I initially wrote a whole bunch of words... but people vary wildly. Circumstances are different.

In my own experience I made the "world" of finding a job very small and personable. I got interested in a niche language, found the local community for language and met the other developers and business owners.

In that time I've worked with others, often remotely, that are also a part of this same programming community. It would appear to me they took a similar approach to what I had done but they did it online.

I would find programming communities that value individuals and are in need of qualified candidates. PHP/Python/Java might not be that community.