If you really [think that you] want to work somewhere, and this is what I've done in the past, you can just look up their recruiters on linkedin or something and cold call them - most recruiters or HR departments are overjoyed at this kind of personal attention, and can even get you some perks and recognition along the way. Plus you just send a nice email (your cover letter essentially, but not as forced) and attach a resume formatted as you please.

Might not be anywhere near 100% overall but when it works it makes for a really lovely experience.

This!

I did exactly this before leaving my previous position. We had a friendly 45min call the next day, just talking about my current situation at the time and he was thrilled I reached out to him directly.

Great suggestion. I have gotten jobs through networking, but I've never cold called a recruiter for a specific job.

My experience is that those recruiters ultimately ask you to apply through their portal.

And each one wants you to create an account and a password, each with different requirements for # of letters, digits, and special characters. Because, you know, people are always trying to break into these sites to post fake resumes.

And most of those companies tend to not have shitty portals like this.

Exactly my theory, especially after having worked for two companies where their process included the shitty portals.

I figured out later that they use these portals because turnover is so high their recruiters can't keep up with demand for fresh meat. One of them couldn't even retain their internal recruiters, so they outsourced the entire recruiting and vetting process.