I had that same exp about 5 years ago. I have heard tailoring your resume for each one helps.
The funny one was one that came back 2 years after I had another job and rejected me. I had to go dig up my notes and see what I had applied for!
My internal network was the same as yours with lots of 'nothing here'.
Most of my luck has been like you, with 3rd party recruiters. Unless I reach out to them directly. Then they suddenly have nothing. One of them just for fun I called them every week but 'we currently do not have anything' which I knew was rubbish and I would pull items off their own site and show them. But if they have something that tweaked their buzzword bingo they blow up your phone. Getting a recruiter who likes to hustle is the key.
Only thing I regret for the 'time off' was not starting to look sooner. I figured it was a 1-2 month tops thing. Turned into 8 months of looking. What is really annoying is if you do not have a job they do not want you. But have a job and suddenly 2-3 calls a day.
Hiring is broken in a very weird way. But nothing really clear how to fix it. Adding more fizz-buzz testing is not going to fix it.
Tailoring your resume is most important when you are trying to get a job different. If you have been doing webapps for 10 years I'm going to reject you for my embedded position - but if you want to switch roles a little tailoring can make me see you want something new and I'll take a chance.
The funny one was one that came back 2 years after I had another job and rejected me. I had to go dig up my notes and see what I had applied for!
My internal network was the same as yours with lots of 'nothing here'.
Most of my luck has been like you, with 3rd party recruiters. Unless I reach out to them directly. Then they suddenly have nothing. One of them just for fun I called them every week but 'we currently do not have anything' which I knew was rubbish and I would pull items off their own site and show them. But if they have something that tweaked their buzzword bingo they blow up your phone. Getting a recruiter who likes to hustle is the key.
Only thing I regret for the 'time off' was not starting to look sooner. I figured it was a 1-2 month tops thing. Turned into 8 months of looking. What is really annoying is if you do not have a job they do not want you. But have a job and suddenly 2-3 calls a day.
Hiring is broken in a very weird way. But nothing really clear how to fix it. Adding more fizz-buzz testing is not going to fix it.