If this is something that’s really getting to you, you should move to the Bay Area, at least for a few years. Your “luck” will skyrocket. The opportunities in tech just aren’t present in other cities in the way they are in the Bay Area. I say this as someone who moved there from a mid-sized city and now moved back to that mid-sized city, taking my Bay Area job with me. The primary difference I’ve noticed between FANG employees (having been one) and public sector employees is not talent but rather that the former are willing to move across the country or world for better opportunities, whereas the latter are not.