land a job

あけましておめでとうございます。今回は、9/11を経験した後、金融業界からタクシーの運転手へと職を移した方のお話です。

From Wall Street to the street: A cabdriver's tale

There's a rhythm to driving a cab -- "a bit of science to this game," as Alvo says. "In the morning, you don't want to be caught on the Upper East Side too early. They don't wake up 'til 7:30. But down on Hudson Street, they're younger, more aggressive. They're going to work at Goldman and Bank of America or wherever, and you take 'em." Then a note of sadness comes to his voice, a slight softening. "A lot of them don't even remember 9/11, you know. The younger guys, it doesn't mean much to 'em."

Jack Alvo keeps his resumes in the back seat of his cab, hoping a passenger will help him land a job in finance again.

It means a lot to Jack.

He'd worked his way from Forest Hills, Queens, to Babson College in Massachusetts to a job on Wall Street. On that blue sky Tuesday morning, when the first plane hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., Jack remembers one guy in his office who'd lived through the 1993 bombing of the towers running out of his office hollering. "He moved so fast, he caught the last PATH train to New Jersey. He probably saw the second plane get hit from the Jersey side," he says with a half-laugh. "But to give you a juxtaposition, another guy who was also there in '93 had a gas mask in his desk drawer. He put it on and never left."

landを見ると、陸地、着陸する、などの意味が思い浮かびますが、「（くだけて）（A<人>に）B（仕事・入手困難な物）を（うまく）手に入れる」（『ウィズダム英和辞典　第２版』三省堂）という意味があります。LDOCEには、"[informal] to succeed in getting a job, contract etc that was difficult to get"と定義されており、また、"[transitive] (informal) to succeed in getting a job, etc., especially one that a lot of other people want"Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryという定義もありました。
ただ単に仕事を手に入れるだけでなく、「就くのが難しい職業に就く」といったニュアンスがあるのではないでしょうか。（Astroriver）