Referrals from people you know, or responding to messages from recruiters on LinkedIn / other sites. I almost never hear back from cold applying to a job
I am actively doing that, but even those things does not help. Recruiters who text me on LinkedIn just promoting something, but really hiring. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot of people who does Software Engineering, so it is hard to find a good referral
This. It's not what you know but who you know.