College student looking for my first job. How to get foot in door?
College student at a mid-tier state school that double majored in computer science and applied math and statistics. I graduate in a year and it's time to start ramping up the job hunt. How do I get my foot in the door for companies? Applying online seems to send my resume into a black hole. My GPA is meh but I have a lot of projects (mostly web dev or ML/NLP) and research experience and an internship doing computer vision (aka using opencv) at a non-tech e-commerce company. Can people tell me how they got their first post-college job?
What's a good strategy for finding positions to apply to? My current approach is to make a list of tech companies, find their career pages, and check to see if they have any positions labeled "new grad".
Nah, linkedin recruiting + talks at your university
My university doesn't really have talks. Large companies very occasionally visit, but are swamped with students when they do and it's hard to compete with them to get access. Last semester, a Facebook recruiter visited. I waited on line for two hours to get a chance to talk to her before I gave up and got out of line
AngelList is really good if you're interested in startups. You can filter positions by years of experience.
As many of these as possible (I hire co-ops and fresh grads): Co-op program if you can do it. Post code on GitHub or have some other type of portfolio to show. Make friends with people who already have jobs. Learn to communicate well and be personable, only about 10% of new CS grads are capable of average human interaction or making good presentations. Networking is your best bet though, especially without a stellar GPA. The benefits of knowing people who trust you will always far outweigh random people looking at your work. The work has to be good/promising, but unless it's the best in the world then you need to know people.
How do I build a network while in college?
Study groups, ACM and other industry groups, student interest groups, local meet ups and networking events, classmates, ask professors, go talk to professors even when you know your material (they're human, I promise), local dev events (many are free, like Code Camp), Toastmasters, etc.
I used a staffing agency and they found me a job at Blackbaud! They have a lot of great opportunities.
when did they start letting people in without confirmed work emails to blind?
last week!
What state? Also never mention your GPA. It better not be on your resume. I suggest an analyst role requiring developer skills. Once you have a "real" job, and a related one to boot, developer jobs will be simple to apply for and get with your background. Start that search immediately after getting the analyst job. Recruiters, corporate or otherwise love people who are already working.
[Blind] Check out this post! ML interview questions (Tech Lounge) https://us.teamblind.com/s/qP3yeK4E
Apply early, practice leetcode, accept the most prestigious company.