But not in the context of showing up as a candidate. The only thing that will work will be personal contacts. Join user groups and do something without the actual purpose of finding a job. Volunteer for things in an IT context.

You might say this will mean weeks to months of wasted activities, but believe it will be way better than weeks or months of applying for non existing jobs.

Here is a tip that I dont find unethical, call agencies but as in the role of a job offer not job seeker. Have a conversation, and you will then have the full picture.

However the last cold application did work, although it was to an agency rather than direct to the company.

It’s demoralising work applying for jobs. Good luck!

We get a lot of bots, but the software itself filters out 99% of that and then our recruiters filter out the rest. Referrals push candidates to the top of the queue for interviews, but otherwise it's literally just hiring people who cold applied to a job posting they saw online.

That's not to say it's not still terrible to be interviewing, just my point is, don't write off applying just because it sucks.

I heard from one recruiter they had 800+ applications to a role

It’s rough out here.