Unemployment Update: Let the rejections begin

Number of weeks unemployed: 5
Number of resumes sent out: 31
Number of rejections: 2
Number of ever-so-slightly positive responses: 1

So I've officially been rejected, by automated e-mail, for two jobs to which I applied. One was a part-time position with Sirius XM radio in New York City. The other was for a public affairs specialist with the EPA in Annapolis. No surprise. Though I was told my resume did qualify for the job. However, I was not one of the three names that was passed along to the department head doing the hiring. Three names. Out of how many resumes? Probably hundreds. Can you imagine? What is also depressing is that all of these places are letting HR directors whittle down the resumes before they get passed along. Shouldn't be up to the person doing the hiring? Why am I bothering with creative cover letters when all the HR director is going to do is look at the resume and go to their check list of job criteria? And what's more, how is the HR director going to know that most good public affairs specialists were once journalists? They don't teach you that in HR school.

On the upside, I did get an actual e-mail from someone who told me to send some clips. Granted it's for a job opening that doesn't exist yet and one which they may never get to hire for, but then again it was a response, which was encouraging after so many months of nothing. (I'm counting all the job searching I did before I got laid off because I knew the lay off was inevitable.) Of course, it's also for a reporting position at a daily newspaper, so I guess I'm destined to work for newspapers until either they or I die. It's a toss up, which will come first.