I used to be a recruiter. I was never good at screening designers because I didn't know what to look for. Y'all have pretty portfolios and they all look the same to me. With that in mind, if you can bypass the HR screen and get in front of someone who can truly scan your credentials, do that. That's probably good advice in general, and is likely easier said than done, but I'm just sayin' it's a heck of a lot easier for me to teach someone how to screen a developer than a designer. Or maybe hire recruiters with better design sense than myself.