I'm pretty sure the best jobs out there are mid-sized, 50-100 employee government subcontractors. Big companies like Grumman and Lockheed don't actually have their programmers do anything, they're just writing proposals and dancing around red-tape and hiring subcontractors to do it for them. The subcontractors are all ran by a bunch of based old dudes in their 50s in small towns in Texas, Alabama, and Florida; don't make you take any programming tests before hiring; all require US citizenship so your job can never be given out to India; still pay pretty good and let you work on whatever you want.

Trouble is, where do I find them? I know they're out there by the thousands - but if they don't post on job message boards I need to go hunt them down to find out they even exist. I think when our parents told us we need to "hit the bricks" and just cold-call companies with our resume, this was a meme 15 years ago but today it's gotta be the best way to find a job unironically.