First, that's really unfair, and I sympathize. But, that's not what you're looking for, so on to the advice. Second, if you can get past HR, you have a better

First, that's really unfair, and I sympathize. But, that's not what you're looking for, so on to the advice. Second, if you can get past HR, you have a better shot. That is, if the person who will be your eventual supervisor has met you, they will often tell HR to go ahead and send you in for an interview. The HR (or recruiter) doesn't have the authority (or knowledge) to do that, but they will if the person they're headhunting for says to (typically). This is hard, but going to programmer meetups and such can sometimes help, as does emailing the tech lead or supervisor directly whenever you can find that out.