Are online apps just a scam?

Just wondering what the general view here is. Asking because had sent couple of apps for my exact same position at banks of the same (or lesser) level and didn't even get invited to a first round interview. I'm at a US BB in EU HQ office and have a target grad school with good grades on my CV. I get the whole "millions of applicants/there's always someone more qualified than you" but kind of ridiculous. Would have thought HR at least did a good CTRL+F look through the stacks for the people with the same position as what they're looking for or at least prominent sellsides.

Who are these guys interviewing if not people who 99% share my profile? Anyone actually ever get interview invites just from the online applications? Kind of just interested in your views, have we gotten to the point where you literally only get 1st round interviews via networking along with target background? If so guess we're fudged mates....

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Most large firms use CV screening software which looks for key words and buzzwords. People who craft their CVs to fill them with this language get flagged for a review by humans. Best bet is probably to jam-pack your CV with as much buzzword jargon as you can. You can also fill the empty spaces in your CV with white text of buzzwords like Harvard, Goldman Sachs. Maybe try it with a fake CV first and see if it works with that. 

 
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Its funny you say that, I've been wanting to create a fake "perfect resume" and send it in to an online application to see if that profile would get an interview without any networking. The funny thing is you'd hope so but i kind of doubt it.

TBH if i had to count the times i have gotten invited for a first round interview (not counting test/hirevue invites) without doing any networking i could count them on one hand, and bear in mind, like many of us here, I've sent thousands of apps in my time. Its completely ridiculous and the same goes for headhunters, sent a CV to these guys through linkedin, HH calls me 1.5hours later: "yeah cool, great fit etc etc will for sure pass it on to company" and then nothing, total scam artists. I feel like 90% of the times the job posting is there just so they can say they reached out globally when really they only look at the internal referrals

 

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