For any necro readers, I just want to add, this is good advice but completely out of touch on one point.
You should absolutely not be spending 15min per job app. This is how you end up permanently unemployed.
Curating your resume and cover letter to suit the needs of the position takes an hour at minimum.
The job search is hell, but shotgunning applications just makes it a longer hell.
This advise is specific to op to get them started. But the optimum is a hybrid between mass apps and targeted. You should be spending 5 minutes per app for most, just changing a few words in the cover letter that no one is going to read beyond validating that it's not terrible.
For the occasional special job you're more excited about, you can spend up to 30 minutes but not any more, unless you have a connection that can give you specific advice.
It's primarily a numbers game. You don't want to feed despair by getting overly in to a particular job posting, but you can't overtly look like you are shotgunning either.
You can avoid the latter with changing the name of the role and mentioning one thing you're excited about that the company does, in your cover letter template, and having a resume that is generically strong for the roles applied for.
That can be done in 5 minutes.
thanks for using Leebra!
go to feed...
Keep programming every day, get your green squares, and apply for 3 jobs every day, spending 5 minutes on two of the apps and 15 on the third. Things are tough right now, but if you do that you will get through.
And as others said, talk to people. You are not alone, and the people who still post on social media are posting about how lucky they are, not how good.
save