All the experiences here are for freshers and interns. If you are >= 1 yr experience, don't read this blog.
There are two types of companies, MNCs and Startups. I observed different patterns for both.
Here, applications are in very large numbers, means for 50 openings at least 1 lakh+ students apply.
According to my observation, resume doesn't matter here.
Most influencers preach, this resume, that resume, this project etc got them interview, those things don't matter if you are fresher.
Weak resumes and strong resumes both have almost equal probability of shortlisting here.
Referral also doesn't work here. With or without referral both have almost equal probability.
You can't do anything to increase your chances. You only have to depend upon luck to get shortlisted here.
Note: This is for freshers. For experienced, referral works a lot. But this blog is only for freshers.
Applying directly on career portal (with or without referral doesn't matter) can fetch you interview based on only luck.
Number of startups that hire are a lot more than MNCs and pay is equally good. Getting interviews here is a lot easier than MNCs.
If your college doesn't have oncampus placement then focus on startups.
They generally hire based on "Dev" skills. So, focus on building good projects.
If you are applying for startups then try to apply on those which don't get viral on telegram. Because if an opening gets viral on telegram then again it will get 1 lakh+ spam applies and your resume will get lost in the crowd.
Then, the next question may be, how to find those startups which are hiring? In my off-campus blog, I shared some websites like ycombinator, wellfound, indeed etc. You can check on them and u can find many sites on internet which post openings (try to research it by yourself). Directly apply on those portals. But to increase chances after applying, u can ping employees / founders from those startups on LinkedIn/ email with your resume and skills. Here, skills and resume matter a lot. If u genuinely have good skills then you may get reply otherwise you will get ignored.
Also, try to message senior engineers that are working in random startups on LinkedIn. Messaging MNCs engineers might not help you because their company has a systematic way of hiring which involves HR/ shortlisting etc as I mentioned in MNC section.
Make a message template which is short and simple with your skills and resume and send this to at least 50-100 random startup engineers daily on LinkedIn.
You only need one opportunity to get a job. Do a lot of hard work in applying/ messaging daily, then there are very high chances that you will get that opportunity in 2-4 months.
All the best