Yeah a bit bitter for sure. Just do what everyone else does: contribute to open source, create a blog, have a portfolio of stuff worth showing on GitHub, get a decent resume. Etc. And social engineering? You mean networking or the most effective way to get a job?
I honestly don't think you have to do any of those things. You don't need to blog or contribute to OSS or write code on the weekends. I've never had a hiring manager care about any of it. Most just care that you can get along with other people and solve problems relevant to the job. Which is really another way of saying they want well adjusted people.
You can do all those things as well but most people won't care. Blogging and pushing code to GitHub has helped me become a better programmer but it has not directly helped me get jobs.