I've applied for jobs using this silly process before, and if you don't meet whatever criteria they have pre-established it will usually spit you out automatically.
I've weeded through five-foot tall stacks of clips packets before, and while it's a PITA, who knows how many potentially great candidates would just get tossed by either a computer or an HR person. One paper I worked at required all candidates to go through a phone interview with HR. This HR person, while a very nice individual and clearly competent within the fiefdom of HR crap, was absolutely clueless as to what the people actually making the dang hire were looking for in a candidate. It was a tremendous waste of time and needlessly dragged out the hiring process, which was glacial to begin with.
As for me, the only time the electronic resume process has yielded any fruit has been when I know somebody that already works there. I wouldn't ask anybody to put on a full-court press, but maybe ask that the actual hiring folks at least take a look at me.
