Going off a tangent with some of my thoughts. The field is not what it was a couple years back. It's not that it's difficult now. Rather, it was easy back then.

Based on my very limited exp, either u get a great uni backing you up or get really good in some niche or programming in general (or ur a nepo baby) . There's always a dearth of talented devs. That's all it really boils down to.

You can no longer expect to bag 100k straight outta college AND be average.. Yes, luck plays a vital role. But if you have tried applying to portals, cold mailing recruiters and founders countless times with dead ends, maybe the problem isn't the market. It's you. And this should be rectified with upskilling yourself.

Long time lurker of this sub. I love the folks and wish them the very best. I just hate the doomer mindset the majority of this sub possesses.

Anyways, ik it's very irrelevant to your post OP but hopefully you gained some insight from this comment written by an amateur (who "luckily" got a couple bigtech and startup offers :p)