If you don't already have a contact within the company it can be difficult to impossible to find out what is happing with your application. Usually you have to interview with several people and a lot of the times jobs seem to be really "reserved for friends" of someone either in the department or the company. Follow-up after inteview can be poor. If you don't get the job you applied for they won't call you in a timely manner if they even call you at all.