As a person who just spent a year looking for a job: it's not you, it's the job market. Not only companies (incl. in Russia) not hiring as much as they used to,

As a person who just spent a year looking for a job: it's not you, it's the job market. Not only companies (incl. in Russia) not hiring as much as they used to, they have a larger pool of applicants because of all the people laid off during the pandemic. You are competing, directly or indirectly, with a large number of people, some of whom are very motivated senior professionals (they need to be able to provide for their families and are willing to agree to lower salaries and lower positions, so there's less need for interns). Even if you're not able to get the internship, it's not the end of the world, spend time researching current and emerging technologies and their applications, working on open source projects, maybe even pick up some projects on UpWork etc. A few other notes: - IQ tests are complete sh$t. I can't believe how many people take them seriously. How can you measure something if you can't even define what it is??? Also, if you see someone bragging about their MENSA membership, he/she's a self-important idiot with inferiority complex (and I speak from experience). - A lot of interviews the way they're done right now at likes of Google/FB/etc are HORRIBLE. I can't believe they expect anybody to be able to solve any of these problems in a reasonable amount of time. I really feel sorry for the guys/gals entering the industry right now, since you don't have experience to back you up. A lot of companies right now are really outdoing themselves in terms of complexity of these problems hoping to find another Kulybin or Lomonosov. Hint: that's not how it works, you hire a reasonably smart and motivated person, invest time and money in their growth, and you might get your gem eventually. - I can't believe the person who can express themselves so eloquently in a foreign language in their 20s is "not smart enough" (I started learning English at 20 and at your age I could barely put a sentence together). - Stories about people of "high intelligence" who coast through life without doing any hard work are overblown, to say the least. Some people think fast, some are slower. I've known more than a few people who tend to make decisions in a rush and it regularly caused them a lot of problems because they act before they think. Your ability to think things through and consistently put the effort in to achieve the desired result is extremely valuable at any job (and in life in general). Good luck, you'll get through this, kinda sucks for a lot of people right now, but better days are coming!