Confrontation online and disheartening results

So I was a little hurt after receiving that email from Geos. Getting rejected by the two least competitive schools in Japan doesn't do wonders for your confidence. I mean, I did a bang-up job in Japan, so why the lack of love now? I was determined to at least get an honest answer out of Geos so I wrote them the following email:

Dear Mr. Avoine:

While I understand the need for a non-specific rejection, I simply refuse to believe that you wouldn't be interested in additional teachers. I am aware of the problems that all of the English conversation schools have in keeping fully staffed. Given the demand in Japan for native speakers and the unfortunate insufficient supply, it would make sense to at least keep my application on file for a time when positions became available.

I have just received a similar rejection from NOVA, for whom I worked for a year. I believe that someone from Geos called NOVA to inquire about my employment there and someone from NOVA said something untrue. I state it again: untrue.

I had a wonderful working relationship with everyone at NOVA, none more so than the students, but for one incident with a superior who was very rude to me, repeatedly, and who received similar treatment from me on one occasion. I refuse to believe that someone as qualified as I am (with a year of experience in Japan already) wouldn't be able to make your final cut.

I would love the opportunity to explain the situation that I was unfortunately a part of in Japan, especially as... BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

To which Mr. Avoine promptly responded:

Dear Mr Egan

Thank you for your message.

No-one from the GEOS office contacted Nova regarding your application or history with them. That is something we reserve for the final stages of the hiring process, not at this stage of screening. And, I almost hate to add, they would not be a source we would take very seriously anyway.

Once again, thank you for your interest in GEOS. I wish you the best in securing a suitable position in Japan.

Sincerely,

Michel Avoine
Recruitment/Training Coordinator
GEOS Language Corporation, Vancouver

Ouch. I made sure to follow-up with an apology for my accusation and thanked him like a good little applicant. Damn. I guess I just got rejected. Daniela and I came up with a bunch of great reasons why they might not have wanted me, but it doesn't really matter.

So! I've been applying to other jobs in Japan (there is no lack of schools looking for teachers) but I feel very underwhelming as an applicant. I asked my friend Sunshine (a NOVA co-worker) who she returned to Japan through and she gave me the names of two companies that place ALTs: Altia and Interac. I applied to Interac and got an encouraging response. In addition, I've been applying to jobs through Gaijinpot, which feels like the English teacher's Monster.com. And just like Monster.com I expect a whole lotta nothing from them. One nice part of applying through Gaijinpot is that they send you an automatically-generated email after you send your online resume to someone. It confirms that you applied for job #12345 and it tells you how many other resumes have been sent for that same job. I found four jobs that sounded good and found out that 7, 159, 20, and 57 other resumes had already been sent. SIGH. Looking for a job sucks.