Job-searching in small towns outside your state.

So I'm currently in the phase of looking for a job, in hopes that I will have one ready after graduation. For several reasons, I've limited myself to job-searching in a specific town. I have some connections there that tell me there are lots of places that are always looking for IT professionals, specifically schools and small businesses, and my connections plan on helping me find out if they have any openings. But here's something neither of us have no experience with whatsoever;

When it comes to places that have no job advertising, how do we inquire whether or not they have an opening?

I wish to call over the phone, but apparently this is a bad idea. But I have no other choice, except maybe e-mailing (is this an option, if they have e-mail available?). I can't exactly go up to them and ask because I'm all the way over here in another state. I'm also not sure how to ask without seeming like I'm just desperate for a job (which, technically, I am).

My connections also plan on going to these places themselves to ask, but we have no idea how they should go about asking.

Things to note: I'll be under Optional Practical Training and obtaining my EAD, which gives me the authorization to work as a non-U.S. citizen. I also have no transportation of my own (aka I can't drive and do not own a car, but will have someone take me to work - one reason why I'm limiting myself to searching in one town, and I do not wish to explain any further than that). I'm also graduating with a bachelors in science (Information Technology), I have a LinkedIn and I have a resume ready, which I have shown to my connections in case they need to show it to potential employers.

The inability to drive is a minus. An unbelievable minus. The same goes for being unable to visit the company in person. There's thousands of people who will shoot hundreds of resumes to companies. I understand that sending a resume isn't a joke in terms of being considerate and playing the cards right. But you're trying to play into an incredibly saturated pool of resumes and any consideration you put into your resume will probably just be sifted by key word finders. The benefits to cold visiting is that you get an idea of the structure of the company. Who is in charge of what department and the chance to actually have a face to face meeting if they have an opening in their busy schedule to give you a couple of minutes to give you a quick look over. I believe that a lot of the right resumes go to the wrong places. And a lot of those places are intentionally designated to be created as 'black holes' for resumes to be put on-hold until the job actually has a need for the position to be filled. That's another thing, when you actually visit and have the chance to talk to the person in question, they will actually not b.s. you to your face and will tell you if the position has been filled, if it will be part/full time, and you can tell by tone if it is a position that has value to the company or if it something that might be axed in a couple of months.

There is a serious disadvantage in relying too much on the internet to job search and job source. The advantages to its accessibility, also make it a huge negative as employers who are saturated with resumes don't take it as personally as if you came in person with the resume. Online job offerings also aren't reliable. Companies throw job openings on their site in order to increase the amount of prospective applicants they have who are interested in their company. Big companies especially keep big reserve pools sometimes of 200 candidates for given entrance positions with relatively high turnover rates and have no interest in employing these candidates for months. It is also highly likely that older application drives will be ignored in lieu of newer ones. A more harrowing aspect to consider is that the jobs that are listed as 'openings' are already filled by other insiders/those connected to family in the business and simply putting the job offer up there is for the company to save face to investors or the general public.

The 'down side' I see to calling is that you're using up the staff's time in order to create an opening for yourself in the structure of the company. Also the people you are trying to access are people who have management responsibilities and those aren't solely dedicated to employing new prospects. Therefore when you make a call requesting to see the person in question, it naturally comes off as being pretentious since the person you are trying to reach is likely trying to be reached by several others in the company on important operational matters to keep to the status quo. Visiting in person or making multiple visits would at least give a mutual impression that the two of you being able to meet and arrange an interview is quid pro quo. Even though you are taking away someone important from the regular operations of the business you are mutually taking time out of your own schedule in order to have a chance for filling in an employment position.

After spending months just applying online, I came to the conclusion that even though that it is a method of job searching that works for certain people, I felt much better in interviews when I visited the company in person once a mutual job interest was established in order to get an idea of who I'm dealing with and getting an idea of what it would be like to simply get to work and punch-in on my first day.