How many rejections did it take? The gift of failure

It took me 6 months of rejections to get my first job. I asked for feedback with each rejection and just kept reworking every project in my portfolio. Freelancing helped as well (this was before the forums in the 90’s but posting work here would have helped). Eventually my portfolio improved enough and my disposition became humble enough (the cocky fresh grad sheen wore off) and I started to get offers.

Hang in there. Keep working on it and seek feedback.