Before going freelancer route I was like everybody else. Send resumes, go to interviews when invited, get whiteboard crap. Usually it resulted in 50% times invi

Before going freelancer route I was like everybody else. Send resumes, go to interviews when invited, get whiteboard crap. Usually it resulted in 50% times invited to interviews and getting offer 75% off those interviews. Then a hard time came (2000's EU crisis) and the market was drying, with hundreds of applicants even at small firms that were hiring. So I changed the way I was going about. Whenever a hiring was happening instead of sending a resume to the office@whatever.com and hoping for the best I went proactive and digged further for a phone number, called about their address and went in person there pushing until I was in front of a technical leader that was in position of power to hire. I avoided HR entirely and when in front with that tech guy I asked for real problems that they either have or had and to show him my way of thinking hunting for bugs in front of a PC. This resulted in 100% hire and I kept doing this for the next several firms I worked for. I got to work for Alcatel and Siemens this way. No HR drones, no whiteboard, just good old coding in front of a competent future co-worker/team leader. Alcatel tried to kick me out with security. I went out on one door, entered another in next 2 minutes. I argued with them, I voiced that I will keep doing this until I get a tech guy to interview me. When head of HR came eventually and told me police is on the way I said "so until they arrive can I get that tech guy to do the interview? Because I will pass it in 15 minutes, that's how awesome I am". That line made him reconsider me and guess what, I was hired. My point is if you know you can do the job just push it, regardless of obstacles. Siemens punished me for this type of behavior by interviewing me for 8 straight hours. No bathroom breaks, no eating or drinking this time, just interview with one manager after another, all with hiring power. First of them was actually the head of the entire HW department and he made sure I understood what is going to happen. Later on I found out who he was, and on hierarchical ladder hes was the boss of the boss of the boss of my boss (team leader -> immobilizer division -> BCM group -> HW department). After 6 hours came a group leader (BCM - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_control_module https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_control_module) that was actually in need for guys in one of his teams and I finally got to coding part and at the end of those 8 hours I got a contract to sign and to start next Monday (this was happening on Friday). Their punish made sure that I was actually that good as I was bragging at beginning and that I was willing to do the grinding required for the job. This way I got to work on immobilizer division (this was an embedded SW position). My point is that if you brag, make sure you also can do it, as harsh as it can be.