This is wild to me. I've applied to 4 jobs in my life and been hired for 3 of those. I can't imagine having to write hundreds of individual cover letters. Is this one of those US vs EU differences?
It is a self perpetuating cycle. If you are lucky to land a good first job that leads to a good second job which leads to a good third job, so on so forth.
Many of the people applying for 100s of jobs are either unqualified or completely green. Especially now more than ever the bottom 10-15% of the workforce has been trimmed in various layoffs so if you are completely green you are competing with people who have industry experience.
