Find a small company, there are lots of little software companies that work in niche areas.

They may not pay as much up front but you get your foot in the door and at small organizations you can touch everything.

Don’t be afraid to look at weird industries you might not associate with tech.

Make use of a hacker space[1] / start a version of Home Brew Computer club [0] and/or other local area club affiliated with a professional organization / join,participate in a related professional organization subgroup activity(s)[2]

[0] : https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-happened-at-the-homebrew-...

      https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/personal-computers/17/312

[1] : https://hackerspaces.org/

[2] : a) https://www.acm.org/

      b) https://www.ieee.org/

      c) start a side project to keep/retain skills aka https://makezine.com/

      d) "top 10" professional organizations : https://technologymagazine.com/top10/top-10-technology-associations

Local/state government tech work. Pay is lower, job security higher.

Contribute substantially to large open source projects with active communities.

Marrying a high management?

> it's pretty bleak right now.

My brother in $DEITY, it’s been bleak since 2023 at the very least. Two years later it’s no longer just a phase.

Forget underrated, the only thing that works is referrals and word of mouth. As you’re already in the field, your direct contacts are her best option.

idk I just spammed my resume everywhere and did a bunch of leetcode and that was enough, apply to 5 different roles every day and you'll eventually get something

Doing open source contributions. It shows you have actual experience and interest.

The best "underrated" way is to lowball yourself. Apply to as many places as possible, including non-tech companies. When asked, give a starting salary that's at the bottom of the range for the position or even slightly under (use indeed, glassdoor, levels, etc for the range).

Because she's a she, I strongly recommend looking at large non-tech companies that promote equality. There's probably some equality index or ESG style list to help identify them. I know they exost necaude my company gives a strong preference to female candidates, even internally for promotions and stuff. I can't give my company name but I'm sure there are others out there.

In IT there are three highly generalized routes to consider:

* Low barrier of entry jobs, like most web developer jobs. Good luck, it’s a race to the bottom but it’s also where most of the jobs are. The goal here is to pad your resume with nonsense and compete with hundreds of other people that are also padding their resumes.

* Jobs that require licenses and/or certifications. These will be jobs like cloud infrastructure support, cyber defense, routing/switching, project management, and operations. These jobs are harder to qualify for and are fewer than the prior bullet point but are a much safer bet and tend to pay more.

* High talent jobs, which include the gaming industry and more engineering type jobs. These jobs are the fewest and not as secure as the prior category. They also are the most variable in compensation, but they tend to be the most fulfilling for people with high intelligence or high creativity.

Know which way you want to go because the means to achieve these jobs differ radically.

I am out of touch with the current market, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

I got my start by bringing tech skills in underserved industries. There is so much need for small custom software to fit local business needs, but most devs prefer bigger, longer projects in established companies. Being a tech wizard in a small business can be super fun.

Advertising you are selling yourself at a great discount

Contribute to open source, solve GitHub bounties, do contract work. See https://algora.io

I got the job of my dream at the company of my dream by sending an 1 min improvised introduction video + a lengthy cover letter answering all the questions in the job description.

That's the first time I ever tried it and will likely be the last one (since i don't want to go to a different company).

Caveat: this will prob work for a smaller company, not Google-like.

Wrote a small post about it: https://gettjalerts.com/blog/tech-job-video-intro