On the 15th I submitted my resume and an email cover letter, complete with a link to my online portfolio (as requested), to a company in response to a job posting that matched my skills (writing and editing) and experience almost perfectly. Like, *freakishly *perfectly.
Though the email address to which I’d sent my resume was anonymous, I’d done my due diligence and so was able to add a personal salutation (e.g. Dear Mr. Jones) in the email. I used a very light touch of humor – appropriate for this particular job, trust me – and all in all the letter was damn good if I do say so myself. Confident but not braggy, friendly but not too informal. Referenced my admiration of their company with specifics and without sounding like a suck-up.
I received an automated follow-up email that asked me to validate my info via a link to a database, where I corrected a few dates they got wrong and that was it.
(BTW, this process really impressed me. How the heck did they input all my data so damn quickly? Resumes/CVs can have so many different formats that I can’t believe it was merely scanned in. But considering the speed of their response I guess it had to have been. Amazing!)
Anyway. This is the first job I’ve had to apply for in about eleven years. (I’ve worked freelance since 1999.) So I’m a bit out of the loop as far as how the process works and what’s considered a reasonable amount of time to wait.
Truth is, this is a much-admired company in its industry and a very desirable position. Thus I’m certain they have a kabillion applicants, especially considering the market.
One final data point: I’ve been checking my website stats (shut up, I’m a tad obsessive-compulsive!) and I’m fairly sure they haven’t checked my online portfolio yet. My most relevant writing samples are mostly downloadable PDFs, and I can track when they’ve been downloaded. I also know where the company’s based (obviously) and can track IP locales. Only one visitor from their area showed up but didn’t download the samples. I think my resume is impressive enough that they’d at least give my samples a shot, so I’m assuming this visitor wasn’t from the company.
At long last, here are my questions for y’all:
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Since it’s been ten days, should I assume they’re just not that into me? Or is this a normal time to wait? Should the fact that they haven’t looked at my portfolio be a positive sign (i.e. that they haven’t gotten to it yet) or a negative (I’m completely wrong about my resume being impressive and they tossed it in the Delete folder)?
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At what point, if ever, should I send a follow-up email? (Most of what I’ve read online indicates not to call the HR person directly.) I don’t want to be pushy but I also want to be proactive, if that’s what is recommended.
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While waiting anxiously (yet figuratively) by my phone, I’ve spent the time to compose two songs that are respectful but humorous parodies of their own work. Now please let me stress this: the job I’m after is a creative one for a company that highly values ingenuity, wit and style. Also, the folks at this company not only don’t mind such creations, but go out of their way to encourage customer participation and modification of its IPs.
So all that said, if after a reasonable time has passed I haven’t heard back from them, would it be worth it to send these compositions to them? To stand out from the herd, as it were? I might even make them into videos (I’m thinking of using kinetic typography) if I can figure out how.
Whew, that’s all. I promise I wasn’t this wordy in my cover letter! 
As I mentioned, I’m a freelancer and I’m happy to be so, so I’m not really desperate to find similar jobs. But I really really really would love this job, which is why I’m so impatient. What sayest thou, O wiser and more experienced-in-21st-century-job-searching Dopers?