I have worked as a dev at the same company for years but they cancelled my contract out of the blue, and I haven't been able to find work since.

Ironically the only interview I have managed to get was with Amazon, but I did not pass the Technical Phone Screen. I was doing LeetCode for a while but it does not seem so fruitful anymore.

I don't live in the US but they pay much more than local jobs, so I want to target a remote role. The problem is that I don't know how I should break in.

It appears that there aren't a lot companies open to international devs, and those that are have too many candidates. Other options to consider would be freelancing or trying to launch some sort of product, but I don't have any experience with those.

What I really should do is to get working on a project that shows what I can do, since all my work was at the company and I have nothing to show for. But I'm not sure what would be the best to invest in, from contributing to existing projects, creating extensions for them or building something from scratch.

Any thoughts are welcome.