Beware of the Phantom….Job Posting….

OK, so today, I hit a major milestone in my job search.  On LinkedIn alone, since January 1st, I’ve applied to 700 jobs!  700!  Can you believe that?  Here’s how I did it…

First off, let’s give credit where credit is due – LinkedIn is an awesome, awesome professional networking platform.  The technology is great for sharing information and as far as job postings are concerned, it’s pretty awesome.  Not only does it post the job, but in most cases, you can apply directly AND follow-up with the job poster if his or her profile’s posted.  LinkedIn also does the back-end analysis to determine how many people submitted their application, and where you rank amongst the applicants.  It’s great!

But here’s the kicker – are these jobs real?  Meaning, are Human Resources departments posting these jobs for the sake of posting them to look good in front of the public and their investors?  I’ve seen Google, Comcast, Microsoft, Marketo, LinkedIn, and so forth and so on post hundreds of jobs and I have to ask myself, is this company really hiring that many people?

Furthermore, I don’t apply to jobs blindly – you probably thought that those 700 applications were just random points and clicks, but no, there’s a lot of strategy involved.  For example, LinkedIn is so good that (if you’re a paying member) you can set-up alerts with keywords in job profiles so this way, you can be the first one to apply to the job.  So in that regard, I’ve set-up multiple alerts to find jobs involving managing marketing and sales operations, managing programs, etc.  Yet, of course, HR wants to hire God.  I mean, seriously, who’s going to have Internet programming skills, 5-8 years of digital marketing management experience, an MBA  and all the intangible BS that everyone who has worked possesses just so they can make a lateral career move and still get paid the same?

But I digress….

I’ve applied for 700 jobs since January 1st via LinkedIn and the phone screening conversion rate is 0.86%.  Am I that unqualified?  Or am I unHRable?  Or are more than half of these jobs fake?