Sure you still have jobs where something of high quality like an OS patch, driver or some big algorithm work needs to be done- But those jobs are rare, and there are often ways to hire such people looking at their prior experience.
Its always hard for freshers to break into the cream software jobs that can offer you some different experience compared to others.
In general you have to take whatever comes along the way and build on that. This is unfortunate, regardless of whatever practice you might have done on leetcode, plumbing like jobs are what are common in the world today.
I mean, they're just engineers, right? They should be thankful for anything thrown their way, even if they'll never be able to afford a house or raise a family on it.
They should be working for the lowest comp possible, just like the founders, chief executives, and the VCs.
P.S. there was a NYT article posted here just a couple of days ago about how it's become incredibly easy to raise VC rounds of $100m+. There's a ton of money pouring into tech right now, and everyone is benefiting, from VCs to chief executives. Except engineers. We're not supposed to enjoy this success, I mean, all we do is build the products.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/technology/venture-capita...
I don't know what world you're living in, but engineering salaries _have_ absolutely shot up in recent years. 10 years ago no engineer was scoffing at making 6 figures straight out of school. I remember being wowed when a friend reported that Google had started regularly offering 105K to fresh grads.
If even 1/2 if what OP says is true, then fuck IBM.
Respectfully, that's bullshit.
IBM has the money to hire enough people to conduct an actual recruitment process. Then again, I'm the type of person who refuses to work for any company that "process" can and should solve fundamentally human issues. If people are making it through the process with insufficient technical skills, then IBM might as well be setting their money on fire.
Maybe it was a bit of a cattle-call experience, but IBM is sorting through thousands of similar grads and needs some way to screen them for technical positions when many will have no professional history.
If being asked to take some tests, then flown out for a stay in a nice hotel and a big mixer (with some great networking opportunities, btw), then offered a six-figure salary at your first job out of school requires a "name and shame," then the OP sounds a bit entitled.