Need Guidance
Greetings all, I have been on Blind for about 2 months and am impressed with this community. That being said, I am in the need of some words of wisdom here, I am lost. I am an international student, graduating with my BSCS in December 23'. I have an excellent academic standing, Google scholar, Bloomberg scholar, teach Calc to undergrads, and etc. I have applied to over 250 companies to try and land a summer internship, I have heard back from around 15 companies for an online coding interviews. Unfortunately, I was unprepared, and have failed nearly all of them. Then, I switched gears, and started intensely self learning and ended up getting a call from a medical insurance company, who I ended up interning with this summer. Honestly, amazing experience, pretty big company in our area, I have interned in the data engineering department, and have learned a LOT. Now, that I have experience, more knowledge, and a better candidacy in general, I want to start applying for internships again. I am about to take my certification exam for AZ-900, hoping, that will help a little bit. I have never been exposed to leetcode, so this is what I will be focusing on mainly. I do want to send out the applications by mid-September, and the time left until interviews on leetcode. I do not have any personal projects (except those done in the internship, but since i have worked with data, all of it is confidential). Long story short, I am very overwhelmed, I don't know what to do. I am not looking for a high pay, and not chasing the visa status, it will all come. I am more driven to land an internship in FAANG or HFTs. I am not sure on what way I should be steering. Should I focus on leetcode or projects? Both? Should I just put school down the priority list and focus on my improving my candidacy? Should I reach out to people for referrals? If I do so, what if I don't have enough time to prepare? The reason I am so stressed is because I only have one summer left until I graduate, so I am able to intern only once more, before my status will be terminated. I don't have to get an internship, but that lowers my chances for a full time dramatically. I am planning on pursing a Data Engineer position. What would you do? Should I just find referrals and start applying? Should I just leetcode all day long? Any help and criticism is welcome. #swe #software #engineering #data #referral
If you want to work at FAANG, leetcode. If you don’t care, just reach out to people. You have an internship experience so you should have an easier time getting a job at any non FAANG company. Most don’t ask leetcode questions, my first job didn’t ask any technical questions. I can’t comment on the international student aspect but most entry level positions at normal companies will be thrilled you already have experience.