I hear you. Here is a quick tip. For the next year try contributing to open source projects that you like and that have companies behind them.

After a while, either they will make you offers to work for them on the spot, or they will at least "fast-track" you through the interview process.

It doesn't work in all software areas (it is pretty difficult to do it if you are an embedded systems developer) but it works especially well in others (e.g. cloud)