I've never been successful with it. I've only gotten hired as a dev by a very strong reference or because an eccentric boss gave me a contract-to-hire opportunity. That boss posted an ad on Craigslist... I joked about it saying it was a scam, and he said you know it's legit because he also wrote the job posting on park benches and bathroom stalls. My favorite boss.
Lately I just save money because HR keeps threatening to fire me for being unvaccinated. I've been breaking company policy for a year, and saving money for a year, I don't give a shit about the job market anymore and I hope they finally grow balls and fire me. My startup only has $200 MRR but if they don't fire me before end of the year I'm out. And I don't want another job either, I've survived an 8 year gap without a real job before. I'd rather live off of rice/soup than deal with corporate software dev another year. And interviewing is the worst, way worse than the day to day, I don't know how you guys do it.