I was in a similar situation in late 1999. I did some free-lance, and had a solid online presence on assorted forums (Google.com and social media weren't there yet, but individual sites did) which connected me to several little projects. Pretty much every time I said to myeslf "I should look for a job," a thing came up.
In fall 2001 I looked in the paper and found 2 jobs I applied for: full time at the University, training faculty and staff in their new software and part-time at the community college, working w/ underprepared students. I went with the part time, and then the job went full time and I'm still doing that and can retire if I want.
I did keep an updated resume and whenever I did a thing I would add it to the resume and that made it a lot easier to seize opportunities. That's also been handy for the odd side gig that's come up.
In fall 2001 I looked in the paper and found 2 jobs I applied for: full time at the University, training faculty and staff in their new software and part-time at the community college, working w/ underprepared students. I went with the part time, and then the job went full time and I'm still doing that and can retire if I want.
I did keep an updated resume and whenever I did a thing I would add it to the resume and that made it a lot easier to seize opportunities. That's also been handy for the odd side gig that's come up.