My job search continues at a frustrating pace, though with my somewhat mismatched combination of work and educational background and interest in even a moderate course change career-wise, it's probably not surprising.

Still, there've been a couple of recent incidents that just seem wrong.

Back in March, I had an interview with a local public health consulting firm. Pretty basic job, entry level, but a good place for me to start over. The interview seemed to go pretty well, and it ended with a timeline that I would hear from someone else within a week. That week passed, and then another. I dashed off a quick email to the person I interviewed with to see if the timeline had changed.

To date, I've gotten no response. It's only been within the last week that the job posting was removed from their website. I've half a mind to send a sarcastic follow up email congratulating them on the hire, based on their need for someone being so desperate that they couldn't send a one-line reply to my email saying thanks but no thanks.

But of course I won't. They'll have other openings. Just hopefully interviewing with someone else.

Well before this, going back to the fall, I'd applied for a law school student affairs job at a local university. I got the regulation automated response to my email. Then nothing. That wasn't all that surprising; it's fair to say that at least half of my inquiries get, at best, the simple acknolwedgement email.

What was surprising was the automated email I got a couple weeks ago saying that my candidacy was no longer being furthered. I suppose I should be happy that the system works in such a way to let you know that their search is over, but perhaps if your application is more than six months old and has languished without more than the automatic acknowledgement, it should just be purged. In this case, perhaps better the void than the negative voice from a dimly-remembered past.