my translation: our office manager/human resources department is buried in paperwork and is too overwhelmed do have done anything more than eliminate the really bad ones, if that.

From my experience, it's a 'definite maybe.'

I'm with small_ruminant.

You're in the Yes or Maybe pile for interviews. The No pile gets the "While you look like a lovely candidate, we had 7023 resumes for this position and unfortunately your qualifications do not exactly match our needs for a penguin wrangler. We keep all resumes on file for a year (a blatant lie, unless someone like me forgets to throw them away, which will make the guys on the loading dock sad, since they like nothing better than a pile of freshly rejected resumes to mock - I kid, I kid, sort of) and should an opening occur which would match your qualifications, we will contact you. (this will never happen, see loading dock, above.)" email.

It's called a "holding letter" and there are different situations in which they can be sent out. Small_ruminant's explanation is a likely one. It could also mean that they are interviewing other candidates but want to keep you in reserve in case those don't turn out to be any good. It could also be a result of a policy that says something like "all applicants must receive, within x days; a letter of rejection, an offer of employment, or a holding letter". Which is sort of small_ruminant's point again.

If you get one of these early in the process it essentially means "we are interested, so don't go away, though we can't actually offer you anything yet". If you receive one of these late in the process it usually means they want someone else but for whatever reason haven't got that person signed up yet and want to hang on to some reserves just in case. Or they really want you but the funding has disappeared.

Good luck.

Cool, thanks.

They posted the job on Friday afternoon, I applied yesterday, so I feel like I at least got in early in the process.

In advertising it means "stop harrassing us".

I am glad people know what they're talking about. I was going to come in here and say, I don't know and good luck. It sounds promising from what MGL and others are saying. Good luck, mudpuppie!

"Aw crap! Now we're drinking from a fire hose! Whose idea was it to use monster.com again? We're going to need a snow shovel and a leaf blower just to get to coffee maker."

I've only used that when it's what s_r says -- that resumes have been coming in so fast, and I'm so behind, that I haven't really worked my way through the pile yet, but I need to stall you off in case you're one of the people I'm eventually going to want.

When the position is filled or someone is a definite no go, I just send a clear decline letter, not a "reviewing your resume" letter. It's in the employer's interest to have people stop calling you when you're not going to hire them, and muddy messages don't make them stop calling you.

seconding what mgl said, pretty much exact.

That's my company's standard "we haven't determined you're a total choad, so you just might get an interview" letter for when they get tons more apps than expected for a job, or have a lot of internal candidates who get first stab at it before outside folks are even interviewed.

There are four kinds of letters: Offer!, Interview, Stall, and Bag. They didn't bag you, so it's a stall. Don't read any more into it than that.