Stop Relying on Your Resume
blog.zeltser.com
blog.zeltser.com
I don't know a single person who got a job through a resume or filling out an application (that usually happens AFTER the person is picked to be hired, to satisfy the HR drones).
Get out of the house/current office and meet people. Hang out at local user meetups, attend any conferences or talks you can afford to (and actually interact with people there). GIVE talks and hold teaching sessions on something you know a bit about - there always seems to be an incredible amount of desire for 'Subject X 101' type stuff.
The key is to meet new people in a meaningful way. Networking.
In addition to not knowing anybody who got a job based on resumes, I've also never hired anyone based on a resume. Much like the VC business for startup funding - if you can't figure out how to get an introduction via your personal network, you probably aren't ready for the interview.
Like it or not, PEOPLE drive business, both in and out of tech. There's no getting around it.
There's also no excuse for a fresh young college graduate to not have a tremendous network built up - it's one of the main things you should be getting from your huge amount of student debt. Leverage your professors, TAs, post-docs and even your friends and fellow students - they all know people who are hiring, or can introduce you to other groups of people that will know people.
As a last ditch effort - even a recruiter is better than just a cold email.
With that said, when I've hired, it's always been via personal referral first, and then a look at submitted resumes.
The only part where people matter is that they have to be more impressed by you than any other candidate - the best way to do so may be to smooze with them, but honestly you should only do that if you can't impress them by writing a useful program, or design an nice website.
E.g.: I got my last job when I mentioned at a group dinner that I was looking to move on - one of the other attendees said they had an opening doing interesting stuff. I'd known him for almost 4 years at that point, entirely because of the group dinners - never thought I'd get a job directly from him out of it.
When you go through a person in your personal network, you get a bunch of benefits - this applies equally to hiring and looking for a new job. If I hire someone because I or someone I trust knows them, I have a very high amount of confidence in them. If I pick someone up from Monster, then it's a complete crapshoot (in both ways - they may be way better than their resume, or way worse).
This would be a definite "minus" in my book in a potential employee, unless I was hiring an editorialist. Instead, I would want to see results and understanding of the business. I agree that a resume doesn't do that justice, but it helps when done correctly.
Why is a resume that shows understanding of the business important? Because it shows that they are focused on what is important to the work and relaying that information, rather than their opinion.