[gonehome]

I think it's like most companies, really hard to get attention unless:

- You have a referral

- You went to MIT, Stanford, Caltech, CMU, Cal

- You're coming from FAANG or similar

The frontdoor is a waste of time.

Even with the above odds are against you, but at least you have someone to ask about progress/move things along for you.

[Ashanmaril]

I don't know about "most companies." Maybe most really big tech companies, places that are constantly getting crazy amounts of applications. And if you're living in a heavily populated city.

I live in a place with a fairly small population, and I got offers at 3/3 programming jobs I've applied for since my first in 2017.

[gonehome]

Yeah - you're right.

I should have said 'most bay area software companies' and even that could probably be qualified by 'competitive' or 'famous'.