I have 25 years of experience and I spent a year looking for a job, getting rejected after complex, time-wasting tests and endless voice interviews that went nowhere. At one point I had to take a cognitive test which I actually failed.
I eventually found something but it was really discouraging there for a long time.
23 years here and at this point I consider interviews to be 1d100 random dice rolls. No matter how much you prepare there is no way you can predict how sensible the interviewers are. I figure just deal with it and interview more. If each interview is 1% independent chance of getting an offer, and you interview 50 times, you have a 40% chance of getting an offer.
You're right, it seems totally random. For one they had the Scrum Masters interview me and they felt I didn't have enough scrum experience. For another I had to try and compile a video encoder on a three generations out of date VM and it took all day and I got $100 for my time. Madness.
Companies are really bad at interviewing. They toss the task to programmers and engineers who have never been trained in it, and expect them to not suck.
The best way, as always, is to connect with people you already know and have them short-circuit the broken process via existing trust.
This feels encouraging to read. Thanks for posting it. I only have 5 years of experience, but I've gone through something similar and it's extremely disheartening to see yourself failing these convoluted, labyrinthine tests knowing full well that you'd be able to do the job you're interviewing for pretty well given half a chance.
I eventually found something but it was really discouraging there for a long time.