Real Thoughts on Corporate Job Sites

I saw an interesting position on the Real Networks site yesterday. I spent the morning writing a solid cover letter and created a single PDF with my cover letter and resume for uploading to the site. Much to my chagrin, the site stripped out the cover letter and all of the formatting and then dropped the text from my resume into the resume field. Ugh.
Had all my work on the cover letter been wasted? I couldn't tell for sure, but it sure felt that way.

I always bristle at the uncertainty that surrounds corporate job sites. I didn't want to sit passively by, hoping that my credentials made their way to the hiring manager. So I went to my network and asked for help in getting an introduction to the appropriate person. I specified the job title in the e-mail to make it as easy as possible for those reading the request to act on it if they had the right connection. Sure enough, I made e-mail contact with the right person within a couple of hours. The news wasn't good, they'd already filled the job internally, but I made the connection and maybe it'll pay off down the road. Anyhow, at least he got to read my cover letter...