See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4079567
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EDIT: In short, open source contributions help a lot. (also: you'll have better luck finding not just jobs, but also valuable connections on HN, than anywhere else)
Ask HN: I'm a high school student. Is my job searching strategy flawed?
11–12 of 12 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm a high school student. Is my job searching strategy flawed?
#12Some of my thoughts: It is very common for high schooler resumes to get no attention. After all, these companies want college interns. And to top it off, you're a high school sophomore . Most HS seniors never get internships either. I'll second what jfaucett said. It is much more important to show 1-2 projects that you actually shipped, rather than 10 projects you never finished. This should make intuitive sense. Thi…
I'd agree with some of this. HS resumes are going to get binned unless you prove otherwise. Your resume might be decent in getting a "high school" job like a supermarket, but it's still not great. I think the Software Dev Club VP could be something, but you don't explain it at all. What is it? Did you cofound it? What do you do as VP? Accomplishments? Your resume is somewhat fluff. You have skills, but it takes up >1…
Two things I would like to disagree with / clarify:
1) Just to be clear, the software dev club VP position is not a negative, just that it's not going to impress anyone. And honestly I can't think of situations in which it would. Co-founding a club in college, let alone HS, is very easy.
2) I disagree with the statement that "Most of the time you want strong soft skills and they just grow technical skills through the internship." Keep things in perspective. It's hard for a HS sophomore to impress on the soft skills side of the equation. I mean, even something that might be impressive to a college in admissions, like organizing a community service outing, is not going to be very relevant to a startup engineering internship. I actually think the way that you shine on your resume is to have extremely strong technical skills. If I know you have exceptional technical skills, I am assured you will be a useful contributor. If I am assured that you have exceptional soft skills, that still does not tell me how much you will be able to contribute. It's not like you'll be doing biz dev or sales. Looking through your github profile, it's hard for me to get a handle on your technical ability, which is why I recommend having a personal website with a visual portfolio (screenshots) of your projects and more detailed descriptions of the technical challenges and features of your projects.
I am not saying that you should neglect the soft skills side of things. Be involved in clubs. I cannot stress how important it is in the general scheme of things to be involved in something that requires public speaking. Club leadership is not public speaking. Something like theater or debate is. The payoff for those things shows itself in college admissions and in life after college when you have to deal with people and managers. As an intern you are not likely to face interpersonal challenges that require articulation and persuasion.