offers at both - took the slightly lower pay one because it had a better job description and was in a more convenient location. It has worked out very well for me.
Knew I would be graduating in May of '08, so I started sending them out around Jan-Feb of '08 (4-5 months ahead). I got interviews in Feb-March and had my job offers by the end of March.
The last time I applied for a job, I applied to about 10 different companies over a period of a couple of months. I went to interview with three of them. One made me an offer, which I rejected. The second turned me down (Unfortunately, as I liked the place). The third didn't want to hire me into the exact position I applied for, but offered me a different position. At first I rejected, but I called them back 6 months later and took it. This was back in 2008.
I'm not sure if you can use that measure for anything. Your skill set, the job marked in general and your geography are huge factors.
In my experience, it is easier to find a job while you are in the beginning of your career. This is mostly because you ask for less money and are less specialized. As you get more specialized, you find that you make more money but at the same time you find fewer jobs that match your specialty.
now this is a killer, I suspect when someone applies to this many companies it usually means that you're really desperate for a job... so how does it go with applying to 100-200 companies?
Apply for internships in my first three years, I typically applied to 20~30 companies, and would get 5-10 interviews, leading to 2-5 offers.
In my senior year, (now), I applied to 4 (Google, Mozilla, Facebook, Inkling). Interviewed at all of them, and got two offers and one "come back next year". I hope the one I accepted could potentially lead to a full time position when I graduate next year.