About a decade ago my job search had me using my personal network and paper job lists. I found a job in Denver with the Western States Arts Federation through the ArtJob newsletter that later transitioned into the ArtJob website. The days of circling things in the classified ads and mailing resumes are long gone.

I applied for a tech position there and then emailed my network to find out if anybody knew the Executive Director there. It just so happened that my friend Peggy Baggett - who I had done work with through the Virginia Travel and Tourism Institute - at the Virginia Arts Council had a personal connection. I think that that personal connection gave me the edge.

That was a world with no Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter. Text messaging wasn't common and SMS had just started taking off.