> OP was saying the only way to get hired is through work connections

That is not at all what I said. Please do not misrepresent.

I said they took a targeted approach *and* exercised their networks. Those are two separate things.

> One thing they all had in common was taking a very targeted approach with their search and leveraging their networks

Right, so they applied to a couple of jobs and it worked for them?

I'm sorry, do you understand how uncommon and rare that is? sure, if their domain was REALLY niche and the jobs weren't publicly advertised, then i could see how that would work. but the experience is VASTLY different outside such niche cases