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Inbound job applications have become nearly useless as a hiring channel because the volume of irrelevant submissions drowns out the rare qualified candidate; nearly all of DuckBill Group's recent hires came through personal networks and direct LinkedIn outreach instead.

DuckBill Group's CEO says his company gets ~1,000 inbound applications a day but almost none are relevant, so hiring now happens almost entirely through networking and outreach. ✦ AI generated

Mike Julian, CEO of DuckBill Group · The Pragmatic Engineer · 2026-07-07 · original ↗

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We get about 1,000 applications a day on inbound and maybe two of them are even relevant to the posting. I mostly no longer look at inbound seriously because it's so c***. I'd almost certainly miss a great inbound submission if it came in. All of our recent hires have been via network and us reaching out to folk on LinkedIn.

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▦ DuckBill Group ▦ LinkedIn

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Mechanism · 1

AI-generated and AI-polished resumes now look impressive on paper but frequently misrepresent candidates' real skills, as illustrated by a self-described 'architect' candidate who, when asked about architectural principles, could only describe Scrum ceremonies like daily standups and sprint planning.Engineering manager, large company, Berlin, Germany · The Pragmatic Engineer · conf 60%

Context · 3

Lenny's Jobs vets every company and filters out ghost roles and generic staffing-agency posts, unlike other job directoriesLenny · Lenny's Newsletter · conf 70%Lenny's Jobs is the best place in the world to find, vet, and land your dream jobLenny · Lenny's Newsletter · conf 65%The Lenny 100 curates the top 100 companies with highest talent density, ambitious problems, and upside potential that are actively hiringLenny · Lenny's Newsletter · conf 65%

Counterpoint · 1

I got into Microsoft by cold-emailing people whose registration cards I had from my shareware product, because I read a book about the company while working a summer job and decided that's where I had to be.Dave Plummer · Lex Fridman · conf 80%

This moment responds to

provides context → Lenny's Jobs is the best place in the world to find, vet, and land your dream job as a product manager, engineer, designer, or growth/marketing professional.Lenny Rachitsky · Lenny's Newsletter provides context → Lenny's Jobs provides the highest-quality directory of open tech roles because every company is vetted and ghost roles and staffing-agency posts are filtered out.Lenny Rachitsky · Lenny's Newsletter provides context → The Lenny 100 curates the top 100 companies ranked by talent density, ambitious problems, and upside potential for job seekers to prioritize their search.Lenny Rachitsky · Lenny's Newsletter gives example → Hiring managers are unable to find highly-skilled talent to recruit, at the exact same time that experienced, proven professionals are having their job applications ignored by employers — each side blocks the other from being found.Gergely Orosz · The Pragmatic Engineer provides context → Relentless pursuit of top candidates means ongoing touchpoints (coffees, intros, conversations) for weeks, months, or even years, planting seeds that harvest at different rates — even when the candidate says it isn't the right time.Adam Ward · Lenny's Podcast