>Tracy;
>
>One "sure fire way to get your foot in the door", is to give a resume to someone you know who works for a company that you are interested in. I tried that several times with no success. One person I knew and had worked with had an open slot and wanted me to work for him. We worked well together as electronics engineers.
>
>He presented my resume and I never heard from the HR department. My qualifications were a perfect match for the open position. He and I were unable to do anything about the HR department. The HR Empire strikes back!
>
>Tom
>

And don't forget that lots of companies cover themselves legally with OSHA (and other fed agencies) by posting jobs and accepting "open applications" even though they have (informally) picked an internal person already for the position... I've been on three sides of that situation: "promoted" even as they were accepting resumes for my new position; applying for a job "opening" that never really existed; and being told to buy an ad for a programmer position even though we all knew that someone internal would ultimately get it....