As much as I hate it, the old truism remains: ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who.’ I have done the job search thing and I have done the 'friendly recommendation thing. Searching and applying took months, led to very little response, and even less good response. Being the guy who a former manager thought of when a client says ‘Stop sending us idiots. Send someone reliable,’ got me straight into softball interviews and into work within a week or less. Talk to people in your area about finding work. It takes you from the pool of 20,000 people and robots that applied on indeed and puts you in the pool of 2 people who know the back door into their system.

However, if anyone who works in HR is reading this, don’t do this crap. Just do your damn job yourself. Automation makes you worse at your job and convinces your boss you can be replaced with AI. There are no winners when you do this.