I've used the sniper approach.

Where have you been? We've been trying FOREVER to find a good person for this role. You should have been working here years ago!

"I applied like 6 times. Nobody ever called me back."

Job posting: "If you aren't an exact fit on paper, please apply anyway".

ATS system: "Candidate does not have staff software enginer for 5 years of job titles + doesn't have 'SQL' and 'HTML' listed in their skills section" = /dev/null

Hiring Manager: I can train the skills if the person is right and has a solid foundation

HR recruiter: I don't want to actually have to look through all of these resumes to find "close" matches.

Hiring Manager: Okay, fine, then just forward me all the resumes you get, and I'll look through them!

HR recruiter: No

I do both.

I estimate how long I am willing to go without a job. for the first half of that time, I'm a sniper, applying for dream jobs. If I haven't landed one by the time the second half begins, I start going shotgun.

Interesting, I always start the shotgun well before I expect dream offers to pan out. I feel that I negotiate and interview best when I have a been interviewing and have offers in hand.

I agree. I think it's common for people to start with the shotgun approach to build confidence interviewing then start sniping a few dream roles as they start to get further along with the shotgun companies

While I do concur with you about negotiating and interviewing best, I like to save shotgun for last because often the interview process from all of those companies slows me down a lot. Especially the companies that give you projects to do :/

While it stinks to feel like you've done worse going for jobs that you really care about, it helps to remind yourself that all companies have communication/social problems that will impede your work. No company is really all that special.

I've only ever landed jobs worth having via the sniper strategy. However, with the ease of passively employing the shotgun approach using a good Linkedin profile, it's definitely worth doing that if only to benchmark the job market a bit.

At this point I’m stuck with the machine gun approach: “spray and pray”.

Fishing with nets vs spears, same idea. Both can be useful depending on your circumstances and goals.

There's a third: the net.

Always send a polite response to recruiters (but scripted). Asking for more info about the job, and concrete comp numbers. Serious recruiters won't hesitate to give it out (keep in mind they get a portion of it!). Body shops won't share that info but at this point it's ok to ignore them.