Slow Response Times - questions [View all]

I hate my job. Two of the biggest challenges in looking for a new job are as follows:

1) The time it takes to get a response.
2) Not knowing exactly why you were passed by.

Problem 1 is frustrating. There are a lot of recruiters out there who seem to want to get people placed immediately. They are very fast paced. But I do not know if these are good jobs or not. I want my next job to be a good one. I think I've ended up in messes lke I'm in now, because I have not had to ability to wait for the right thing to come along (need to pay bills, nobody to live with, etc).

So I guess my question is, how do you know when to just give up on applying for a certain company? Do good companies ever hire quickly, or are they always slow behemoths lumbering along like molasses?

Problem 2 is, how come it is so hard for companies to tell applicants why they are rejected? (rhetorical question of course, I know it's for legal reasons) This is a major issue, because it seems people with insider information are going to do better because of this. Overall though I'd think it would be better for society/progress if people knew exactly what they needed to succeed instead of it just being a guessing game. Guessing games are totally non constructive.

Have a nice day!