Switching into SWE

Sep 13, 2021 15 Comments

Currently not an engineer, but have a CS degree. Completed 150+ leetcode medium, 15 hard

I have been applying to various SWE positions, and getting mostly rejections. Getting to one on-site at C3.ai, dropbox seemingly ghosted from after passing initial tech screen :(

Waiting on some referrals from companies, but wondering if I could be missing something besides keep on applying. Any tips appreciated.

TC: 169k
YOE: 2-3

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  • Hubspot
    XbBM23

    Go to company page Hubspot

    XbBM23
    How many applications thus far?
    Sep 13, 2021 4
    • OP
      That’s a good reference. I’ll keep on chugging along :)
      Sep 13, 2021
    • Hubspot
      XbBM23

      Go to company page Hubspot

      XbBM23
      Yes, don’t worry much. It is really a game of numbers for the first job. It is a bit harder for those who switch (I switched as well) but it is doable.
      Make side projects, deploy them and place links to GitHub and live on your resume. Make a generic resume and apply like crazy.
      Sep 13, 2021
  • Amazon
    Dxnj77

    Go to company page Amazon

    Dxnj77
    “She ,her” 🤪
    Sep 13, 2021 0
  • New
    piudh

    New

    piudh
    What’s your current role?
    Sep 13, 2021 2
    • OP
      I work with engineers a lot, but I don't do coding.
      Sep 13, 2021
    • New
      piudh

      New

      piudh
      So PM? Honestly I think PM is better for career in the long run unless you really like coding
      Sep 13, 2021
  • New
    rsrM58

    New

    rsrM58
    Don't join c3 regardless of tc.
    Sep 18, 2021 0
  • What are you switching from?

    If you have any public coding projects, add them to your CV/resume. One of the main thing a recruiter is trying to answer is “can this person pass a general coding interview”.
    Sep 13, 2021 2
    • OP
      No coding projects unfortunately. But that is a good point, I should make it easy for them to gather signals that I can pass the coding interview.

      Any tips on a good place to start?
      Sep 13, 2021
    • Easiest: You can post your solutions for leetcode problems you find interesting to GitHub. Significantly better than nothing, gives clear signal.

      Harder : build a project around your interests.
      * Say you like sports, you could build a fantasy game (lots to do there).
      * Say you want to study trends in web or food or jobs, you could build a web (or Twitter?) crawler to scrape relevant data, then visualize it over time.
      Sep 19, 2021