Who has given up looking for work?

This is the best jobs market, especially for tech workers, in our lifetimes -- among the best in history. I'm not sure why anyone would give up looking for work unless they just prefer to retire.

I am a 24 year old in the United States. In 2020, I graduated with an Associate’s degree in Software & Web Development from a small technical community college. Since then, I have applied to hundreds of dev jobs and other tech related jobs. Out of the hundreds of applications I’ve put in, I’ve had a total of two interviews. My first interview was with a very small web development company with connections to some of the professors at the community college I attended. They offered me an unpaid internship which I wasn’t interested in because I am not willing to work for free. I got my second interview thanks entirely to nepotism; my mother sells software made by the company. I was applying for a software engineer position which I quickly realized I was woefully unprepared for and, if I’m being completely honest, had no business applying for in the first place. After failing to answer a couple LeetCode questions on obscure topics I had never seen before, I withdrew my application in embarrassment and haven’t applied to a job since. My self esteem is non-existent and I feel like I’ve wasted most of my life at this point striving to be someone I’m not meant to be. I want to solve interesting problems and do great things and have a place in this world but it feels like there’s just no space for someone like me. What’s wrong with me?