#How do people get their first job? Who aren't college students or went to top school

144 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

fervent quartz
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Didn’t read this whole thread as it was pretty long - but have you had your resume reviewed?

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Could be your resume making you not get offers, not your past experience / credentials

vague stag
vague stag
balmy edge
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Man thats an impressive resume

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I think you can get way more than 100k salary w that

vague stag
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How do I get my first job? I can't get it. I didn't go to a top school, I went to a very mediocre school but I was triple major.
Yes I've posted my resume on here many times.
I think most CS grads do an internship or two when they're undergrads, but I didn't do that, I was doing research stuff (now I'm not interested in that stuff and want to become a programmer). Now it's too late to do an internship? (And yes I'm a CS grad)
I've had like 600 applications I did. Most of them I had no replies from the companies. I got a few replies tho. I failed the interviews because the companies that asked leetcodes were top companies and asked difficult leetcode questions I'm not prepared for yet, and the small companies would ask me random crap from my college years like linear algebra, geometry, statistics, calculus, computer networks, etc questions (random every time so hard to study for).
I'll take any job in the US, in any city like with $70k salary or higher.

gloomy fox
# vague stag How do I get my first job? I can't get it. I didn't go to a top school, I went t...

If you couldn't land an internship, I'd do freelance and contributing to open source, you can put those on your resume, and it can be very easy to show impact through your work.

I personally started off with freelance work before I got my first internship and it didn't just get me through the resume screen, but it helped me a lot with core software engineering skills: improving communication, setting clear expectations, maintaining high code quality, outputting code quickly, etc. and it demonstrates and cultivates a lot of soft skills other candidates might not have.

It's definitely a rougher road than getting into a well-known school, having a high GPA, and getting into a good company straight off the road, but it's not impossible 👍

vague stag
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how long would this take? I really need money...

gloomy fox
gloomy fox
vague stag
vague stag
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I never had an "easy leetcode" company interview me tho

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unless it's "easy leetcode" combined with straight up random college math, college CS, etc questions

carmine nebula
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I was in a similar boat, in that I didn't do an actual software dev internship/co-op (which is what they call it in Canada), I somewhat lucked out in that I ended up with a desperate-enough employer (government) which happened to not do leetcode (there was a quiz though). There's a tradeoff though - crap pay relative to the industry, union dues on top of that, and an impending strike radFeels

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But aside from just blasting resumes into the void, try reaching out to friends, relatives, acquaintances etc and see if they can refer you

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I got one interview that way, though I completely bungled it because it was my first leetcode interview, and it was in C lol

vague stag
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Programming is a funny job tho

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Cuz either my friend has a job for me at a top company like super difficult leetcode, or it's easy and I don't know that programming language well (the test involves knowing the language very well...my language is Python), or they don't have openings for new grads

carmine nebula
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Just out of curiosity, what languages are we talking about here? blobthinkglare

vague stag
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Python

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Is my main language

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By far

carmine nebula
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What language did they make you use in those interviews?

vague stag
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One friend has a job in C#

carmine nebula
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Still better than C radFeels

vague stag
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I always use Python in interviews

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Oh and SQL

carmine nebula
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But could you learn just enough of the language to pass the test?

vague stag
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And getting an interview there isn't guaranteed

hasty solstice
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Your school rank is not that relevant

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I hope you understand that

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0 internships, and my state school done the street and I’m doing well I think

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And many people at my job are PhD’s from MIT or Harvard

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Or Stanford

vague stag
hasty solstice
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Made a resume and applied

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Wait wtf

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Am I high or did you reply to me

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Okay my bad my discord was being weird

hasty solstice
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I just had a focus on making a good resume and didn’t limit myself to location

vague stag
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yea

hasty solstice
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I did somewhat specialize because I was nearly only looking for C or C++ work

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Which I think helped

vague stag
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did u write custom cover letters

hasty solstice
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But my first gig was about 85k in DC area

vague stag
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what companies did u apply to

hasty solstice
vague stag
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I'm also applying to every city in the US

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so

hasty solstice
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Like I said, I had a somewhat specialized area I was going for

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So it was easy to filter

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I also just used LinkedIn

vague stag
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you already knew some technology or only the language?

hasty solstice
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Never really used any other site

hasty solstice
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So those were the kinds of roles I applied too

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And my first job was working on an OS

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Now I work at a robot company but idk shit about robotics lol

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It’s a fun place though

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But in reality I just leaned into my strengths, I knew what I was good at and interested in and tried my ass off to just go towards those roles

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Also I knew how to make a good resume (or at least I learned how to)

vague stag
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hm

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what was your interview like?

hasty solstice
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I mean I’ve interviewed at a lot of places

vague stag
hasty solstice
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Oh hmmm

hasty solstice
# vague stag ur first job

I believe it was HR call, talk with who would become my boss, then take home C++ assignment, then on-site with mostly technical discussions and going over my projects and the assignment

vague stag
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I see interesting

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not leetcode

hasty solstice
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🤷‍♂️

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Uh not really

vague stag
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I wish I had a test like that

hasty solstice
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I’ve gotten many different kinds of interviews

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And many take home assignments

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Many strictly coding

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Blah blah

vague stag
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interesting I've never had that

hasty solstice
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🤷‍♂️

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(Obviously we apply to different types of roles) lol

vague stag
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I mostly apply to generalist roles

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generalist programmer

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cuz I dont have any technology knowledge

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well I also apply to data science

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I went to grad school for AI

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but I want to become a programmer

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lol

hasty solstice
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Yeah idk shit about webdev

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Or data science

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So none of those roles interested me

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Therefore I never applied to them

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But I’ve had plenty of LC type interviews for my roles

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I’m just naming one company that didn’t

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Doesn’t really mean anything

upper condor
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There are two steps to getting a job

  1. Get an interview
  2. Pass the interview

Sounds like you are having trouble with step 2. Continue to practice LC. Read CTCI. Do mock interviews to get feedback and improve. Doing 200 questions may not be helpful if you aren't learning the right material or practicing in the right way.

vague stag
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I've had almost no replies, like 500 or more applications and only maybe 5-10 interviews

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and most of them are for data science, not programming (I want to do programming)

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and yes I had my resume checked many times on the server

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and yes I'm exclusively applying to low level jobs (new grads), all over the country

carmine nebula
upper condor
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5-10 interviews is a decent amount, but if they weren't for SWE positions, I wouldn't count them.

vague stag
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it's not decent, it's soul sucking lol

vague stag
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I'm still surprised how difficult it is for me to get a new grad job (all the jobs I apply to are new grad jobs)

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because I clearly demonstrated I'm a fast learner of new technologies 🙂 and obviously I had a programming involved in my AI work (altho of course nothing compared to an actual programming job sure), oh and I have a CS B.S. too

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so they want only experienced new grads that already know the technologies?

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that's the loop. Can't get a job cuz don't have experience <-> Can't get experience cuz don't have/can't get a job

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well if I was still a student I'd get an internship. Can I apply to internships as a non-student? From my experience to trying to apply to internships they were asking me on the application things like "Are you still a student and will you go back to your education after u complete the internship?"

carmine nebula
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Yeah, sadly if you don't have experience you usually get filtered out by the ATS

vague stag
carmine nebula
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applicant tracking system, essentially the entire application (as in, the kind you run) that takes in your application (that is, for the job), processes it, etc etc

fallow glacier
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id say network

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its more likely to get u a job than cold applying

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join slack groups, communities etc. for new grads / interns

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im in a couple groups like that and its how i had someone reach out to me for a dev position

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also id say attend coding events too

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you can prob find quite a few on linkedin

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the goal is to get you meeting other new grads as well as network with and introduce yourself to employers

vague stag
vague stag
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would be cool if I lived in a tech city or something

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I live in a town in the middle of nowhere

fallow glacier
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virtually yes

vague stag
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how do I find such communities and slack groups?

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or invite me please

fallow glacier
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the slack groups i found through university

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and word of mouth

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but let me see

vague stag
fallow glacier
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Theyre for female uni students really yeah

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designed as groups to support women

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im trying to think of stuff that is more general

vague stag
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hmm I see