At last, a response

I got an email yesterday from the Y* D* R*. A surge of electricity went through my body when I saw the strange addressee and the subject line that read "features entertainment reporter." It had been a while since I'd had any job correspondence to speak of (NPR is refusing to answer my repeated emails, and I've stopped caring about a handful of other applications (not including the three that I sent by mail last week)). Here was one of those rare reminders that I am, in fact, actively seeking employment.

Now, Gmail has this feature where, when you get an email, you see the subject line in bold, and then as much of the text of the email as will fit in the remainder of a single line in the Inbox. This is what I could read of the email before I even opened it:

"Michael, This is to acknowledge that we have received..."

[Great! I thought. A simple acknowledgement is all I've ever hoped to get out of most of the applications I send out. And here was one that was courteous, timely...this Y* D* R* seemed like a classy operation! I went on to open the email, not expecting anything more than another word or two in addition to what I'd already read. Here's the rest of the email:]

"...your letter of interest in the features entertainment reporter position.

This position has been filled.

Thanks for your interest."

All right, fine. I can deal with that. It's disappointing, because I was actually interested in this job, but it was the least appealing of the three from last week. And the ad for it was a couple of weeks old by the time I responded to it. I'm sure they received more applications than just mine. It's my own fault for waiting too long. I don't necessarily have to think of this as an out and out rejection.

Except for the fact that I was told on Thursday (five days earlier) that they were still accepting applications.

I should probably just stop thinking about this now. They told me the position has been filled, there's no chance I'm going to get it, and that's that. But still, there's this nagging voice in my head that keeps saying "They probably read through your cover letter and writing samples and decided that you weren't even worth interviewing. They were just being nice when they told you that the position was filled. That's how small town people work." Can it be? Am I not even worthy of being considered for a writing gig at a little paper in rural Pennsylvania? I'm going to do my best to forget the whole situation.

So that leaves the Virginia and Georgia jobs from this round. No news, I suppose, is good news. But why has my job search suddenly started feeling like a countdown?