Back in 2001 I was working at a little pre-press/imaging shop and I decided I really wanted to go work for a top-notch MS shop in town. I was the only developer and was pretty sure I wasn't going to grow unless I surrounded myself with great developers.
But I didn't know where, so instead of going to monster.com I just searched for all the Microsoft partners in the area and cold-emailed them to see if they were hiring or interested with a quick little bit of information about myself. I ended up with two interviews, both with great shops. I ended up taking a job at G.A. Sullivan (later bought by Avanade) and was thrilled.
Neither of the places I interviewed with had job openings posted and I never posted my resume on monster or other sites.
To this day I think this is the best way to find a job, seek out where you want to work. Don't wait them to come to you or find you online.
Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am, or maybe I'm too honest, ;-) but my resume+cover letter has never made it through the HR gauntlet. I almost always have found an email address of someone inside that is associated with the position I'm interested in and sent them a cover letter email and resume. I have always gotten an interview by doing an end-run around HR, but never through HR.
FWIIW, I see the same thing at my place of employment. When we have had big projects and were in serious need of more engineers (including HR giving rewards to employees for recruiting new hires), the new hires almost all got hired through a personal recommendation to a manager, doing the end-run around HR (in some instances, HR did not give the reward because they already had the resume on file and never acted on it).
I once applied for a job working with a particular group, going through standard HR process. I heard nothing.
About two months later, I saw an identically-worded opening with the same group. This time I contacted the manager of the group directly. I quickly had an interview, and was moving in to my new office in a matter of weeks.
But I didn't know where, so instead of going to monster.com I just searched for all the Microsoft partners in the area and cold-emailed them to see if they were hiring or interested with a quick little bit of information about myself. I ended up with two interviews, both with great shops. I ended up taking a job at G.A. Sullivan (later bought by Avanade) and was thrilled.
Neither of the places I interviewed with had job openings posted and I never posted my resume on monster or other sites.
To this day I think this is the best way to find a job, seek out where you want to work. Don't wait them to come to you or find you online.