Oh, the joys of job hunting!

Why oh why did I have to finish my first contract job in Australia just as the world economy decided to go belly up. This job hunting business is really getting to me - the recruiters, the interviews (not many of them), the whole 'uh-oh' feeling of it all. I've only been hunting for a few weeks but the routine of spending the days cycling through all the recruitment pages and speaking to the blood-sucking leaches/ recruiters (that's if I ever manage to get through to them) is really draining. But what makes it worse are those ads for practically any vacant position that seem to be written to actually discourage anyone from applying; ads that are firmly written with the employer viewing them in mind - every company is looking for a 'genius' or 'guru', or super-nerd who understands all these complex buzz-words. Regular people need not apply. I can't count how many CV/resume's I've sent in, never to hear a word from them or why my application was thrown in the bin - except for automatic email replies along the lines of "due to the phenomenal response to this ad, we may not be able to respond to every client in turn".. The whole process is demoralizing and more than that, makes me doubt myself - was I actually doing anything useful these past 7 or 8 years? Have I done nothing that makes me employable? I big part of this is all be down to the visa thing of course, but not being able to get through to the recruiters to verify that point is double frustrating. And, given the crumbling economic outlook of Australia (not to mention all other western countries), there is certainly no need for companies who are hiring to have to bother going through the hassle of sponsoring a visa for a foreigner. Especially if they're not a 'guru'.