The best advice I've received about my job search so far is to get out into the community and meet people. The majority of the interviews that I've had so far have been from the people I know or meet passing my name along to a recruiter. I've always thought that one simply had to apply to however many online job listings they had to until something stuck, and that's just not the case in today's market. Who you know will always trump what your resume looks like.
I've had great success meeting new people through local tech meetup events. There are a number of event boards online, such as geekwire.com and newtechnorthwest.com, that have the current month's events planned out. At first, I only targeted events that were relevant to my skills or interests. This works well if you're looking to connect or collaborate with the people that you would end up working alongside of, but branching out into other fields is well worth it. Individuals outside of your own purview will often have need of your skills, or have questions about how you might go about solving their problems. It's these connections that are really powerful, as they might talk to their friends and coworkers about an insightful solution or idea that you had offered. This has resulted in more than one interview for me.
Aside from meetups, reach out to the development teams at the companies you're interested in. More often than not, developers will be more than eager to meet socially for coffee. These meetings are an easy way to pick the minds of your peers to find out what skills would be important to brush up on and get a picture of a company's internal community.
2020 is a new year, and I am confident that we job seekers will find the opportunities that are laying in wait for us. Good luck, and happy coding!
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