How do you look for work?

[whatthehey]

14. anecdotal only

...but my experience is counterintuitive. I have worked for a slightly embarrasingly large number of companies - over a dozen even just counting FT "professional" jobs. Only one came from networking in any way and even that was just a jump to a consulting company working for my employer rather than the usual LinkedIn style envisioned by these articles. What has worked for me, from leaving school on to my late 40s, has been writing good cover letters, having a well-designed CV, and applying for anything that I thought I could do well. I am certainly not selective because I dispute the notion that an outsider is likely to know enough to be accurately selective, and because I don't want to limit my options.

I search nationwide, any industry, any size company, any title, every time. Yes like anyone else at my stage in life I have developed skills that make me more useful and attractive to some companies rather than others (in my case that's FDA regulated manufacturing companies running SAP software) but I would never dream of not applying to an industrial distributor using MAPICS if I were looking for work and they had a suitable opening.