Choose well the company you want to work for. Factor in the feeling you're getting about the people in the company, the product & mission, compensation and benefits.
Once you know this is the company you want to work for - do everything needed to get hired.
Filtering by whichever company requires the least effort to get into will lead to a bias towards companies with lower quality staff - because those will be less selective.
One of the most salient features of our Tech Hiring culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.
IMO this is terrible advice.
My advice:
Filtering by whichever company requires the least effort to get into will lead to a bias towards companies with lower quality staff - because those will be less selective.
That's not why I'm saying but thanks.