Grow your network and be talking to people you might want to work with well before you graduate. Accumulate some experience and more contacts in holidays or part-time. Or create your own business: I ran one throughout my undergrad course and hired several of my classmates part-time. I have only spent a small time on other people's payrolls since I first left university. You can call some of the shots rather than be a helpless supplicant. But yes, it is hard!