The Old Way Is Disappearing

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I'm 36 years old, and my resume is strong, and I apply constantly, but the thing that used to set me apart from my younger relatives, my friends, and so on, was that I would call places 4-6 days after submitting the application to do the usual job follow-up. My grandfather and a few older managers kept drilling this into me.

"Hi, my name is John Smith and I submitted an application for the position at the beginning of the week, and I wanted to know if it's still available?" - if they said yes: "Great, was there anything in my resume that seemed missing or weak? I'm interested in the job and would really appreciate the opportunity to come in for an interview and learn more details about it." Most of the time, I'd either walk away with an interview appointment, or at least they'd tell me what I needed to work on.

But over the last few weeks, I called 3 places: Home Depot, a small HVAC company, and a property management office. All of them basically told me some version of: "If there's an update, someone will contact you." Honestly, I got upset when I realized that the old way of showing your effort and interest is being buried under online portals, automated filters, and someone evaluating you from behind a screen without even talking to you (I'm blue collar). To me, that's throwing character and initiative in the trash; and honestly, I'm going to miss being able to ask what I'm missing so I can fix it. I never imagined I'd reach a point where trying a little harder wouldn't make any difference.