I've sent out about 500 applications for next summer, specifically for internships. I've done probably about 25 follow-up activities of some sort at this point and would say I have about 6-8 companies that are actively pursuing me.
A littlie about me:
- No-name CS university in the United States
- High GPA
- No industry-related experience
- No connections
The problem is that I'm not getting pursued for the roles I want. I'm consistently getting recruited for data analyst internships and I'm specifically looking for software development/engineer internships.
This week, I had a final round interview with a big tech company for a data analyst internship. Today, I received the offer, which is my first and only offer to date. I have about 3 weeks to respond. Next week, I have another final round interview with a different company for a data analyst internship. I forgot to ask the question in my past interview if there is a chance to move to a different team once you have completed an internship or if they specifically seek to onboard new grads to the same team they worked on. However, I plan to ask this question in my upcoming interview this week with the other company.
I received a few OAs this season for SWE roles, but I did not do that well on a few of them, and I was not followed up with any. I felt like most of the OAs I received were ones that got sent out to everyone who applied. I got one from Salesforce that I literally missed seeing in my email due to the overwhelming amount of virtual interview requests I received and a recruiter personally followed up with me to complete it, which I did that day but I have not had any further action.
I'm close to wrapping up the application/interview process now that I have an offer. I'm so frustrated with how many interviews and HireVue's I've done and how much time I've lost to the application process itself. I'm very concerned with the fact that most offers will be for virtual and remote work as I can't stand working from home anymore and I can't really stand my family anymore either. The part I was most looking forward to outside of the job itself was going somewhere else for next summer and finally leaving home.
I really don't know what to do other than hope a SWE intern offer comes my way as I still haven't heard back from about half of the companies I've applied to at this point. I haven't even bothered to apply to any competitive companies or big-N's because I have no previous experience. I've applied to mostly larger companies and I would say about 50% of my applications were to "competitive" roles. I'm so tired of the hostility I've experienced both at and away from my university in this field.
I understand that my lack of experience is mostly to blame for this situation. I am starting graduate school for an MS in CS in January and will be targeting a new grad role for summer/fall 2022. I'll admit I didn't even bother applying to jobs or internships until now nearing the end of undergrad because I didn't go to a competitive program, my parents had been laid off multiple times in the past 5 years, and I didn't even really see a job bringing me any sort of happiness. The way I see it, there isn't anything special about me that sets me apart and I understand that nobody is under any obligation to hire me. My school literally gave me several experiences that made me feel they didn't believe in me when I expressed interest in certain programs and opportunities outside the classroom and I didn't take that lightly. Like I said, the hostility in this field really has me disinterested in most people at this point; nobody is obligated to hire me anyways. I understand we all aren't going to make it to FAANG and Stanford, so trust me when I tell you I'm not trying to take you or anybody else's place. If I was a poor-performing student with absolutely no technical skills, I would understand this treatment. But I've made efforts, I've done projects outside of class, I understand this field is competitive, and I have social skills to the point where I understand that not everything is work.
I really don't even know if I should accept these data analyst offers because I really don't want to go into them long-term. Right now, I simply see it as something to strengthen a resume going forward moving into the next interview season for Fall 2021 internships as I would finally have experience to talk about. With regards to other applications, some people say that there are other companies who are still recruiting or don't touch applications until closer to the end of the year. So at this point, I would ideally hope to have one of those companies hire me later in the year for a SWE role. But again, I don't really know or have much faith to believe that I will hear back from those companies. For most people I know, right around now is when they are doing final round interviews and receiving/accepting offers. I know I really shouldn't be complaining when there are many other people who haven't received offers yet with hiring freezes, but this is where I am.