[jared314]

> My suspicion is that the younger candidates expect to have to get past a computer and then HR before encountering anyone who knows what they're talking about technically

As someone who is currently reworking their resume, I can say your suspicion is correct. If I don't know someone in or around a company I am interested in, or I don't have a target company, I expect to be treated like a random person off the street. That means submitting my resume to some email / web form; then having it parsed and stored in their applicant tracking system until HR does a search using the job description keywords. Only after a sufficiently high percentage keyword match would I expect someone from HR to begin their process with some kind of form letter email.

It's like what happened with automated phone systems and ATMs. I no longer expect a person to answer.