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Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

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Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#1

Post by indielol »

I'm from India. I applied for internships at various startups, Facebook and Google. It's been a week and I have been rejected by everybody(Twitter, Stripe, Palantir, Quora) except Facebook and Google, probably because they take longer to respond.

I'm trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. Is it the fact that I'll need J1 visa sponsorship if I'm accepted, that the startups don't want to consider international applicants? I consider myself pretty good at coding, at least for my age (20). I have experience as a successful startup founder while I was 17. I've done many freelancing projects 3 of them are on my resume. I have experience with NodeJS, Angular, multiple APIs (Twitter, Facebook). I know JavaScript, PHP and C. I've mentioned all of this on my resume. I'm studying at a college nobody knows about and have average GPA. What am I doing wrong? Is this just not enough to get a good internship?

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#3

Post by iamshs »

It is not because of the Visa. Sponsoring a J1/F1 visa is easy for companies/Universities.

Are you in second or third year? Now is not the time for app'ing. October end is when you should typically start. Don't worry about Visa, it is easily arranged and in short time.

Indian students bombard inboxes at intern time, so you have to be daft with everything in your email, subject line, email and a one page resume. Time your app to US mornings so that your email stays at top. Learn to use Google advanced search. Trawl LinkedIn. My knowledge is 6 year old but I did successfully interned at US and Europe, get hold of one of your IIT/NIT friends and ask for some modern fundaes. If you want to contact me, my email is in profile. I am going to sleep, so maybe in email tomorrow I can be more detailed.

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#4

Post by coralreef »

I know great engineering students from reputable school (University of Waterloo) that got rejected by Facebook and Google for internships. Competition is tough, these guys get to choose from the best of the best, and pay very well even for an internship.

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#5

Post by bzalasky »

Don't be discouraged. If you're open to constructive feedback, share some of your side projects with the HN community. I'd also encourage you to explore more opportunities, as Google, Facebook, etc... probably get more applications than they can handle. We have an active internship program at Lookout Mobile Security that provides real, hands-on experience, if you're interested (https://www.lookout.com/about/careers/detail?gh_jid=2141).

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#6

Post by phaus »

I think its probably a combination of your average GPA from a school nobody's heard about and the fact that you only seem to be applying to companies that have a reputation for extremely high standards.

You seem to be looking at normal companies the exact same way the elite companies are viewing an average student from an average school. Perhaps you should branch out? There are tons of great companies out there with internship programs.

And as others have mentioned, I'd try to sell the entrepreneurship experience and any side-projects you may have completed harder than anything else.

Keep trying. Keep submitting as many applications as you can to different companies right up until the day you accept an internship.

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#7

Post by indielol »

iamshs wrote: post #3

It is not because of the Visa. Sponsoring a J1/F1 visa is easy for companies/Universities. Are you in second or third year? Now is not the time for app'ing. October end is when you should typically start. Don't worry about Visa, it is easily arranged and in short time. Indian students bombard inboxes at intern time, so you have to be daft with everything in your email, subject line, email and a one page resume. Time…

I'm in 3rd year. Thanks! I will email you.

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#8

Post by indielol »

coralreef wrote: post #4

I know great engineering students from reputable school (University of Waterloo) that got rejected by Facebook and Google for internships. Competition is tough, these guys get to choose from the best of the best, and pay very well even for an internship.

I read a lot about how you get at least 1 interview if you have done side projects. I hope I get that.

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#9

Post by indielol »

phaus wrote: post #6

I think its probably a combination of your average GPA from a school nobody's heard about and the fact that you only seem to be applying to companies that have a reputation for extremely high standards. You seem to be looking at normal companies the exact same way the elite companies are viewing an average student from an average school. Perhaps you should branch out? There are tons of great companies out there with…

I think it was a mistake to put "Education" at the top. Here's my resume - http://goo.gl/rswmvC

Re: Ask HN: I've been rejected for internships. What am I doing wrong?

#10

Post by indielol »

bzalasky wrote: post #5

Don't be discouraged. If you're open to constructive feedback, share some of your side projects with the HN community. I'd also encourage you to explore more opportunities, as Google, Facebook, etc... probably get more applications than they can handle. We have an active internship program at Lookout Mobile Security that provides real, hands-on experience, if you're interested ( https://www.lookout.com/about/careers/…

Yes, definitely open for any feedback. Here's my resume - http://goo.gl/rswmvC Thanks! I will apply at Lookout.
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