Totally agree, combined with the fact that op seems to focus on big tech giants that are generally hard to get in to is a big red flag. My advise is to find a

Totally agree, combined with the fact that op seems to focus on big tech giants that are generally hard to get in to is a big red flag. My advise is to find a smaller company in a "boring field" (think local schools, manufacturing and retail not google/apple) and try to get the most entry level job that's still gives hands on programming / sysadmin experience. Many small help desks let juniors have small side projects improving something specific for example.