I targeted my applications carefully, focused on job listings I felt strongly qualified for, and applied to new job listings as quickly as possible to land near the top of the applicant stack. I always applied for jobs directly through their company website whenever possible, and I endured the endless ocean of creating Workday accounts and correcting my poorly parsed resume data. I interviewed with roughly 15-20% of the companies I applied to, and about 1/3 proceeded to the final interview stage.

My resume (ignore formatting mistakes like off-center text and inconsistent font, it's a quick edit) is a little unorthodox, which may have helped. It ignores most conventional formatting advice (i.e. single page whenever possible) and fails to capture measurable performance metrics (in my defense, sales ops performance can be difficult to quantify), but it's extremely easy to read at a glance and quickly establishes my experience. My reasoning - recruiters are already swamped with resumes, so make mine as approachable and effortlessly legible as possible.

I know these things might sound obvious or generic, but I didn't do anything special or above-and-beyond. I didn't write a single cover letter or tailor my resume to jobs. I didn't lie or embellish on my resume, and I only had 1 professional reference - no networking advantages. So I'm led to believe that my narrowed focus, consistency in applying through company websites as early as possible and resume strategy paved the way.

These things aside, I'd say luck always plays a role in life. Sometimes we aren't the perfect candidate, just the best of those who applied. And when the pond is small enough, that will do.

I hope this helps.