[elbigbad]

This is so on point, back in the 20s I got my first tech job by putting an onion on my belt (that was the style at the time) and going to the company with a resume and shaking their hand and not releasing until they agreed to give me a job. Kids these days don’t know the value of a handshake and a drop by. I grew with them as a family and still hold the job to this day. The name of that company? The International Business Machines Corporation aka Big Blue.

[yamtaddle]

I got... oh, three of my first four software jobs, by walking in and asking. Including my second full-time role post-college. The first of these would have been around 2000, the last around 2010 or '11.

The other one of those four just came to me directly through my network.

Now that I think about it, of the 7ish jobs I've held in about 23 years, I don't think a single one came from "fill out this online application form". I've done those, but it's never gotten me a job. Recruiters, responding to a very-basic listing on Craigslist that didn't involve some online form and was all-email, network, and just walking in. The "normal" process, not once, I don't think. But I also think the normal process takes a lot longer than any of my job searches have (longest was about a month? Most two weeks or less) to yield results, in most cases, so IDK, maybe it would eventually have worked for me.

I guess maybe the '00s are onion-on-my-belt-territory now, though.

[EDIT] Incidentally, I do think it helps to be fairly young when attempting this. Putting on my other-side-of-the-table hat, I'd probably be more likely to have positive feelings about a 24-year-old walking in like this and asking for some time, than a 34-year-old. 24 year old does it, "huh, interesting, they clearly have some amount of spirit or hunger to them, let's see what they're like, I can find a few minutes"; 34-year-old: "WTF are you doing?" I've not attempted it since crossing the 30-year-old barrier.

[ghaff]

On the other hand, you're more senior and you probably know more senior people. I got my last job (or at least got the process rolling) by emailing the president of the company who I had met at events and did some work for.

[yamtaddle]

Right, I'd kick up my event-attendance and mingling and leverage my network more now if I wanted to avoid the usual process, these days. That stuff tends to work less-well for those just starting out, but the "you showed up and personally showed interest" thing can still be huge for youngsters, I think, if not for ~immediately getting a job then at least for winning an internal advocate or two to grease the wheels on the process. Does require a smaller company, though. Big ones, you'll just get stuck in the lobby, I suppose, and you're not likely to run into anyone who'd care to help you out just hanging around the area. Probably a waste of time.