Anyone in recruitment on here?

[oobie38]

The general question is how many applications are there for roles?

The more specific example is that my wife has been looking for a new contract in the City since November, she has a blue chip banking background, plus FCA and BofE roles on her CV.
She's just chased up on one application at a bank, where the recruiter said that he'd had to put forward 3cv's from 800 received over a 3 day period since the role was advertised.

Understandably she's feeling a bit despondent, but I'd like some context as to whether the number of applications is realistic, or the recruiter exaggerating- and if the number is likely to be accurate, how many of those would be viable candidates, as opposed to wannabes carpetbombing cv's everywhere.

[Ruskie]

Along similar lines I applied for a job in Syria recently, I was surprised to see there had been 106 applicants.

[Integroo]

I would be amazed if a recruiter was getting 800 applicants for a skilled professional role.

[rog007]

Might be a slight exaggeration, but nonetheless, finding 3 gems to put forward for 1 role from even just 80 applicants means your CV has to be at the top of its game to stand out from the crowd.

Clearly it can be done, as the three put forward could testify, but they will have taken time, effort and guidance to achieve that result. Anything less than that effort means one usually finds oneself in the pile with the other 76 (or 796!) unfortunately.