I sent an email to a college recruiter (they came to my school at the career fair) asking for a chance to land an interview and I expressed how badly I wanted to work for Cisco. I got called a couple of days later and they set up an interview via webchat right away. I did my research on the interviewer, all my school projects I wanted to talk about etc... I didn't nail every interview question about Java (I applied for a software position) but I tried talking about my interest in the product he helped develop the UMI. He was impressed in my interest and initiative.