and it was only because I "knew a guy who knew a guy"

That's how i got the teaching gig at the local university... Fuck its been that for every job ive had before that too sans my sting in the Army.

Hospitality side... when i was pursuing my associates i helped out one of the teachers in a morning class as i was there super early anyways. Well, stuff happened to another teacher and he covered down and got me hired as his TA. Once i was available he then hired me at his primary place of employment at a catering company where i got "real world" experience with my 1st ever culinary side job.

I pursued self employment after a learned enough make ends meet.(joined the army when the econ tanked after that)

Past that... my last job...

The director for the program I got my 2nd MS from wanted me to work with him, so got a TA bit for the summer, then clerical/faculty to credited faculty. Ended up teaching mostly graduate level courses including the program capstone we evaluated program successes and failures via how well or poorly students were able to express and apply critical concepts they should have learned during their time in it. The program director and the Dean basically went out of their way to ensure i did not have to deal with the usual university side BS and pushed me in through the system.

The university itself? Well I applied for lower tier teaching positions involving my 1st MS and got told "lulz no, not qualified" even though I was/am overqualified.