Ask HN: How and why did you leave web development?

I'm pretty fed up with web development. I've spent actual money on making my resume get past ATS, have 8+ years (+4 if you count hobby before that) of what I consider to be fairly solid experience, and have applied to 200+ places and only gotten like 4 interviews. Everyone that has a job right now has convinced themselves that they just are better and keep giving me answers like "it's a numbers game" and "do leetcode". It's clear survivorship bias and it's weak advice imo.

I'll probably never work at FAANG, I'll never be able to add a ivy league school to my resume and honestly knowing that at any moment I can go several months without being able to find a job...that's scary.

Are there industries in software development in general that are not struggling like this, where it's not as competitive? Is there hope that I can transition and specialize in something else besides backend web dev and not have this problem? Or is the key to get out of software altogether? I'd really like to stay in software. I've been staring at a monitor since I was 12 for a reason. Giving up software feels like it would break me after all the work I've put in.

What did you do? What would you do? Where are we? Who am I?

p.s I would get into woodworking but I have a phobia of asymmetry and splinters.