[theyx]

> Your experience doesn’t match mine and I’ve been in the software business for 40 years, both finding jobs and filling them.

OP could say the same. Their experience does not match yours, making your experience irrelevant to them, since they are facing a problem you did not face. 40 years ago, when you were entering this market, things were different. 30 years ago, different. 10 years ago, different. Last year, different.

It is not so hard to understand how someone entering the job market would face the issues described there, have some sympathy. That is all people expect from others.

[gregjor]

The OP needs actionable and helpful information, not sympathy. I posted some below. Even if I agreed that OP is the victim of some industry-wide dysfunctional process and posted my own job-hunting sob story that wouldn’t help. Our experiences don’t match for a variety of reasons, sure, but one reason is different approaches to finding a job.