Is the old school way of finding any job dead?

I have been looking, with zero luck, for a long-term and a full-time job within the city of Chicago, IL for about three years now. As, one might imagine, this process has been a roller coaster ride of emotions ranging from elation to hopelessness. In my most recent attempt to find a job, I decided to step up my documentation of the process and be able to create a comprehensive set of results. I believe I am finally ready to reveal those results in a manner which will fully illustrate the nature of my struggle.

On April 3rd of this year, I sent out 428 resumes and cover letters via mail. Of these resumes I sent out 41 that included a miniature portfolio to those firms that I most desired to work for. As of today, I have yet to attain any form of job offer, let alone the long-term/full-time job offer I have been hoping for. The Diagram below breaks down the  results of my job search based on 3 factors: Whether firms responded or not, How they responded, and if I ended up receiving an interview.

So, as you can see, the results are fairly dismal. For clarity's sake, I did not examine which of the forms of response resulted in an interview. The 3 phone responses resulted in interviews and 1 of the emailed responses resulted in an interview. Also, I got no responses from any of the firms I sent my portfolio to. Obviously, the interviewing process is fairly subjective. I get the feeling that I either was overqualified for the positions I interviewed for or I simply wanted too much money. There is really no way of telling, though.

It seems as if there is a strong disconnect these days between employers and job candidates. I find the number of firms that do no to respond to a job candidate at all astounding. It seems as if no one wants to admit that they simply do not have the resources to expand their firm or they are just simply bombarded on a daily basis of the over-saturated job market. The real kick in the face of this exploration though, is the fact that of those 4 interviews, I never once received any form of follow-up after the interview. Firms really need to get their acts together and start actively participating in the hiring process, rather than focusing on getting the correct candidate and forgetting the remainder of candidates exist.

In terms of numbers of dollars spent on this endeavor; I spent 188.32 dollars on postage, 200.00 dollars on printing cost, and over 12 hours of my own time putting together the list and doing the mailings (I would estimate this at a rate of 20 an hour). So, all and all, the total cost to me was 688.32 dollars.With that said, is it worth it? I dont think so.

The debate of traditional mailings vs. email mailings will never be over. In my mind, I prefer my prospective employers to be able to have a hard copy of my information so that it wont just sit in their inbox and be easily ignored. But, obviously from my study, it is just as easy to ignore a hard copy of a resume.

As much as I hate to end this discussion "Michael Moore Style", I do not think that there is any solid answer to any of these issues. I am just glad to be able to share the results.

12:00pm Central

18.7.11

IRONIC EDIT: 

Earlier today I got a permanent/full time job offer from one of my interviews as a project manager. I suppose it took a wee bit of time and some internet ranting. Life is funny that way.