Who has gotten a job with absolutely no connections?
abyssknight: I got my first job the hard way. I applied, and took whatever they would offer. I pretty much said I'd work for nothing.I was in college, had no experience, and knew very little. I needed an in, and saw an ad in our Computer Science building. Emailed my resume, got a call, interview etc. I met with the owner who told me to go home and learn PHP and MySQL over the weekend. Did that, took a quick development test, and started work the following week.I made minimum wage for about a year before we (the other newbie and myself) power played for a pay raise.That job is what got me where I am today. We had to learn everything, be everything and do everything from support, engineering, development on through server admin and db schema design. I couldn't ask for a more rewarding first job.From there all of my jobs have been based on my experience. My first salaried position I got because I was willing to move, could answer a battery of basic questions on programming and system admin, and I fit in. My current position I got because I learned ColdFusion at my previous job.Everything builds from that first job. Being able to demonstrate your skills is extremely valuable. Connections can get you in the door, but real work will get you the job.I actually got an interview through a connection once and was called the day of to cancel. That sword is double-edged.