This. I’ve been laid off at the beginning of the month as well. Three of the four interview leads I have right now are through references from old colleagues I’ve enjoyed working with and never completely lost contact. Not necessarily friends, but people you know are pleasant coworkers or have good judgement is more than enough.
All other companies I’ve applied to have either completely ghosted or rejected me pretty damn quickly despite being rather senior. This market is the worst we’ve seen in this field in a long while…