It would be impractical to customize your approach to every prospective employer in the way I am suggesting you should for your dream employer.

FORBES: 7 Ways To Customize Your Search For Your Dream Job

In an earlier post, I talked about 7 ways to customize your search to go after your dream job.

FORBES: Connect

Even if your dream job is in marketing or sales or another department seemingly unrelated to programming, I'm not going to hire you unless you can at least understand the basic way my company works.

WSJ: Kirk McDonald: Sorry, College Grads, I Probably Won't Hire You