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The cool thing is, this job wasn't even advertised. In fact, not a single job that I've ever had in my adult life has been advertised. I found out a long time ago that oftentimes, the best jobs aren't even in the paper. Companies will typically look internally first to fill an opening, then they'll work with a recruiter or an agency, then as a last effort, they'll put the job in the paper.

Makes sense to me. My last job not only wasn't advertised, it wasn't officially an opening. A friend of mine (well, a neighbor) worked there and knew they were thinking of eventually hiring another computer tech as the job was becoming too much for the one guy who was handling it. So he encouraged me to apply even though there wasn't an opening. I got the job about two weeks later. So I know that can work - it's part of why I'm making an effort to contact places that may not currently have anything with a letter explaining what I do and what I'm good at, and my resume.

But there really aren't many places that are hiring, period - I'd say all around this town is in pretty bad shape, financially. The sister company of the company I worked for (same corporation, different companies underneath it) just laid off another 27 people yesterday. May not sound like much, but that's pretty much unheard of around here.