as part of my unemployment benefits from the state, I had to apply to at least two different employers each week.

Only Two per week? Piece of cake! Unemployment benefits in Australia are paid if you've called 10 employers per month, all of which are logged in a 'diary' they provide and checked every 6 months. you can have your benefits docked or reduced if you don't have this complete

Well, two per week is about 9 a month, so not too much difference there. I also had to fill out a form which I had to show up at seemingly irregular intervals to provide. They supposedly spot-check them, but I can't imagine that they do. (``Did William Faulk send you his resume?'' ``I don't know; it might be in the pile of ten thousand that we threw away without looking at them.'')

There is also a ridiculous requirement that those two be contacted on different days. Of course, all the new job listings come out on Monday, and by Tuesday they've already gotten as many resumes as they're going to look at. So I just sent all my resumes ASAP, and if I didn't happen to have two different days for the week, I fudged it.

The real problem, though, is that since most employers don't really look at self-submitted resumes and getting two copies of the same resume causes legal issues, I was effectively blocking myself out of those jobs. So I tried to send my resumes to employers I didn't want to work for so that I wouldn't kill myself for those jobs that I actually wanted.