Same story here. I work in games so it's always been boom or bust. It's real bad now.

- out of college it took 3 months to find work. It sucked, took over 100 apps, but I found a nice project.

- after that project ended, 3 more months (but less stressful because I had more than one role I was interviewing with).

- Then layoffs, another 3 months in 2022 where it was very competitive (I was in at least 4-5 interview pipelines before my first choice accepted my offer).

- Then that studio quickly shuttered and I haven't found anything full time in 2.5 years. Freelancing kept me up until that wasn't enough, and then I found some non-tech part time work.

working harder than ever with 2 jobs + more portfolio work to prepare for interviews despite having 9 years of experience now. This feels worse than the horror stories I'd hear when finding my first job.