Here is a different perspective than the top answer....

The reference in the top answer to the book He's Just Not That Into You is misleading. The underlying point of that book was to encourage women (or men) who were infatuated with a particular person to move on if that person wasn't showing interest.

Getting a recent grad job at a large company in the tech industry is completely different: there is no single individual hiring manager, they are not just picking one person, and the question did not ask about a particular company but a category. This is an institutional hire, not a personal one.

So, here is a different explanation and different advice:

Getting a recent grad job at a large top company is similar to getting into a top university. There is an application process. There are qualities they are looking for. There is a flexibility to make exceptions. And there are things you can do to increase your chances if your "application" is weak in certain areas. In addition, once you're "in", you can leverage that to get into other places.

What top companies are looking for in recent grad technical candidates has some obvious parts and some non-obvious parts.

The obvious hiring criteria:

• thorough understanding of computer science and programming techniques
• technical ability, especially ability to solve complex problems
• attendance at a top university (not a requirement)
• commercial experience at a top company (not a requirement)

They hire people without the last two, obviously, but lacking those would be "weaknesses" that would need to be compensated by strengths in other areas.

The non-obvious hiring criteria:

• "outside the box" thinking - ability to find unusual, clever, or innovative paths through a problem
• independent thinking: deeply formed, original points of view
  
• flexible style: able to communicate a point of view, but able to see and switch to others; easy going; not rigid or dogmatic; easy and fun to work with
• evidence of getting things done: completed projects, accomplishments
• self-aware but not arrogant. it's valuable to know your strengths, but don't ever see yourself as a better person than the person interviewing you
  
• bringing knowledge and perspective to the table: did the discussion cause the interviewer to learn something or see something in a new way?
• evidence of independent passion for software innovation outside of a "job": personal projects, participation in the opensource world, a blog
• leadership potential: this is really an aggregate of all of the above qualities. Leadership is not about telling other people what to do, but about becoming the person other people turn to for help, insight and inspiration.

Companies will not find all of the second list in all candidates, but the more qualities they see in a particular candidate, the more that candidate will stand out from the crowd.

Get into the best company you can, prove yourself there by demonstrating innovation, leadership, and accomplishments, then re-apply later. The important thing is not to give up on what you want. No entrepreneur succeeded by taking "no" for an answer, and getting a job at the company you want is sometimes an entrepreneurial process.