I've been in the industry for over 8 years, and remotely overseas for 5 years, for startups and generally small orgs (sub 100 people). I also blindly apply for

I've been in the industry for over 8 years, and remotely overseas for 5 years, for startups and generally small orgs (sub 100 people). I also blindly apply for jobs, some ask for recs, most don't and just use my work experience (which im sure others do for people like yourself as well), but people I worked on jobs with in the past do contact me about working on other things as well randomly over email. > I literally can’t think of anyone I could contact who would give me a leg up for a job. You can, you still have > colleagues who have seen my technical work number less than 15. Most of those are in the military. that you just choose not to leverage such "connection" explicitly, but its probably implied to some degree on your resume.