20 minutes, 0 apps, 0 interviews.  The guys running the C course I did offered me a job at the end of it!<p>Include as many skills as you can on your cv - so much depends on automated search.<p>As you&#x27;ve got friends in tech, have you got them to rip your CV to shreds?  If not, you should.  It&#x27;s a sales document, not just a statement of experience, treat it as such.<p>Treat your first 5 interviews as &quot;just practice&quot;.  You&#x27;ll forget to mention something, make a silly mistake or three, give a bad answer or two.  Don&#x27;t stress, just learn from them.  You&#x27;ll relax more if you view the first 5 as practice, maybe enough to get an offer from one of the practice meetings!<p>Do all you can to sidestep recruiters and apply directly.  Small companies are usually much more interesting and won&#x27;t be using recruiters.<p>It&#x27;s a numbers game, so along with lots of applications, bear in mind if you have 3 of 5 &quot;essential&quot; skills you should probably apply anyway.  You&#x27;d be surprised how often those essentials aren&#x27;t - it&#x27;s a numbers game for the recruiting company too.