snap on Nostr: I understand that feel and my advice for you is that the game and its rules are there ...

I understand that feel and my advice for you is that the game and its rules are there as a big distraction. Plenty of places you wouldn't think need tech, need tech and those jobs are often less advertised. Send direct e-mails to people you can find. Cold e-mail individuals, not submit applications. Corpos won't be able to go around their HR stuff but there IS work out there, especially in smaller towns and less populace states. That's not always get-to-able, but it exists and can be a goal. Do stuff that lets you network WHILE asking for work. Ask these devs, who are often super chill guys, if they know of any meetups or hangouts.

Sadly, the contract work sites are all low-balling now because of Indian and Chinese firms pretending to be degreed American Whites and Asians, but you can still cold e-mail people to just ASK if they need anything done. I know this sounds insane, and it's very low-percent success, but it helps build resume. Additionally, open source contributions aren't just good for wowing retarded recruiters, they can help you network. You'll have to deal with Discord trannies and other bullshit, but... I mean, that's the whole industry. Network!

Lastly! If you can get in with a GOOD headhunting agency, they can sit you down in front of people and skip lines IF IT'S A GOOD AGENCY. Most of these groups have LinkedIn pages so you can research if there are any in your area (IT Staffing/Recruiting, IT Consulting, stuff like that). These avenues are still a bit less festooned with the normal rabble but can require a better resume to get into to begin with. Godspeed, man. I'm sorry things are how they are, it's to the detriment of us all that the passionate and intelligent are stuck waiting tables or worse.