, the "new" jobs agencies for name it some way...is like this:
Since I'm not looking for a new job for over ten years I admit I don't really know how the current situation actually is.
But I am pretty convinced anyway it does not look like what you described is reality in every company,
which reads like those customers-keep-away-not-even-trying-to-fake-support-mechanisms-by-total-morons already captured employment process.
And that your best guess still is to get in contact with some real engineer within the departement the job is advertised for. (Sometimes some kind of "hacking" is needed, to get the right e-mail address, or phone-number. It's not a guarantee. Nothing is. There are none. But it's worth a try anyway.)
Naturally, if one has to feed a wife and kids, one has to take every job possibilty seriously, which means getting any short-termed job available; but still keep searching for better opportunities (which of course your employer must never smell the slightest idea of, unless you place him your resignation with the exact minimum period on the desk [there are headhunters, dealing with such things delicately, and are interested in you, when you have the expertise.])
On the other hand you also need to anticipate the future.
You may ask yourself if you want to work in such a company that already presents itself this way.
To me this smells very much like anybody with a couple of actively self-used brain cells really trying to do a dedicated job is sooner or later being dragged out in a straightjacket with foam on his mouth to an ambulance.
"Someday I will set this building on fire."
Frankly, there were times I actually considered seriously to throw it all away,
and completely restart by open up a bratwurst-stall.
Looking back I'm not completely convinced I made the right decision not to.
One may work more physically, but stay sane mentally - being your own boss is something very worthy when your are confronted again with some unaccountable bullshit managers came up with, managing managers, managing managers...
Also wages may even look better - a good made snacks-kiosk could be a real gold-mine.
I did not say "throw it all away, and get into bratwurst-business", but what I say is, there are
always opportunities, and choices. If not, you didn't looked hard enough, because there are.
One shall not depend on to get into some bs-job in some nuthouse, which may lead one day one may kick the bucket instead of open-up a bratwurst-stand.
If you bend over, of course you're fu*cough*
Well, not if you are living in some kind of dictatorship.
Then you don't need to look for a job. You'll get one.
Then you need to look for "Vodka", likewise, or how to get the heck out of there.
Getting a job is pretty much like getting a girlfriend.
If you are single they don't even look at you with their arses.
Once you're in a relationship they want you all.
You need a job to get a job.
It's silly. But that's how it is.
Humans are not rational, logical-controlled beings.
They claim they are, but they are not.
They wish, they want, they are convinced they are, but at the same time avoid any effort, which would make the difference.
They spent more energy on to invent bs-prove of to be different from animals,
instead of educate themselves to actually discriminate from them.
They are apes,
driven by sex, envy, and greed, not by sense, self-reflection, and science.
Otherwise Kant had won two hundred years ago.
(Okay, time to log out, and get into bed.)
When I was younger I put real effort into tailoring applications. The rejections (if any) affected my psyche negatively so much so I dreaded the thought of drafting another application. And the rejections do not state any helpful reasons, so you cannot improve your application either.
A rejection does not bother me anymore: “I did not put too much effort in it anyway.”
