If there are many ways of finding a job, there are as many methods used by recruiters to find the perfect applicant. It is important to remember when applying for any job, whether in the USA or in Europe, that the recruiter may be almost as apprehensive as you. Recruiting is a time-consuming and very expensive business, and it is essential to get it right first time. The consequences of bad recruiting - the person appointed turns out to be a plausible layabout who leaves after six months, for example - are serious. Selecting five or six people for interview from six hundred resumes is difficult enough. Using the forty minutes of an interview to find out if the person sitting nervously opposite you is worth $70,000 a year, as well as being the sort of character you can work with every day, is indeed a challenge.

Companies use different systems to make recruitment less of a lottery. Professional agencies will be used when a series of employees are required at once (for the opening of a new department, or a new plant), and headhunters will be brought in if a very senior post is vacant. It can be worthwhile to contact agencies that deal with recruitment in your field. They will always talk up your chances of getting a job, and the reality is that they are often a lot less useful than they appear to be, but it does no harm to cast your net as wide as possible.

Some companies use psychological tests to get to the 'real' character of the candidate. Opinion is divided as to the usefulness of the different tests that are in vogue at any one time. Psychometric testing is in favor at the moment (your personality is categorized according to a series of psychological tests), but handwriting analysis is still used by a surprising number of large and well-known companies. The theory behind all these tests is that you cannot get to the true nature of an individual through the formal setting of an interview, and that it is important to find out if the person will fit in with the group he or she will be joining. You will find that psychometric testing is used more at the more senior end of the job market, and in certain professions - banking and financial services, for example. In the media and the creative, arts-based jobs, recruitment is often by the back door, but when a job is formally advertised the selection process will be conventional. This is true for the majority of companies and the majority of jobs: the right candidate will be found in the old-fashioned way, via resume or application form, covering letter and interview.