This is a bit ranty/preachy, but I feel like many young people don't quite 'get it' as they get out of school and into the work world.
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.
I've gotten quite decent jobs off of my resume being posted someplace completely mundane (like monster). I'd say it's about 50/50 between connections and job sites in terms of recent jobs. That being said, without that other 50% my career would definitely be far worse off. Networking is pretty important.
Thats one way, but honestly it is far from the best.
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.
I think you misunderstand - I don't mean 'smoozing' with people. I mean connecting with them in a real, meaningful fashion. Meeting people just to ask them for jobs is not real or meaningful.
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).
Self-publishing a mini e-book that shares your perspective with the world
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.
Sure. If someone took the time to write a book about what s/he thinks, and I don't mean teaching some subject (including their experiences in the subject), or writing some other fiction other non-fiction, but rather some semi-informed garbage providing only their opinion ("What I Think About ...", "Everything I Believe", or "My Autobiography"), then s/he is a substantial amount of time on a throwaway work. This is different than responding with opinion on HN, etc. because it isn't a discussion where they might actually engage someone else; it is a one-way conversation. Now if they wrote a wise work of art and is marketed correctly or widely popular, I might reconsider, but that probably isn't the case. I don't want someone who wrote a book like that and flaunting it in conversation working for me, because unless they are applying to a position as an editorialist, I don't want to read their diatribe emails or listen to soliloquies about their feelings on various subjects while at work, I want them to get their work done.
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.
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.