Your job, as a job seeker, is to get passed HR to a hiring manager. You can go through HR, around HR (a buddy ships your res to a hiring manager) or over HR (an

Your job, as a job seeker, is to get passed HR to a hiring manager. You can go through HR, around HR (a buddy ships your res to a hiring manager) or over HR (an exec or VC flips your res to a hiring manager). You will not be working for HR. They are merely an impediment to be overcome. If you wish, you can think of it as the border. You can apply for legal immigration (lengthy and dicey; think of the immigration and interview scenes in Thunderdome), you can have a mule help you across (ideally this should cost you a lunch; the mule will get a bonus from BigCo), or you can be awarded special status based on your illustrious and meritorious service to the glorious republic as determined by and at the sole discretion of its benevolent leaders. Any which way, get passed HR. Do not complain about HR. Just show your skill set (networking, interview prep, ...) and get passed them.