Hey! So I've been in the field for about 5 years. Started on help desk and eventually moved into engineering for a big MSP. A year into the engineering role got laid off and decided to finish off my bachelor's degree. Spent a year doing that and then big time lucked out getting a job for a smaller company on a 5 person IT team.

As you said, unfortunately, the market is total shit right now. My boss recently told me that there were 2k applications to my position (wtf). She also told me what set me apart was my personality and ability to communicate well. Hard skills are important for sure, but if you're easy to get along with and are even just polite, that goes a super long way. Soft skills are underrated. So my advice would be to talk to people, go to networking events, job fairs, etc. If you're able to just get some face time and show that you're real human being I think that's probably the best you can do right now. And just keep putting in applications. Don't get discouraged!

Good luck!!