My first software job, 72k, and the interview with no leetcode

I graduated in the spring and walked straight into one of the roughest hiring markets I'd seen described in any of the forums I was reading to prep. It didn't dent my optimism at first. I built a spreadsheet, set up job alerts across a few major boards, and started firing off applications. Over about three months I sent close to 200: tailored cover letters for some, quick-apply submissions for others when the listing was clearly a long shot. The rejections came in waves, sometimes five or six in a single afternoon, and a few roles just went silent after a first-round screen. I made it to the interview stage at five companies. Four ran the standard process: a recruiter call, then one or two rounds of timed algorithmic problems. I'd been grinding practice problems for weeks, but there's a specific kind of pressure that hits when you're solving a graph traversal question while a stranger watches a timer count down, and I didn't always perform the way I knew I could. Those four ended without an offer. By month two the weight of it was getting to me. I was refreshing my inbox more than I should have, second-guessing whether I'd picked the right field at all. The fifth company was different from the first message. The listing ↓