I don't think being made to work without pay is a shove in the right direction. That's more like deliberately skipping to the end game of the Walmart Effect. Those jobs could be filled by paid employees, instead they get worked by people who still somehow count as unemployed.
As for getting a job, I've had a few, and have one now, and not a single lasting position has been acquired without knowing someone on the inside to put in a good word. Every job I've ever found by myself has ended immediately after the probationary period for a bullshit reason like "did not speak to every customer with a sufficiently sycophantic manner". I know I've been extremely lucky to get the jobs I have had, because I don't have very many connections at all. And even working a probationary period is more than most, including Joe, ever get, and I don't think I put more work into jobseeking to do it.
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