I don’t know how you usually get back no one talking about what they did other than I applied but here are links from this website like I’ve suggested about people going into detail about their job search.
https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/got-a-frontend-developer-job/
https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/i-got-my-first-developer-job/
(this one the person responds with details about six posts from the top.)
https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/i-got-a-job/
https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/from-fashion-model-to-employed-programmer-in-4-months-everything-is-possible/
(first and the last post on this one are detailed.)
These are from the first page of the getting a developer job category and they give a lot more detail than you mentioned about only apply. Good luck on the job hunt and hope you find something awesome.