There have been attempts to answer the question, why aren't I getting called for a job I applied to. Usually, the person trying to answer gives a theory or a fluff answer, which does no one any good. I'm now going to answer the question, honestly, and it is going to be based on having received tens of thousands of resumes, interviewed thousands of people, and helped an endless number of people get hired either through recruiting or as a hiring manager.
The number one reason a job seeker does not get interviews is because they do not qualify for the job they are applying to. They may think they do, but they don't. They may say to themselves, I can do that job, maybe, but the company and manager doing the hiring doesn't think so. The deal is that companies are going to make every effort possible to interview and hire someone that has been doing the same exact job, in the same exact market, with the same exact product or service, and in the exact same industry as to its own. A person may have sold widgets to VP's in the aerospace industry, but if the job is calling for widget sales experience in biotech, the company and hiring manager are probably going to bypass that resume in hopes of finding this exact experience.
Also, if a person was an aerospace widget salesman in the mid 80's, but has since been managing a motel for the last 25 years, they should not count on getting a call. Companies are looking for recent and relevant experience to its own business. They typically do not want to invest the time getting a person up to speed regarding their industry, products, customers, technology, etc.
What this ultimately boils down to is that people have to be better job seekers. Many people blindly blast off endless resumes to employers and recruiters in response to job postings that are not a very good match. It may feel like they are job searching doing this, but they are not. Job searching, like trying to find a quality new customer in sales, takes a concerted effort. It takes real research and prospecting. People need to dig deeply and perform research to find a match for their background. Keep in mind that very few companies are going to give a person a shot at changing industries or jobs. It just doesn't work that way, so a person needs to find employers relevant to their background to market themselves to.
Okay, so a person has worked in the same market or industry as to the jobs they are applying for. For how long? Was it a few jobs ago? How is their work history? Have they been jumping around every two or three years? When was the last time they worked? Are they currently employed? Could there be many others with longer and better experience? Well, how does anyone get a job a person might ask. It's easy. They sell and package themselves like professionals, no matter what their job is.
Most people market and advertise themselves like amateurs. Finding a company to provide a service to is all about prospecting, advertising, and marketing. A marketing campaign starts with world-class literature to present to potential customers. That means the resume. I know most people have convinced themselves that it "really doesn't matter" that much, or it's "not going to help anyway", and that what they have is "good enough", but it is not. With the right advertising document and a real effort to research potential employers (get off job boards some of the time), a person can literally locate and sell themselves into almost any job and company.
The next time a person has the thought, why aren't I getting any calls, they should use this information as a starting point. Sure, there are other possibilities, like applying to jobs a thousand miles away, but 9 out of 10 times what is written above is the answer.
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