I hate to say it, but when it comes to landing a first job, connections trump almost everything else. If you have friends in the industry, ask for referrals. If not, you can try to foster relationships with industry professionals and directly ask them about any openings in their companies. They’ll know which ones are worth applying for, and a single word in your favor will greatly improve your chances of an interview.

If you still have access to your college resources, they often organize industry meet-and-greets for this very reason.

(This is also why mentors and internships are incredibly useful even beyond the skills they teach. The connections you form can give you a leg up for years afterwards.)

You use the contacts you gained during your studies and internships to get your foot inside the door and a chance to speak to a human.

The linkedin approach only works when a company headhunts, not when a worker does the same, in my experience.

Depending on where you live, going to IT events and conferences to connect to people in person is even more powerful. Ask them about their work and talk passionately about related stuff that you have some knowledge/skill in. Exchange contacts, say you’re looking for work.

For example, next month is DEVWORLD in amsterdam. They always give away free tickets close to the start of the event. I’m sure there are a ton more like this around the world.

As for writing applications: For me writing very high quality applications did the trick.

• only apply to companies/positions that you are REALLY interested in
• research the position
• research the company
• if you can find somebody that works there in a similar position, ask them some questions
• use the info you gathered to show interest in your appplication
• write everything yourself, no AI writing. Be a genuine human.
• But you can use AI to give it the position and your application and tell it to make a hiring decision with pro/con arguments and rework it based on that
• make a small demo project that shows off your relevant skills and tell them about the challanges you had and what you learned to overcome them

(About the last point: I found that talking about relevant hobby projects I did and showing the code made a huge difference)

It usually takes me about a week to write one such application. But I only sent out 3 before hearing back from 2 of the companies and getting signed on by one.

I know it’s a lot more hoops then just clicking “auto apply” or “apply with AI”, but the effort pays off.

Contrary to that I often see people complaining online about how they wrote 100 applications in a month and got no job interviews… yeah buddy. (And I was initially one of those people)

Recruiters. Reach out to them on LinkedIn

you have no know people already in the industry unfortunately at this point. And that’s for ANY position. even if you’re fine with settling on just being a prompt monkey for some agent you still need to know someone.

if you don’t have anyone then start going on github and codeberg and contributing to FOSS projects. You need to get your name out there and this is an easy way to build connections.

Be an asshole on linkedin. I’m not kidding. it sucks, I hate linkedin, but years ago I got so many clients by just replying to tech bros bullshit posts and telling them how wrong they were and why they were wrong. CTOs and managers at start ups and what have you doom scroll linkedin all the time so seeing someone telling some silicon valley wannabe middle manager how much they suck is actually quite refreshing. Get your name out there. think outside the box.

As others have said, relationships are the key. The current state of the tech job market is bad. Probably the worst I’ve ever seen and it is still getting steadily worse.

I spent almost a year applying before getting my latest job. I was even getting interviews until the beginning of this year. Then they very abruptly stopped for some reason. Only reason I got the job I have now is because an old business associate happened to think of me and reached out to see if I was looking. I’ve been doing this for years and I’ve got a solid resume but it is tough out there.

That said, I’m not trying to discourage you. Keep at it and you’ll find something. Working on side projects or contributing to open source projects can help give you accomplishments to put on your resume.

Doesn't your college have a good jobs program? Part of the job of a good college is to have some program to help graduates get a job. You should find out and reach out. If your college doesn't, that's a sign that they're a bad college, and I'm sorry you picked the wrong college... Make sure you review your college in this case and point out that they're lacking good help.

That's it. Unfortunately right now the economy is not in the best shape and so it will be hard for you and all I can say is best of luck. (well, beyond what others already mentioned, there's other good advice. Read it all, don't give up)

Maybe not particularly relevant in your industry, but I’ve been freelancing for a few years now and found physically going in to a company is the best way to get new clients. It’s very easy to ignore emails and calls, making a connection in the real world is so much more engaging. I have given up on LinkedIn and going after work the traditional way.

This advice won’t be helpful to you unfortunately, but if there are students reading, the answer as others have said is already being connected. A key way to make this happen is through research with faculty followed by (potentially) internships and then full time offers. If you just show up and kick ass every day for 3 to 5 years and even get a 4.0 GPA the market will still be very tough.

Bonus points though which might help OP: anything you can do that narrows the pool helps you. For example, if you’re a white bread american dude maybe look for a job that requires getting a clearance, if you’re mandarin Chinese maybe look for something that requires some translation or speaking, etc. You may not be the best programmer or the best salesman, but you might be a top tier salesman for programming tools.