Are they ignoring you because they're jerks, or because you're sloppy and negative?

This lady wrote to me.

She was frustrated because she's applied for like 250 jobs in recent weeks, and only two people have responded.

And nothing came of either.

Certainly, she wanted to vent. Which is completely OK by me. Great, in fact. I'm always willing to be a sounding board, and to help people dust themselves off and find more productive ways to go about landing a great job.

But what struck me about this gal was how convinced she was that she was doing everything right, yet still being categorically ignored. Because everyone sucks.

That was pretty much the essence of it.

She's right, they're wrong, and all hiring managers and HR people suck. And so I got to talking with her.

Each reply she sent to me contained at least two typos.

One email had seven.

And turns out, she doesn't ever, not ever, try and find a hiring manager or connection within the companies she's courting; she sends every single resume in through blind, online applications.

She has no idea what happens to the resume once she hits "send."

Her resume is a patchwork of fonts and different styles -- likely evidence that she's just sort of added on and added on to the thing over a bunch of years.

She sends almost the identical cover letter out for every opportunity, because "It's such a pain in the ass to create a new one every time."

She's 49. And convinced this is automatically relegating her to the pile of "age discriminated" discards.

Yet she appears to be talented in her chosen field.

And has done some impressive things through her career-to-date.

And, beneath the venom over this job search topic, she seems to be a nice lady.

But because she's taking a sloppy, finger-pointing, non-strategic approach to her job search, she will likely continue to be ignored. For probably another 250 applications.

And that's a huge, huge bummer.