The job market has always been a market that favors employers, not candidates, whatever the domain of work.
If you're outside the US, that may be a big factor - but my guess is it's a "you problem" based on what you've said above.
Begging is useless without payment to match.
>If you're outside the US, that may be a big factor
The jobs market outside of the US is nearly orders of magnitude worse, especially in some EU countries. The attitude, leverage and power balance devs in the US enjoy over their employers is far greater than anywhere else.
- We allow any code submission in lieu of having to do something custom for us (adds quite a bit of time and cost to review)
- We pay you for the time interviewing
- We have all interviewers send thank you emails afterwards
- We offer to give you specific feedback about why we decline to make an offer if we decline
- We accept re-applications in 12 months - 6 if you can show meaningful self improvement (ex: bootcamps, school, specific projects, addressing feedback from above)
- We have above normal pay/benefits for the area we're in
Basically - we spend between 3 and 5 grand on each interviewee just for time spent, not accounting for the initial lead generation time and not accounting for the bonus we pay for recommendations from current staff when hired (12-20k in that case, depending on level).
The biggest challenge is usually the tax implications for the company of making a foreign hire - it's hard to be the first remote hire from a new region/country (mainly because it's really expensive up front to get a wrap on the legal side) but relatively easy to be the second.
I'd avoid the traditional US hotspots (ex: silicon valley/NYC) and go for places in the south/southeast (Atlanta/Austin/Raleigh/Tampa/Nashville).
We will just disagree from here, that's okay. I left a comment to give my point of view, not to get a lesson on life or some patronizing, coaching motivational advice from an internet stranger.