400+ solved on LeetCode considering med school

[worn leaf]

Anything dashed out is redacted for privacy

[urban nymph]

move skills to bottom. having it at the top just signals that your experience/projects are bad, have better courses in relevant coursework if youre gonna keep that.

as for experiences, a recruiter really isnt gonna have any idea what you're talking about for 1 and 3. break them down more so they have an idea. especially for the ML experience: the recruiter either goes "wow AI! must mean he's super smart" or just skips past the experience.

projects are weak, not because of the fact that i can use cursor to make all of them in a single weekend, but because the problem they are addressing aren't that interesting (matchmaking project would be fine if you had stronger metrics, like user count). spend a week coming up with 1 or 2 projects that the recruiter can recognize is useful

and way too much whitespace at the bottom, try to come up with 4 points for each experience

[worn leaf]

Thank you so much for your feedback, I will take it all into account. I appreciate you!

[urban nymph]

some of the more niche ones are fine, i would remove OOP and data science principles

[urban nymph]

you'll probably be able to remove a project as well if you do this

[worn leaf]

Just a quick question, if you have time. for this do you mean like use simpler language? Because for 1, the work is inherently embedded / systems-y, I wasn’t sure how to quantity impact without kind of using some sort of technical language,

For 3. The first bullet point explains what I researched, I just redacted something that was a bit revealing. As for like the metrics for that one, can you give me an example of how I can refine the ML experience? I really just explained what I did as simply as I could like “Build deep neural networks with PyTorch to get this accuracy using xyz”? Its because my previous bullet points were more technical so I switched them to these cuz I thought they were simpler and more easy to scan for readability and comprehend

[urban nymph]

for 3, you could say something like "Built and trained 10+ deep neural networks from scratch in PyTorch with early stopping, validation splits, and LR scheduling to achieve 97% accuracy"

[urban nymph]

Reduced motor latency by X% and ensured stability by implementing X

larp a little if you have to, you want to SWE-ify your embedded

[worn leaf]

Ohh I think I seen what you’re saying, kind of lead with something that’s easier to understand and let the more like “ how did you do it” trail off

[worn leaf]

Makes sense, that’s what I tried to do with the networking stuff and I focused more on trying to make it sound like low level distributed systems work

[urban nymph]

yes, lead with something recruiters can understand

[worn leaf]

But I’m sure with a bit more refining i can get there

That makes sense

Thank you so much bro I’m super grateful 🙏

[urban nymph]

np

[worn leaf]

@robust bluff sorry to ping bro, I’ve just seen you do really amazing resume reviews before. Do you have any thoughts or criticism? I feel like I’m ngmi 🤕

[peak spindle]

You better not have the word Unpaid in the unredacfed version

[worn leaf]

No haha definitely not. Just wanted to give context, as having an unpaid internship kind of signals what kind of company it is lol

[worn leaf]

Do u have any tips? Anything helps 🙏

[robust bluff]

i agree with surefire

formatting is clean, i like it

especially the point on recruiter readability; the bullets in 1 and 3 are difficult to grasp without technical knowledge

[tiny rapids]

Are you applying early? Targeted, with referrals? Emailing recruiters as well?

Spray and pray doesn’t work

[robust bluff]

on projects: i think they’re mostly fine, it would just help if you had any with users

could maybe larp users honestly

[tiny rapids]

Resume could def use some work too

Change the template

[robust bluff]

imo template is fine

[tiny rapids]

You need view button on projects too

[tiny rapids]

Just change it 🤷‍♂️

[robust bluff]

unless it like really doesn’t parse well in ats/workday

[tiny rapids]

but ig that’s personal preference

[robust bluff]

at this point in the season most swe should just be emailing startups tbh

esp with t20

[tiny rapids]

True

Is he a junior

Or sophomore

[tiny rapids]

Emailing has a shit rate tho, def go to a lot of in person events on luma and network, then use warm intros

[robust bluff]

regardless he needs 2 more cycles to crack faang most likely

[robust bluff]

i have a pretty good success rate on email

[tiny rapids]

Warm intros way better

Imo

I don’t think cold emailing w his resume is gonna get that many responses

But worth a shot

Do both

[cursive ibex]

There's still some pretty solid procs going on though

[tiny rapids]

Also honestly don’t limit yourself to SWE

There’s so many more roles

[robust bluff]

i agree with this

esp as compe

with ml exp

apply like mle/cloud ops/embedded/even like pm

[tiny rapids]

Cybersecurity or data science/engineering too

Consulting is very eh but as a last resort could be decent

Tech consulting

[cursive ibex]

just make sure ur adjusting metrics for other fields

[tiny rapids]

PM you will need a whole different resume though entirely

[cursive ibex]

like data science/analytics stuff highlight how you handled data

[tiny rapids]

And keep in mind PM is very comp

TPM is a lil easier tho

[worn leaf]

I've been applying somewhat targeted? If it's an embedded role I have a separate resume that kind of highlights all the low level stuff to a greater extent. If it's a role I really like Meta or something at most I'll rearrange projects and languages so hopefully they catch recruiters eye. I am not emailing recruiters, and I only had 1 referral, for Amazon. Unfortunately a previous iteration of this resume got me rejected there. I will work on these things

[tiny rapids]

1 referral isn’t targeted

[worn leaf]

I am junior 🙁

[tiny rapids]

Given ur a junior doesn’t make sense to recruit PM

[worn leaf]

Yeah I meant more so targeting resumes. I def need to get more referrals

[tiny rapids]

So stick to CS side of things

[worn leaf]

No And to be honest im not too interested in PM or data science, I really like systems work but I understand my situation is like a beggers cant be choosers thing

[worn leaf]

How do people crack FAANG with no exp? Me and my friend go to the same school and somehow he got Amazon proc. last year with the same club and more or less the same work on his resume

[tiny rapids]

Luck

Certain extent

Maybe he had a better resume too

And applied earlier

[worn leaf]

Also thank you guys both for the reply. I'm in a tough place rn so you guys taking time out ur day to help is really nice of you

[worn leaf]

I started back in September

[tiny rapids]

^

[robust bluff]

rng yeah

amazon especially

super rng

[worn leaf]

Yeah that makes sense... I guess at this point just email, for next cycle work on getting referrals, and make experience 1 and 3 more readable

And perhaps better projects?

[tiny rapids]

Fix up ur resume network your ass of and start contacting startups for this summer

A YC startup would be the best ideally

See if any alumni are startup founders

And email them

Get ur referrals prepped for fang next cycle

[robust bluff]

faang ref doesn’t do much anymore regardless

[worn leaf]

It's because lowkey my parents and I are going through some shit and the money would help

I'm willing to work 996 I just kinda need to catch a break, at least like financially

[tiny rapids]

Some startups offer more than faang

Those are lwk harder to get into from a technical standpoint

Than the rest

[worn leaf]

Okay sounds good. So next cycle target those kinds of referrals and faang

[tiny rapids]

Make a list of 50 companies

Get referrals for 20-30

Ur chillin then

At least 1 proc

W IBM too

[robust bluff]

ibm -> faang is pretty easy if you recruit intern an additional cycle (delay or masters)

ng is kinda cooked rn

[tiny rapids]

But also don’t glaze faang 😭

[worn leaf]

yeah its not so much faang tbh

I just care about TC bro My family and I are going throught it and lowkey I thought recruiting would be easier since I'm not international yk

[robust bluff]

proxy for mid-high pay mid-high prestige

[worn leaf]

yes exactly

[tiny rapids]

I Feel you

[worn leaf]

And I spent my whole summer doing leetcode so honestly ive been a little sad

But u guys helped so much I appreciate you

You guys are awesome

Thank u both I hope nothing but future success for everone that helped on god

[robust bluff]

if ur name sounds like hella intl put us citizen

[worn leaf]

I used to have U.S. perm resident at the top Is that valid

It is a very international name

[tiny rapids]

Put citizen

[worn leaf]

Is it fine if they ask for papers and I only have green card

[robust bluff]

yea that’s fine prob

don’t lie ab citizenship

[tiny rapids]

Oh shit

[worn leaf]

Okay okay yeah thats what i was thinking

[tiny rapids]

Yeah

Don’t lie

[worn leaf]

haha Yeah I'm only green card holder

Ok ill add that too

Thanks again you guys

[lapis arch]

@worn leaf resume is not ur problem, ur aiming too high dont go for FAANG reach out to startup founders through YC, X and Linkedin

plus you'll learn so much more

i learnt the most at startups, it's 10 times more worth doing than FAANG especially early in ur career

FAANG is so easy once u have a good foundation

[proven badger]

Just reaching out like that can land you at a yc ?

[lapis arch]

I meant

Make use of this tool

https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Find founders dm them on LinkedIn and X

If you fire 100 DMs you’ll land one

[proven badger]

Alr thx

Last year I got an interview at a startup in nyc but it was unpaid

That’s the only issue

[lapis arch]

In person?

[proven badger]

Na

Was remote

[true ivy]

why it looks great to me

[lapis arch]

Damn

Mosr good startups will pay, and those are also the ones that’ll look good on resume

But unpaid is better than nothing if you can afford to not get paid

[true ivy]

ngl i disagree u can get most of faang (not faang+ tho) with just unpaid no-name

zon, meta, g all regularly take ppl with no name prev

[lapis arch]

That’s crazy

Meta is crazy no?

Zon if you’re really lucky

Imo going big tech like meta or zon doesn’t teach you much anyway but I’m startup pilled so I’m biased

Maybe you can get ibm or capital one

[worn leaf]

Do you have any tips bro? I really thought that this was the case too but I’ve been applying since September and no dice 🥲

It’s also why I spent sm time in leetcode, I figured if I should get interviews or OA’s so I’ll be ready

[proven badger]

its a full numbers game

like u legit have to keep applying

[true ivy]

nah they took like everyone last cycle

zon is the easiest big name to get with no prev tbh

[worn leaf]

Okay yeah I will, I’m not the type to give up I’ve just been super down recently hence the title

[proven badger]

ye same, i currently have nothing lined up

[worn leaf]

This is what I heard too and got rejected 😭no OA or nothing

[true ivy]

i think surefire and raymond had great advice, not sure i'd add too much to that

[true ivy]

it's rng, nothing u can do abt that

there are ppl with prev faang+ and quant and they dont get zon oa

but there are also ppl who are getting it w nothing like i said

[worn leaf]

Okay makes sense, thank you. I’ve been working on it since yesterday so it’s good to hear the consensus is kind of the same

[worn leaf]

For the experience 1 and 3, would you say it’s kinda of like what surefire said? Just lead with what I did and why it mattered, to get recruiter attention, then transition to more technical stuff

[proven badger]

is the faang cycle for summer done

like even captial one and ibm are done?

[worn leaf]

Cuz it’s been a little difficult stripping experience 1 and 3 into easier to digest ideas without making it completely non technical

[worn leaf]

IBM no, people still have interviews lined up. capital one yes

[true ivy]

faang+ is pretty much done atp

unless ur in proc alr

[proven badger]

so just grind for fall

i heard fall is easier

[worn leaf]

I’ve heard fall is cooked winter is alright

[proven badger]

no fall is easier than summre

but less ops since not every company hires

[worn leaf]

From what I understand fall is just people pushing their summer offers so they can do 2 internships in a year

[worn leaf]

Hmm I hope so lol

[proven badger]

ye

its fine

just grind

are u in junior year

[worn leaf]

Yeah, wbu

[proven badger]

i am in soph

so i have 2 cycles left

and fall+winter

my goal honstly is faang for next summer

[worn leaf]

good luck bro hopefully we make it

The advice here has been awesome so far

So I think if i take into it account ill be chillin

[proven badger]

ye

[true ivy]

idk if this is true, there are less ppl applying but lowkey the competition is better

pretty much everyone who does fall alr has a better/equivalent summer

and it's all ppl who care ab recruiting a lot more than school

[proven badger]

true

the advice @lapis arch gave is lwk good, i am aim for startups

lets see

[proven badger]

bro why can only apply to 5

[lapis arch]

Not this cycle tho

That was last year

This cycle they had a cap or something I heard

[lapis arch]

Okay yeah fair