Just my statistics:<p>I don&#x27;t have a valid working visa in the US and have been applying almost exclusively to American companies.<p>My &quot;interview&quot; rate is 10%. 100% if it&#x27;s with people I know, even if I&#x27;m completely unqualified.<p>My &quot;rejection&quot; rate is around 50%, within 2 weeks. I assume the rest won&#x27;t say anything if they reject.<p>General job sites (the ones where you can also apply to be a carpenter, etc) are a waste of time. They probably get so many resumes they end up tossing half of them.<p>Stack Overflow Careers gave me an awesome ~30% of interviews. As in I applied 6 jobs and 2 interviewed. Both of them were jobs I didn&#x27;t fully qualify for.<p>Generally, direct emails gave me a 100% (5&#x2F;5) response rate. An email, like careers@company.com, not a form. Email lets me mention in subject line that I used to have a startup, so I stood out. Most of them rejected on lack of visa though.<p>I do spend ~10 minutes per cover letter. I really dig deep, like an investor would. I convince myself that I&#x27;m doing the company a favor by joining before writing the letter.<p>In the end, you just have to convince one company. If you have a lead, immediately latch to it... do research on the company, the interviewer, and write questions.<p>There&#x27;s a certain bar you have to cross to convince people to hire. It&#x27;s better to optimize for a few companies than to try to reach out to as many as possible. If you feel unworthy, then optimize for the lower tier companies who have lower standards.