1) when there is a position description it takes ~5 person-hours to make. Spend at least 1 person-hour to make your cover letter and resume for it as a sign of respect to folks who made the position description. Those keywords are important. If you don't have enough then your resume doesn't get past the computer. It is how you can know if you should apply.

2) you need a phone number to go with the submit. Call and confirm that your stuff was received in good order. Ask if there were any questions. This means you have to find real openings with real companies, not just fight the computers. Talk to a human being.

3) you need to put in 20 resume's a week. That makes it a part-time job. You should call-back a week after you submitted to learn about the status of the application. If you were excluded for some reason, find it out. If they didn't like the cologne or paper type then you can buy a different quality of resume paper or wear an unscented cologne. That is a "cheap price of entry" for your next interview going better.

4)you really might go strong on learning how to make a great resume. criteria change over time. What was amazing a decade ago is not very great now. Most colleges have departments that are built around enabling you here.

5) look for jobs via networking, not just monster.com. I strongly recommend stack-overflow careers. They are an excellent resource.

6) make a strong linked-in profile. Make it complete. Get recommendations from professors you worked for, or team-mates you worked with. It is a resume as well. Make sure you hit the "I am looking for a job" switch in your settings that will have recruiters calling you.

7) review your other social media for unprofessional content. Facebook or myspace could be messing you up. What does one find when they google your name? Is there someone with the same name who is ... the professional equivalent of a pile of poo? Then you need to include your middle initial or give yourself a clear differentiator.