[DaFonz]

My advice to you is to:
a) Stop sending resumes to internet black holes
b) Figure out ways to bypass the gatekeepers (HR)
c) Stop wasting money for certifications.

By applying through careers@company.com or the relevant careers portal, you are throwing in your resume among hundreds if not thousands of other applicants. You have needle in a haystack odds.

Here's what you should do:

1. Make a list of possible industries you can work in. Off the top of my head, as a mining engineer, you can work for the mining companies (e.g. barrick, rio tinto, teck), engineering companies (e.g. amec, stantec, tetratech) and oil and gas companies (this may or may not be a stretch).
2. Figure out what the possible career paths are. At a senior level in an engineering company for example, you might be the p.eng signing off on mining plans for 43-101s.
3. Make a list of good questions that you want to ask people about working in the industry. Demonstrate that you did some research and are going into the finer points of it.
   
   For example
   - I know a typical mining engineer looks at xyz. Is your role pretty comparable or how does it differ?
   - How did you get into this industry (people love talking about themselves)
   - What advice do you have for someone looking to get in?
   
   etc. The point is you want to have a written list of questions that you can refer to.
4. Write a script for e-mail and telephone conversations. Generically,
   
   E-mail
   I'm a recent grad and I want to learn more about the industry. Can I buy you coffee to pick your brain? You can attach your resume if you want or send it later.
   
   Phone
   This is a cold call! Please dont hang up! Hi, I'm so and so, I found your info through [source] and I am very interested in your industry. Is now a good time to talk?
   
5. Get a linkedin premium account and make a proper linkedin profile.
6. Build a list of people in roles 5-10 years more senior than the one you are targeting. You want a list of about 50.
7. Dump those into an excel spreadsheet and start reaching out to them for informational interviews. Your goals during informational interviews are to:
   
   - Make people like you
   - Make people feel good about talking to you
   - Learn as much as you can
   - Get contacts
   - Hopefully get leads on jobs
   
   If the meeting goes very well, then say something like "hey thanks so much for all your great advice. I'd really love to meet more people in the industry and was wondering if you might know other people that I should talk to"
   
   Be polite. Be courteous and don't dress like a bum. Pretend like it's a real interview because sometimes they are.
   
8. Following up every meeting, send a thank you e-mail or card and ask if it's ok to follow-up with them to keep them abreast of how things are going. Put follow-up dates into your spreadsheet.
9. Track everything in excel. Set daily goals for yourself and try to hit them:
   
   - New contacts
   - Meetings
   - Introductions
   - Etc
10. Repeat all of this until someone says "As it so happens, we're looking for someone just like you. Send me your resume (if you haven't already) or (more likely) I'd like you to meet with the rest of the team and do an interview."

While you are doing this, you should also cast a wide net with networking events. Go to young professionals events and just have fun and meet people.

Your resume and cover letter, assuming no grammatical or formatting errors are likely fine. You're just losing out to other people who are networking hard.

tl;dr: Figure out how to bypass HR and talk to the real people doing the hiring.