I am currently a senior year computer science student at university. Up to the point I wrote this post, I have done accumulated 16 months internships in 2 different companies in total in the past 3 years. Although it has been almost 3 years since I got my first internship, but I won't forget how intimidating it was when I was looking for my first job. There's a millions of questions back then in my mind and I wished there's somebody could just sit down with me and answer them all. This motivates me to write down some of the questions I had in the past and I will try to answer them from the angle of a university student. If you are an upper year student or you already have some work experience in the past, you might want to skip this post because chances are you might already know all the stuff I am going to talk about below.

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Question: As a first year student, I only finished those mandatory first year introductory programming courses at school. Would I be able to get a summer job?

Answer: Yes, you will be able to get a summer job if you try hard enough in your job searching. I am not gonna deny or sugarcoat the difficulties in this job searching process. In most cases, employees are favor in those students who have prior related work experiences. However, don't give up! Everyone has their first time. The best strategy here is to apply to as many jobs as you could even if you think you are not completely qualified to the position. Let the managers decide if you are the best candidate. Don't turn off a job post simply because you think you are not "good" enough for them .

Question: I have no prior work experience so my resume is almost blank. What should I do?

Answer: If you are clueless about what you should write on your resume, you should attend some resume workshops and consult your school career center just to get an idea of it. You could list the course projects that you have completed in your introductory programming courses at school. I know everyone else in your school probably has done the same assignment/project in class, but hey, the manager doesn’t have to know that! Showcase your course projects and be proud of them! If you have sufficient time, you could also sign up for the most recent upcoming Hackathon in your city. Put the hackathon experience under the section of extra curriculum to show employees that you are active in the field.

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Question: I don't know what companies are out there. What should I do?

Answer: Consult your school career center. They might already have a list ready for you. If not, you could go to Leetcode dashboard and check out the companies tags. Go to each company home page, do ctrl+f search the keywords "Career", "Join us" or "Jobs" etc. They are usually hidden at the bottom of their home page.

Question: How early should I start looking for my summer internship?

Answer: Most companies will start posting their internship opportunities 4 months prior than the start day. Some companies will have some jobs posting 8 months ahead. I have also seen companies post their internship positions 12 months ahead but they are rare. You won’t miss most of the opportunities if you start looking for your job 4 months ahead. For example, if your estimated start date is in May, you should start at least looking for job in January.

Question: How long do I have to wait before I can get my first interview?

Answer: In my own experience, most first timers will get one interview out of every 5 jobs they applied. In average, they will get one offer after every 3 interviews. Be patient and keep applying! The data I provided above does not have official statistic to back up. I was just purely speaking from my own experience and the experiences I heard from my peers.

Question: What can I do on the side when I am applying for internship?

Answer: Do some leetcode questions as practice. If you are a first year student, you probably haven't had a chance to learn advanced algorithm yet and that's totally okay. You could search the topic you have already learnt on leetcode and work on those problems by tag. There's a "Learn" section on Leetcode "Explore" tab, open it and then you will see Leetcode has already grouped all the data structure questions by topic for you. As a first year student, you should have enough knowledge to work on all those questions after you finish your second semester. There’s also some articles in each chapter to help you review the data structure you learned in class. Practice makes perfect.

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Question: I just recieved an interview request, now what?

Answer: Don't panic. If you get an interview request, it means the company think you are potentially the best candidate for this job. There's 5 steps you might consider to follow. Step #1: Look up the company online and get to know them. Step #2: Search interview questions on Leetcode by company tag and practice them. Step #3: Go to the Discussion board on Leetcode. There might be some people already shared their interview experiences there so check it out! Step #4: Get a good night of sleep! Step #5: Be confident! You lose literally nothing even if you fail the interview!

Question: I have conflict with my requested interview time, what should I do?

Answer: Try to accomodate the time. If there's any difficulties, email the person who contacted you for interview. They will be happy to rearrange a new time for you. Don't be afraid. If there's any confusion, just ask.

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Question: I got an offer. What's next?

Answer: Congratulations to make it this far. Now you have an offer, just make sure you accept the offer before the expired date. If you are an international student or you are going to work oversea, make sure you have your travel document and work permit ready or make sure you are in the process of applying/renewing them.

Question: I did't get any offer for my summer internship. What can I do?

Answer: Don't be too frustrated. It's totally normal if you couldn't get a job as a first year student. All you need to do is to try again next semester! Through job searching, you might gain a basic idea of what employees look for when they are hiring. Figure out what areas you should work on so that you could be more prepared next time when you look for jobs.

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Question: tomorrow is my first day of work. Is there anything I should know?

Answer: I am gonna highlight a few things that you should know before you start. If you could, ask your HR or manager ahead of time about your company dress code. If you don't know the dress code, you should always dress up instead of dress down on your first day. Arrange a meeting or a small conversation with your manager on your first day, you should discuss the expectations with your manager regarding your job duty. Speaking from my own experience, it might take you some time to read/get familiar a large code base before you could write your first line of code at work. This is necessary and it's the same process for every other new intern. If there's anything you don't know, you could ask your coworker. They will be happy to help.

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Usually internship is only 4 months. Time goes by fast, so spend your time wisely during your internship. Balance your work hours and social life at work. Ask for career advice from your managers or your coworkers during your internship. You don't have to agree to everything they said but sometimes their advice or opinions might open your eyes. Once you get your first job, I assure you that it will be easier for you to find a job next time. Good luck!