After reading some very fascinating contributions to "The View From Your Recession" and "The View From A Career Counselor," I've come to the conclusion that, when all is said and done, there are no hard and fast rules whatsoever in seeking employment in today's difficult job market. Some hiring managers will be turned off if you contact them directly; some of them will be annoyed when you do. Some hiring managers want qualifications that match the job description exactly, and will ignore anything on your resume that doesn't; others want a broad range of experience and will send your rez to the bottom of the pile if you don't have it. It's a total crap shoot, and that was one of the most frustrating aspects of my search (which, incidentally, went on for 10 months and only just ended a few weeks ago).

The most frustrating aspect, though, was how easy it seemed for people to ignore me.