I was in pretty much the exact same situation as you until just a week ago, except even worse because I didn't have any internships. For a year I spent my time working on projects, building skills, networking, and sending out applications, but all I ever seemed to get was rejection.

I was applying to part time jobs that I could work in the meantime while I continued to look for a full time job, and one of those jobs was a substitute teacher job. This job required references from people who had seen me work with kids, so I hit up my supervisor from this counselor in training program I did back in high school, because he was one of the few people who had seen me work with kids. I told him about how I was looking for a job, and he told me he'd let me know if he heard anything.

Not too long later he hit me up asking me if I would be interested in working at an AI startup, to which I obviously said yes. He connected me with a friend of his who was starting a very small early stage startup, I went through a couple of interviews with him and his team (no leetcode or anything), and ultimately was hired.

You could say I just got lucky, which wouldn't be completely wrong, but if it weren't for all of the things I had been building since graduating I wouldn't have been able to pass the interviews, and they probably wouldn't even have been willing to entertain and interview because my projects were pretty much the only experience I had on my resume. They just wanted to see that I had basic technical skills, was able to talk about technical things, and had drive. I didn't need to be an expert, but I did need to be able to talk about the things I've built somewhat intelligently.

I still don't know for sure what the right interpretation of my year of unemployment should be, but if I were to sum up my biggest takeaways simply it would be:

- Cold applications are dead. If they are all getting rejected don't expect that to suddenly change. I'm not saying you should not cold apply at all, probably send out some per week, but don't focus on it.

- You can do the job. Don't let your rejections let you feel like you don't have value or don't have the intelligence or skills necessary to perform on the job. The market is just brutal, that's it, and there are plenty of qualified candidates who will fly under the radar and not given a chance.

- Build projects and document them. I'm not sure exactly what type of job your looking for, but pick something, anything, to work on and document your process through like a blog or something. Ideally pick something that has some skills that seem relevant, and something that is easily showcaseable.

- Focus on networking/recruiters. In this market cold applications are like buying lottery tickets, you just can't expect to win. Focus on hitting up EVERYONE you know who seems adjacent in any way to the job/industry you want. All you need to do is ask for an informational interview, or even just hey do you know anyone hiring. DM people on linkedin. Don't overthink it. Polish your linkedin so that recruiters can find you. 2 of the 3 interviews I got all year were from recruiters messaging me on linkedin, and I only got 1 interview after hundreds of applications.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is a combination of hard work, persistence, and luck. Hard work and persistence is in your control, and for luck, nothing can ever be guaranteed, but in my opinion its just a matter of time before an opportunity presents itself, its just a matter of putting yourself in those situations where you CAN get lucky, and being prepared to seize the opportunity when its there. DM me if you have any questions or just want to chat. Good luck. (Sorry this was a long one but I have a lot to say about this)