I actually got my first job out of college by responding to a posting on the monthly Who’s Hiring post here. The nature of HN is such that most of the posters are actual engineers and in many cases they put a direct contact method in the post. I was able to skip past the black hole that is company employment portals by emailing my resume to the lead engineer directly instead of getting screened out by a recruiter.
Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
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Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#32Get a LinkedIn premium subscription and ask alumni of your school for referrals. Just random alumni. I was given this advice and thought it was brazen and aggressive and that nobody would do it. I didn't after graduation. I was wrong and when I tried it later, it worked. And I ended up doing it for others who messaged me. Apply though the back door for VIPs. Plenty of people are happy to put you in. Random people on…
This works and demonstrates two desirable traits: confidence or courage to overcome apprehension and a growth mindset willing to work at actively searching for work. I prefer to hear directly from new grads than recruiters any day of the week.
The other thing people fear is being one of many and being a bother. As long as you target low enough of an alum, they are almost certainly not swamped.
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#33I actually got my first job out of college by responding to a posting on the monthly Who’s Hiring post here. The nature of HN is such that most of the posters are actual engineers and in many cases they put a direct contact method in the post. I was able to skip past the black hole that is company employment portals by emailing my resume to the lead engineer directly instead of getting screened out by a recruiter.
The latest whoishiring thread in case anyone is not familiar: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28380661
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#34Apply to work for whatever school you have graduated from. You will easily stand out.
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#35The responses in this thread are shockingly bad. Apply to every job you can find with a well-balanced resume showing what you have achieved technically and professionally.
If you haven't had much of that, now is a good time to start.
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#36Resumes are all gonna look the same given the amount of experience grads have.
I’d suggest focus on a grad role in a large mega Corp and do a couple of years - they will give you some best practice insights. It doesn’t need to be FAANG it could be the big 4 accounting consultancies, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley etc just anywhere big will give you a good grounding. Apply for all of their grad roles.
Take that first couple of years and soak it up then think about what next - with that experience you can go anywhere.
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#37> I've applied at probably 3-4 dozen places through my school's job board over the past month
This isn't nearly enough. When I was in college I had maybe a 20% chance of hearing back anywhere I applied, and another 20% chance of passing the interviews if I did hear back. So roughly 25 applications would convert to one offer. I have a much better conversion rate now that I have job experience, but in college it was difficult for me.
Applying to jobs can feel exhausting though, but like most skills it all comes down to practice. The more you do it the easier it gets. Pace yourself and submit some resumes.
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#38Assuming you have no experience and few connections, my advice would be to take your time, build up a resume, and get into a large city quickly. Freelance a few projects or build some personal projects that have an element of commercial relevance. If you don't have freelance projects to work on (e.g. help someone get a website up, write a backend for someone's random thing that you met on a craigslist), then make some things up and be forward to hiring managers, "I just built this to test out xyz framework/programming language and learn a bit more".
Move to a big city or apply for a bunch of jobs in a big city. Jobs to target would be marketing/creative agencies companies that don't have a core competency in software. In New York for instance, there are lots of these, and many get hired to do websites or one-off apps for well known clients and have trouble finding and keeping talent. It's not glamorous, but do this for 6 months to a year, study some stuff on the side, and it shouldn't be hard to land a job at a company that has more of a focus on engineering, can teach you more, and pay better.
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#39> I've applied at probably 3-4 dozen places through my school's job board over the past month This isn't nearly enough. When I was in college I had maybe a 20% chance of hearing back anywhere I applied, and another 20% chance of passing the interviews if I did hear back. So roughly 25 applications would convert to one offer. I have a much better conversion rate now that I have job experience, but in college it was di…
I think you misread his 3-4 dozen as 3-4.
Re: Ask HN: Graduating CS soon, how do I find a job?
#40Why is it simultaneously so hard to hire software engineers and so hard for new ones to find a job?
Nobody wants to invest anything in "human capital" anymore.
The senior developers are busy making deadlines for products that should have been delivered moths ago, so they and their managers can't really afford "knowledge transfer".
A young employee is far more likely to fail in this kind of enviroment than someone with some experience.
I got my foot in the door by applying to an unpaid position and lying about my knowledge. They were looking for experience in a particular framework and I then learned the basics of it over the weekend.