[lhl]

Hmm, but none of the former managers or co-workers have managed to recommend positions or leads to you?

In anycase, I suggest you pick a specialty, whether it's infosec or something else, and make sure you are participating in the proper communities online - Twitter, mailing lists, meetups, etc and actually get really good at something.

From your response to mattmurdog, it sounds like you are defining talent differently from how I think most of the people here would - where talent == actual, not potentially acquired skills/experience.

There are a near infinite number of bugs, RFEs, unsolved problems, and projects to be done (just scan the articles that show up on HN every day). Publicly demonstrate the ability to fix some of those (like actually upstream some patches, release some projects), and honestly, you shouldn't have any problem getting a contract or any other kind of gig. Real (demonstrably productive) talent in tech is always in short supply.

[tfg4k]

A hiring manager from a job I had for a year in Tampa back in 2005 got me my last two interviews. So, I have been attempting to tap my rather small network, It isn't that large though.