Attn: WTF? (rant inside) →[More:]Can someone please explain to me, using small words and speaking slowly, why so many job postings at technology companies on Craigslist look like this:

Email resume to: foo at bar dot com

Attn: Some Person

Please put "Jobs" in subject line.

For the love of dog, why does an email to a shared bucket account need to have BOTH "attention" and a specified keyword in the subject line?
The optimistic explaination is that people are using two-factor filtering/routing, where Subject AND Attn = PASS. If so, why not use a smarter single factor, like "Please put 'Job Title foo' in the subject line"? Using 'jobs' as a keyword in the subject is extremely generic and therefore worthless as a filter keyword. At minimum, if they really are using two-factor filtering, they should more clearly specify the location and syntax of the Attn: requirement. Does it go in the subject? in the body? "Attn:" is not an RFC 822 compliant header. (Arbitrary headers are permitted using the "X-" syntax, so "X-Attn:" would be legitimate, but I'd bet a year's salary that's not what they're thinking)

Alternately, by using "Attn:" are people just mindlessly using a vestige of paper-based communications? Is their workflow so clunky that an actual person is going to route the resume submission based on reading the name in the Attn: field? Do they not realize that their messaging system can intelligently route the submissions if only they give it half a chance? Do they not also realize that as a technology company, their inability to automate something as simple as a resume submission is contemptible?

In summary, I am feeling burned out on job hunting, and am fed up with the remorseless dumbth of HR departments everywhere.