I spent 11 years at a small nonprofit in Washington, DC starting in the late 1990s. I was one of two paid staff at the start and as we grew, I was appalled that the ED did not include info updates to those who sent in resumes. At most, we had 50 candidates. So I created a postcard that the administrative assistant would send if we passed on a candidate. (Of course, the admin complained about having to do such b-o-r-i-n-g work when I got all the fun stuff. I was, for a time, the only public policy person. And I had a college degree and Master's. I explained that I did all manner of work from boring, like cleaning out the supply closet because she never did and I used a lot of supplies and needed to find them quickly usually, to "fun," going to meetings outside the office.)
When I was looking for a job out of college in 1986, I hated not hearing from companies. That I was the only one of three staff who thought follow-up was important still bothers me to this day.
Now when I graduated in 2017, I simply go in expecting over half my applications to be ignored or get a generic rejection. That's just the way it was, even in a "hot market". I fortunately didn't struggle too much to get my first job. It took 100 applications but I was getting interviews at maybe a 10% rate. I wasn't a great student so I didn't have those cray stories about managing 3 offers from top companies. But I still made do.
The market today is completely different, in the worst way possible.
When I was looking for a job out of college in 1986, I hated not hearing from companies. That I was the only one of three staff who thought follow-up was important still bothers me to this day.