Upcoming grad - Job hunting

[MarkMass]

I'm about to graduate in early December with my boards scheduled to follow 10 days later.  I anticipate being able to work by early January.  I'm looking for advice from recent grads on job hunting, especially out of state.  I've applied to a few jobs in the state I hope to return to (Massachusetts).  All jobs that I have found route through a hospital website where I feel my resume and info just goes into an HR abyss.  Aside from job fairs, any advice on how to get past this annoying system?  Graduating with massive debt and then having to wait to find a job and deal with credentialing & privileges process seems like a dangerously long time compared to getting the ball rolling now.  I also realize that I am looking for a specialty and am not applying to jobs screaming "new grads apply here - Will train you," but any advice will be appreciated. 

[Arthropathy]

Call the hospital operater, ask for HR, then call HR and ask to speak with whoever recruits PAs.

[MT2PA]

There's no magic trick.  Prior to graduating I applied to many positions and plenty never got back to me.  Several did update their system to say they were considering me, some progressed to interviews.

Unless you have contacts (networking!) it's a numbers game.  You could try to find the a recruiter for the medical system on LinkedIn - several have found me that way.

As an aside, between licensing, waiting on DEA (6-8 weeks), and credentialing, it's typically more common to not be able to work for about 3 months after graduating.  Quite a few departments don't review applications (for licensing, DEA, etc etc) over the holidays.