Ask HN: How do you navigate a software engineering job search?

I've seen a recurring theme on HN lately of engineers who are looking for jobs talking about how daunting the interview process is these days--several intense rounds of technical interviews and days of take home projects for several companies, followed by dozens of rejections even for good engineers. I think this is a symptom of the most desirable jobs having a daunting number of qualified applicants. In many ways it makes a lot of sense that you should have to work your ass off and be competitive to get the most desirable jobs. But as an individual it often doesn't make sense for an experienced engineer to spend hours, days and weeks to prove and reprove themselves when their education, experience, existing projects and references should be able to prove that they're a good engineer with a lot less effort. It seems like traditional tips for efficiently navigating a job search apply less and less these days. You can be a great engineer, have a great resume, connections a