How long ago did this last succeed?

The only applicants I hire are like that. If you cannot show you chose this company why would I assume you would like to work here?

Of cause this assumes you are a good fit in the first place regarding your skills. But the latter is usually much easier to filter out

I too would like to know more about @karaterobot's specific circumstances here, because while I understand your sentiment, it's a numbers game for SWE applicants like me. Of course there are some companies I would prefer to work at, but I don't think @karaterobot's experience is realistic right now.

Seconding Uvix's question.

I was looking for work in 2021-2022, and an approach like yours got me a job after interviewing with circa 10 companies. Unfortunately ended up on the wrong side of office politics and had to leave in early 2024.

At the start of my 2024 job search I again tried targeted search, targeting was good enough that I had a circa 1:10 application to interview ratio. It took over 50 companies before I found my current role. The market is much tougher now than it was a few years ago.

I hear there was a time when companies were eager/desperate to hire. Those were good years for job seekers.

It’s the same for me. When I read people say they send hundreds of job applications I don’t understand how that’s even possible. Any time I’ve been looking for a job I usually find maybe five jobs that actually interest me and I think I would be a good fit for, and then another five that I maybe don’t quite meet the all the requirements or don’t seem that interesting but it’s near enough that I might as well give it a go. I usually don’t make all those applications at once because I find managing more than about three applications to be a hassle.

As far as I can recall I’ve never not had an interview from an application.

I do generally use recruitment agencies so maybe that’s a factor.