Ask HN: Your experience with companies not responding to applications?

I began looking for a software job earlier this year and came away with a few frustrations, one of which was the fact that many companies either never responded to my application or initial contact, or fell out of contact. In one case I exchanged several emails, completed a dev exercise, and then never heard back even after a few follow-up emails. I wonder how endemic this is to our industry? Is this confined to first-time devs? I’m a remote worker, so is this a casualty of that choice?

Anecdotally, this is what I’ve found:

- Hacker News: 100% of the emails I’ve sent responding to job posts on “who’s hiring” have led to a response by someone at the company.

- If a job post requests that I send a personal email, I am very likely to receive a response

- If a job post requests that I submit some formal application, I am very unlikely to receive a response or that response takes a very long time (2 weeks or more)

I’m interested to know what others’ experience has been. As I’m starting a new job search I feel myself handicapping companies based on how their job process is posted: if it’s on HN I’ll apply there first; if I’m required to fill out a form, I’ll only apply there after my other avenues have been exhausted. I’m not sure that’s a healthy practice or if that is actually a good way to preemptively avoid stress and frustration.

Thanks in advance!