[liquidcool]

It sounds like a two part problem: getting the job, and doing well at the job, and they are orthogonal.

There was an article about getting hired by a YC startup not too long ago, and the key takeaways were:

1. be focused on building products, not mastering technology, or at least say that you are. They don't want to hear about your desire to be awesome at <machine learning|scalability|etc.>

2. stay away from enterprise software companies. Doesn't matter if you're solving similar (hard) problems.

3. stay away from enterprise tech, like C# and Java, unless you're going after a specific company that uses those.

These are irrational biases, but pretty entrenched. My advice is to just get things done. Record what, how, and the material impact on your LinkedIn profile, at least quarterly. Network at start-upy events. They'll come to you eventually.