I'm in a similar boat though I'm employed for now in an independent, bootstrapped startup. I am unable to find employment in any big VC-backed startup or any bi

I'm in a similar boat though I'm employed for now in an independent, bootstrapped startup. I am unable to find employment in any big VC-backed startup or any big tech corporation. On the job hunt, I kept applying for those jobs anyway because then at least it helps to awaken people when they are told by their superiors to drop me for no reason. I suspect there must be some kind of blacklist. I often get dropped at the last stage of the interview (e.g. the one where I'm about to meet the VP of engineering which is supposed to be a formality). What worked for me was to find an independent startup which is not affiliated with big VC or big tech. And for the record, I never did anything wrong at any of my previous jobs. I suspect that some of my troubles may be related to one of the following things I did: - I refused 2 job offers from well connected VC-backed CEOs in the US (who I met over video). I wasn't prepared to move to the US. - I worked for a hotshot VC-backed company remotely as a contractor and after 1 year (with limited growth), I asked the CTO for advice about getting funding to launch my own startup and that didn't go down well with them. Whoops. - I joined the blockchain space and worked for a reputable project which is still going. The Matrix really started to glitch after that.