Someone had asked this elsewhere but then deleted their own post and I don't know why! I was meaning to come back to it and read it, so rest assured that I won't delete this one as there were some really interesting stories of unconventional ways people landed their work.
TL;DR: I got headhunted after directly emailing dozens of people and pitching myself as an available, on-call substitute in my line of work, instead of submitting job applications traditionally.
As for me, I cold-pitched myself via Google Maps and other searches as an available substitute to those in my skilled trade (upon moving to a different region) in basically a 50-mile radius, and eventually word of my availability reached a large, overarching institution that connected me with an organization that had a full-time opening. It took me probably 4-5 months from the move to the job offer.
Edit: My story is actually a little more complicated than that, now that I recall the details from years ago; there wasn't actually a full-time opening at my now-workplace at the time, haha. What happened was that I was briefly interviewed and quickly hired as an assistant to an overwhelmed director who ended up getting massively sick and nearly died from COVID, so I subbed as the director. They had been having interpersonal problems with her and I rapidly noticed them in the weeks before she got sick and warned them of her. While I wasn't trying to take her place, the higher-ups said they were aware of her shortcomings (she had basically said "Shut up" to another director higher than her rank, to give you one of many examples of how bad it was, and she must have been in her 50s if not 60s).
Nearly everyone at the org apparently loved my work while I subbed for her for nearly a full month, and they eventually fired her and made me her replacement after another interview. It was definitely unusual...
It’s a long story so I will try and bullet point it as I don’t have a lot of time to answer.
That sounds like a solid company you're at! Glad you found it. What do you do there?
Thanks. They really are.
I’m a software developer with 4 others and two owners who also code most of the time.
We are consultants so we get approached my clients exclusively via word of mouth. They treat the clients just as fair as they treat us so we get lots of repeat work and recommendations. Quite a large local authority too which is nice.
We can be making a whole host of different applications which I don’t want to disclose here in case that isn’t something I am allowed to discuss. Basically though if you could think of a system for a business then we could make it.
Not that I am the smartest person but one of the owners is the smartest person I’ve ever met and I don’t believe there is anything they couldn’t build.
Wow, that is some high praise. Very cool!
I feel lucky to be in the position I am, especially given my sketchy past and shaky start to life and I can’t stress that enough to others who may see this.
What about yourself, what do you do? And do you enjoy it?
Edit: Just realised you’re OP and you’ve described your work in the post.