The Wave Effect: Why So Many Applicants Compete for the Same Roles

You find the perfect role. It matches your skills, the company looks great, and the description reads like it was written for you. You apply within hours of the posting. Two days later, LinkedIn shows 847 applicants. By the end of the week, it's over 2,000. Welcome to the wave effect—where remote work didn't just change where we work, it changed who we compete with.

The numbers are staggering, and they tell a story that most job seekers don't fully understand. A role that would have received 50-100 applications in 2019 now receives 500-2,000. Junior positions that used to attract local candidates now compete with global talent pools. Mid-level roles face the same volume as senior positions. Something fundamental has shifted, and understanding this shift is crucial to navigating the modern job market.

Remote Work Opened Global Pools

Before 2020, geography was a filter. If a company was hiring in San Francisco, they were primarily competing for San Francisco talent (or people willing to relocate). If they were hiring in London, they were competing for London talent. This created natural boundaries that limited competition.

Remote work removed those boundaries. When a company posts a remote role, they're not competing for local talent—they're competing for global talent. A developer in Warsaw can apply to the same role as a developer in San Francisco. A designer in Lisbon competes with a designer in New York. The pool expanded from a city or region to the entire world.

This isn't theoretical. Data from LinkedIn and other job platforms shows that remote roles receive 3-5x more applications than location-specific roles. For high-demand positions, the multiplier can be even higher. A senior backend engineer role posted as remote might receive 2,000+ applications, while the same role posted as "San Francisco only" might receive 200-300.

The impact is compounded by the fact that remote work has become the default expectation for many tech roles. Companies that don't offer remote options often struggle to attract top talent. This means even companies that prefer in-office work are increasingly posting remote-friendly roles, further expanding the applicant pool.

Hundreds of Applicants Is Normal

What used to be exceptional is now standard. A role receiving 500+ applications isn't a sign of an especially attractive position—it's just Tuesday. For popular roles at well-known companies, 1,000+ applications in the first week is common. Some roles receive 3,000-5,000 applications before closing.

This creates a mathematical problem for HR teams. Even if a recruiter spends just 2 minutes reviewing each application (which is generous), reviewing 1,000 applications would take over 33 hours of focused work. That's a full week for one person, for one role. Most recruiters are handling multiple roles simultaneously, which means they simply cannot manually review every application.

The result? Automation becomes necessary. ATS systems filter applications before humans see them. Keyword matching, resume parsing, and automated scoring systems reduce 1,000 applications to 50-100 that a human actually reviews. This isn't because companies want to be impersonal—it's because they have no other choice at this scale.

For candidates, this means your application needs to pass through multiple automated filters before it reaches human eyes. A perfectly qualified candidate with a poorly formatted resume or missing keywords might never make it past the first filter. This is why understanding how these systems work has become as important as having the right qualifications.

Junior Roles Face the Same Volume

Here's something that surprises many people: junior roles now receive similar application volumes as mid-level roles. In the past, junior positions were less competitive because they required less experience and paid less. But that's changed.

Why? Several factors converge. First, remote work means junior candidates can apply globally, just like senior candidates. A junior developer in Eastern Europe can apply to a junior role at a US company, where the "junior" salary might be significantly higher than local senior salaries.

Second, the barrier to entry for tech roles has lowered in some ways (more bootcamps, online courses, self-taught developers) while remaining high in others (companies still want experience, even for "junior" roles). This creates a large pool of people who are technically qualified for junior roles but struggling to get their first break.

Third, career changers and bootcamp graduates are flooding the market. People transitioning from other industries, recent graduates from coding bootcamps, and self-taught developers all compete for the same entry-level positions. The pool of junior candidates has expanded dramatically.

The result? A junior frontend developer role might receive 800 applications, while a mid-level backend engineer role receives 1,200. The difference isn't as dramatic as it used to be, and for some roles, junior positions are actually more competitive because there are simply more people qualified for them.

Market Shift to Utility Players

Another factor contributing to the wave effect is a shift in what companies are looking for. In an uncertain economy, companies want flexibility. They want people who can wear multiple hats, who can contribute across different areas, who can adapt quickly to changing needs.

This has led to a preference for what we might call "full-stack utility players"—candidates who can do backend and frontend, who understand DevOps, who can write documentation, who can help with product decisions. Companies are looking for breadth as much as depth, especially at mid-level positions.

The problem? Most job descriptions still list very specific requirements. A role might ask for "5 years of React experience" and "3 years of Node.js" and "experience with AWS" and "familiarity with TypeScript" and "experience with microservices architecture." A candidate who has 4 years of React but only 2 years of Node.js might not make it through automated filters, even if they're perfectly capable of doing the job.

This creates a mismatch. Companies want flexible, adaptable candidates, but their job descriptions and ATS filters are looking for very specific combinations of skills. This means many qualified candidates get filtered out, while the remaining pool is still massive because so many people apply hoping to match the criteria.

HR Cannot Manually Screen

We've touched on this, but it's worth emphasizing: at the scale we're talking about, manual screening is simply not possible. A recruiter cannot personally review 1,000 applications. Even if they could, it would take weeks, and by then, the best candidates might have accepted other offers.

So automation becomes the first line of defense. ATS systems parse resumes, extract information, score candidates based on keyword matches, and rank applications. The top-scoring applications (usually 5-10% of the total) get human review. The rest are archived or automatically rejected.

This creates what we call the "black box problem" for candidates. You apply, and you have no idea if your application was reviewed by a human or rejected by a machine. You don't know what keywords were missing, what format issues caused problems, or what scoring criteria were used. You just know you didn't get a response.

For candidates, this means understanding how to optimize for ATS systems has become a critical skill. It's not enough to be qualified—you need to be qualified in a way that automated systems can recognize. This requires understanding keyword optimization, resume formatting, and how to structure your experience in ways that match what the system is looking for.

What This Means

Understanding the wave effect is crucial because it changes how you should approach your job search. If you're competing with 1,000 other applicants, you can't rely on being "good enough." You need to be clearly, obviously, immediately better—or at least, you need to present yourself that way.

This means:

• Optimization matters more than ever. Your resume needs to pass automated filters before it reaches human eyes. Keywords, formatting, and structure are not optional—they're essential.
• Positioning matters more than qualifications. Being qualified isn't enough. You need to position yourself clearly, tell a coherent story, and make it immediately obvious why you're a fit.
• Volume alone won't work. Sending out 100 generic applications is less effective than sending 10 highly targeted, optimized applications. Quality over quantity has never been more important.
• You need to stand out, not just fit in. When 1,000 people are applying, being "one of many qualified candidates" isn't enough. You need to demonstrate unique value, clear positioning, and obvious fit.

Conclusion

The wave effect is real, and it's not going away. Remote work has permanently changed the competitive landscape. Hundreds of applicants per role is the new normal. Automation is necessary at this scale, and understanding how to work with automated systems has become a core job search skill.

But here's what's also true: people are still getting hired. Great candidates are still landing roles. The difference is that success now requires a different approach. It requires understanding the system, optimizing for it, and positioning yourself strategically.

You can't fight the wave. But you can learn to ride it. And in the articles that follow, we'll show you exactly how.