Best Way To Land Entry-Level Job?

chemicaldave writes "I'm graduating this May and have been seeking a programming position for months. It seems that the biggest hurdle to landing an interview is getting past the doorman that is HR. After reading this entry from Coding Horror describing the lack of programming candidates who can actually program, I can't help but scratch my head. I can program! (See how I put that link in?) If I can't land an interview, then even a short online evaluation of my coding skills would suffice. I just want a chance to prove myself. Alas, sending resumes to companies has rarely led to anything but an auto-confirmation email of my submission. I understand that sending resumes online is not the best method to landing an interview, but I come from a small rural school so job fairs rarely offer anything more than IT support positions let alone a programming position. It seems to me that developers are always looking for talented young programmers. We're out here looking for you too. Am I missing something?"

Comments

Re:Who ya know

[pem]

When I'm interviewing a candidate like you, I can probably detect a bit about your opinion of how the world works, and also a bit about your opinion of yourself as the "needle in the haystack." So, depending on exactly how you comport yourself in the interview, I might be viewing you as "incredibly naive", or as an "arrogant asshole", or as having "the world's biggest chip on his shoulder."

So try to be sweet and hide your contempt of the process you assume I am using for hiring. You probably won't get hired if I think you're just "incredibly naive", but you certainly won't get hired if I put you into one of the other two categories.