People think reference system is bad. Let me explain why its the preferred method.
Imagine you are a in a lead or supervisor position and wants to add one more person to your team. If you give an add online or in newspaper, you will get hundreds of CVs, you will spend days going through them and finding most of them irrelevant or if you find a CV with relevant experience its hard to judge whether the candidate genuinely has that experience or is lying on his CV. Even if you shortlist some CVs, it will be time taking process to interview those shortlisted candidates and you don't have time and brain to do any of that.
So, the simplest way for you is to ask your teammates to recommend someone they know would be able to do the job. Those teammates would only recommend someone they know for sure is capable because their own reputation would be at stake. If the new hire performs badly, referrer would get the heat.
Bottom line, find someone who knows you well and can fight for you. Unless the person believes in you, he wouldn't take the risk of recommending you. All around the world reference works.