>My advice is to ditch the applications entirely and go straight to networking. Yes, not exactly the most revolutionary advice here. But, if you;re in that kind of competition/environment, you've no choice but to work your network.
Could you elaborate on this please?
Is there more to networking than just sending personalized connect messages based on a person profile on Linkedin?
Yes, meeting someone in person, like at a meetup, even for 5 minutes, will get you 100% better responses than trying to force a connection without even having met the person before.
Alternatively asking someone you know in person to introduce you to the person. You're trying to connect with.
Doing “networking” cold without any personal connections rarely leads anywhere valuable.
Could you elaborate on this please?
Is there more to networking than just sending personalized connect messages based on a person profile on Linkedin?
I have been doing that without much success