Take a look at !fosai@lemmy.world … they have lots of info in the sidebar and it’s moderately active so people will probably answer questions.

Instead of doing LinkedIn, look at individual companies’ web pages for their careers section. Make a temp email, look at LinkedIn or other job sites to see who’s hiring, then look at those companies’ web pages.

Create a dedicated gmail account.

Great advice. I got a cheap Chromebook, a burner flip-phone, and use Google docs, meet, email, etc only when on that system.

This. Write an email that says “Happy belated New Year…” and says you’re looking for a job and what kind of job, and send it to everyone you know in your field.