Has searching for a job become an almost impossible endeavor?

We often hear about folks who say they've applied for hundreds - even thousands - of jobs online without receiving so much as a nibble. What happens is that companies are inundated with so many candidates that they're forced to eliminate a good number of them without even examining their credentials. They do this by setting up a preliminary list of requirements; if you don't have a certain kind of degree, for instance, you're not considered - even if you have an otherwise impressive background. The result is that lots of job seekers get very frustrated and lots of employers miss out on good hires. From Knowledge@Wharton:

As Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli notes, "Applicant tracking software makes it almost impossible for [a job candidate] to stand out, at least at the initial screening step. It is a binary process" -- requiring yes/no answers -- "based on searching for key words associated with credentials and experience. If you learned Java programming in Antarctica, it is no better than learning it in your local community college from the perspective of the software."

[CUT]

According to Gerry Crispin, co-founder of CareerXroads, an international consulting firm focused on recruiting technology and staffing strategy, the hiring process "has pretty much been broken from the candidates' perspective" for decades. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, he says, many companies believed that the process should include informing applicants when their applications were completed and also notifying them when the job had been filled.

In an effort to determine whether this still holds true, Crispin and his partner every year apply, under assumed names, to positions listed by employers of the "Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For" list. In 2011, 27 of those companies informed Crispin or his partner when the job was filled, which means that 73 of the companies didn't. Why not? After all, as Crispin notes, "almost all companies have the capacity to search for every applicant and send each one an email response in literally 90 seconds.... The problem is partly laziness. They have built systems, but failed to tag these kinds of issues."

In other words, those online job sites might not be the best way to break through. You really need to make personal connections, or at least try to.