I have 25 YoE and talking to walls too. My only suggestion is to ask everyone to review your resume. If that doesn't work, start lying. The last time I was looking for work, I applied to over 600 positions. I've been off work 2 weeks and I'm nearing 200.
When you don't have connections, lying is the best advice to get the good jobs. I just lie about anything I know I can learn on the job. No experience with Vue but know React? No problem, I'm a Vue expert. No experience with with C# but know Java? No problem, I know C# by heart.
Once I get pass HR and get to talk to an actual engineer I can reevaluate my lies and drive the interview into the areas I'm actually experienced with.
Also, interviewing is a game. Even if I'm not looking for a new job I just do it to practice and for fun. It feels pretty good to reject an offer and know your worth.
i didn't exactly lie when i claimed that the few hacks i did in php some years ago meant that i could work on a php project. i got hired, and found that most on my team were junior devs whose code i ended up improving multiple times, despite me never having worked with laravel before (which turned out to be very nice to work with).
my next side project will be something using react, so i can add that to my CV.
then i can say i have more than a decade of experience in web development, and i am familiar with react.
of course, if they specifically want someone who has 3 years of react experience, then i am out. best i can claim is that i have worked on similar projects before and try to convince them that that experience is transferable.
Lots and lots and lots of people are already lying. Hard to compete with that.
[Edit]
A quant analyst working at some firm was told to steal Bernie Madoff's lunch. When he realized Bernie was 100% accurate on his predictions and it was obviously bullshit, he told his bosses, and filed four appeals with the SEC, but no one would listen:
I had a 21 year old neighbor who (as a research project) tailored an outlandishly fake resume for a job offer with many fake years of experience, many fake letters of recommendation and fake phone numbers from friends who would praise him into the sky. While he would have fitted perfectly (they said) he didn't get the job because the other applicant had more experience and was younger. He was baffled someone lied even more.
Signaling is already shit with mighty high requirements which are BS like 'need 5 years of experience in the field' for a junior position.
Everyone got bills to pay, can't blame anyone for lying. If you put ridiculously high expectations, this is what you get. Go full ham on little white lies. Exaggerate like they exaggerate about how fun the environment is to work in. If it were truly a superb place, the position was already filled to begin with.
From there, look for something else. The best thing to do (and I hate it) is start searching while being employed. Doesn't matter which job. Just do whatever and state you're overqualified (but try not to trash talk your current position). That way, you get some of your self-esteem back, you'll have less stress.
> That way, you get some of your self-esteem back, you'll have less stress.
Seriously this is something you have to start figuring out. Nobody can get refused hundreds of times and not get into self-doubt. Once out of a few referrals, I actually take the time to write back to whoever refused, even if it's a dead mailbox, just so I can tell to myself hey buddy, look at how I can do this job. I take their offer line by line and tell them why I am the best to do it. Come to think of it, I should do that for cover letters.
The reason the requirements are so high is because everyone is lying. The solution isn't to lie more, it's to stop lying altogether and punish defectors. For example, putting people who say, "go full ham on little white lies," on a do-not-hire list.
I wrote white lies, then I wrote about exaggerating, and I said I cannot blame anyone for lying. You're on about lying. There is a difference. White lies are commonly made every day, while flat out lying is more rare. I'm not a proponent of big lies because they're easily found out, and possibly against the law. But little white lies? People get away with that all the time.
If you want to go against the flow and change the world, sure, be honest all the time. Unfortunately, my experience is that on short-term (with regards to the issue at hand) you're better off with white lies. Yes, because 'everyone does it'. Do I like that? No, I don't, but it is what it is.
I don't think "everyone's doing it" or "it's costly to go against the flow" makes something right, just painful. We can acknowledge something is wrong without deciding it's worth the pain to fight.
I'm curious what subset of tech you're applying for, and what your region and salary expectation are. Speaking as someone with 20+ YOE experience myself.
I'm past IC (which I did for 15 years) and onto director/head/vp of eng, though I can be hands-on. In Canada, applying for full remote gigs. I've made a point this time not to come out with a salary expectation and instead ask them to make an offer. I'm not even getting through for Engineering Manager positions which are significantly lower on the experience scale.
Once I get pass HR and get to talk to an actual engineer I can reevaluate my lies and drive the interview into the areas I'm actually experienced with.
Also, interviewing is a game. Even if I'm not looking for a new job I just do it to practice and for fun. It feels pretty good to reject an offer and know your worth.