True story: I know one person (a millennial) whose only method of job search is applying to companies that make products she as a consumer absolutely loves.
Typically these are not big, well-known CPG brands (We all love Honey Nut Cheerios); these are small companies making unique products (think Supergoop or Alltrails before they became big – not the actual examples, by the way.)
She’s not deliberately trying to find these niche products to get a job. She does stay up to date with broad consumer trends, but her superpower comes more from having a keen sense of what products she truly loves as a consumer.
Once she finds these products, she can’t stop talking about them to her family and friends – most of her friends actually end up buying these products because she’s such a powerful unofficial salesperson. She also develops product improvement and marketing ideas and writes them down in Google docs. All these while nobody asked anything.
She then tries to share these suggestions with the company (through emails/social mentions/conventions I guess), and by the time she gets noticed and has a chance to talk with someone at the company, it doesn’t take long for anyone to see she’s pretty crazy (in a good way). Some companies offer her a position even though there’s no job opening.
This approach has been working for her. I guess it may not work for everyone. But I guess the bigger point is, seeing a job opening and applying to the position reactively is only one (and often quite ineffective) way of job search. Sometimes a more intentional, proactive approach might work better.