Like a true hacker, hack the system. I agree, the company HR and recruiting are totally arbitrary and incompetent - most recruiters don't come from a technical

Like a true hacker, hack the system. I agree, the company HR and recruiting are totally arbitrary and incompetent - most recruiters don't come from a technical background, and will only match up the buzzwords from their position requirement with those on your resume + the "name" of where you got your education (bingo! we have a winner!!) But there are ways to get around to it: a) Do a lot of open-source projects; it's actually not very hard to get involved in some of the top-tier projects. This spring, I was applying for jobs at hedge funds and investment banks. Before I put on my resume: "Google Inc. - Summer of Code," none of them wanted to talk to me. After I did, I re-sumbitted my resume to all of the same banks, suddenly, everybody wanted to talk to me. The world is a prestige whore. b) Do a demo project specifically tailored for the job that you were shooting for. Send it along with your resume/CV from the get-go. This shows even to the HR people, extra-enthusiasm for the job - and might even get forwarded to the technical hiring manager, who's the person that's going to matter the most anyway. c) F the system. Apply to YC. Corporate Serfdom is only a temporary sinecure for starting your company anyways. It's a means, not an end.