The Sounds of Employer Silence

I'm in the process of applying a for part-time position to supplement a take-home income that looks, well, like it needs help. I know I'm not alone in this. There are those who have been out of work for only a short time, those who have been out for what seems like an eternity, full-timers who can't make ends meet on what they make and part-timers who need to be making a full time wage just so that one nostril is maybe above water. The competition for any job -- best paid to worst, 2 hours to 40, monstrously successful to seriously menial -- is fierce, with the applicant to job ratio anywhere between 5:1 and 200:1, depending on the position. Tough times, indeed.

When I was unemployed for a year four years ago, I sent out resumes and filled out applications to the point where I literally had a stack of copies of each one (or a paper I inserted indicating that I had filled out an application in person) that was just shy of 1½ " tall before I started working again; I had a ceremonial weenie roast of the papers at the end of it all. Of that stack of over 200 attempts at making employers sit up and take notice, I had less than a dozen acknowledgments that I had even sent in anything. I had no way of knowing if my application or resumé had been received unless I called. Yes, calling persistence can pay, but not when the personnel office won't answer any questions or worse, you can't contact them at all because you've responded to a blind ad.

I'm fortunate in that I have two interviews coming up for the just under a half-dozen applications I sent out recently, but it doesn't change how I feel about the silence, especially in the hard times we're all going through right now. I understand that potential employers are potentially overwhelmed by the number of applicants they're getting for a single job opening right now, but does that mean that the niceties need to go out the window? A simple, "Thank you for your application, but we've hired someone else for the position" now takes too much time, effort and money. But, even an automatic, "We got your application/resumé and will contact you if we wish to interview you", as cruel as it seems, is nicer than silence. I'd rather know that they at least got what I sent and took the time to read the name and address or e-mail before they filed it away, tossed it away, or hit the delete key.

And I know I'm not alone in this, either.