How to get a Software Engineer Internship in 2024 (with no experience)
Summary
TLDRThe video offers valuable advice for those seeking software internships, emphasizing the importance of exploring opportunities beyond co-op websites, optimizing resumes with keywords, leveraging AI tools to streamline the application process, and networking with peers for referrals and insights. It also suggests adding relevant projects to one's resume and applying to a variety of companies regardless of size. The speaker shares personal experiences and tips, including the significance of LeetCode practice for technical interviews, ultimately encouraging persistence and learning from each application.
Takeaways
- 🔍 Expand your search beyond co-op websites for more internship opportunities.
- 🌐 Utilize GitHub and LinkedIn to find comprehensive job postings in one place.
- 📄 Optimize your resume with relevant keywords and maintain a simple, one-page format.
- 🤖 Use AI tools like chatbots to streamline the application process, including cover letter writing and resume customization.
- 💡 AI can also aid in interview preparation by generating potential behavioral and technical questions.
- 👥 Network with peers for referrals, job search experiences, and learning from their insights.
- 🔄 Include mentorships, hackathons, and personal projects on your resume to showcase experience.
- 🏢 Apply to both large and small companies for internships to increase your chances.
- 💻 Practice LeetCode problems to prepare for technical interviews, even if you're new to coding.
- 🚀 Persistence is key - every application brings you one step closer to a job offer.
Q & A
What is the main challenge the speaker faced when looking for their first software internship?
-The main challenge the speaker faced was not receiving responses after sending out numerous applications and feeling uncertain about the process.
How many applications did the speaker send out daily during their month-long search for their first internship?
-The speaker sent out five applications every day.
What was the speaker's initial reaction to the lack of responses to their job applications?
-The speaker emailed their Co-op coordinator asking if something was wrong.
What is the first tip the speaker shares for landing a software internship?
-The first tip is to know where to look for opportunities and not to limit oneself to just co-op websites.
Which platforms does the speaker recommend for finding software internship postings?
-The speaker recommends using GitHub, LinkedIn, and websites like workast.com for startup opportunities.
How can the applicant tracking system (ATS) impact a resume's chance of being seen by a hiring manager?
-The ATS scans the resume and gives it a score based on how well it matches the job posting; if the resume does not pass the ATS, it is often rejected before reaching the hiring manager.
What is the significance of using AI tools like chat GPT in the application process?
-AI tools can streamline the application process by reducing the time spent on writing cover letters and customizing resumes.
How can networking be beneficial in the context of finding a software internship?
-Networking can provide valuable insights from peers about job searches and company experiences, as well as potentially leading to referrals and connections with recruiters.
What types of experiences can be added to a resume to demonstrate skills and knowledge without having completed an internship?
-Mentorships, hackathons, and personal projects can be included on a resume to showcase relevant skills and experiences.
Why is it important to apply to both big and small companies for internships?
-Applying to a variety of companies increases the chances of landing an internship and provides exposure to different work environments and opportunities.
What advice does the speaker give for leveraging LeetCode in the context of preparing for technical interviews?
-The speaker suggests regularly practicing LeetCode problems to become familiar with common technical interview questions and improve problem-solving skills.
Outlines
📄 Finding the Right Opportunities for a Software Internship
This paragraph discusses the importance of looking beyond just co-op websites when searching for a software internship. The speaker shares their personal experience of sending out numerous applications without success and eventually finding opportunities through various channels such as GitHub repositories and LinkedIn. They emphasize the value of not limiting oneself to the co-op program and exploring job postings on company career pages. The paragraph also highlights the significance of being aware of different platforms where tech companies post their internships, including big tech companies and startups.
📄 Crafting an Effective Resume and Leveraging AI Tools
The focus of this paragraph is on the critical role of a resume in securing an interview. The speaker explains that many resumes are rejected by the applicant tracking system (ATS) due to formatting and keyword mismatches. They advise keeping the resume simple, one-page, and keyword-optimized. The paragraph also introduces the use of AI tools like chatbots to streamline the application process, including writing cover letters and customizing resumes. Additionally, the speaker shares their personal experience with AI in interview preparation, suggesting that it can help generate relevant behavioral and technical questions to practice.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡software internship
💡job applications
💡Co-op program
💡ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
💡AI (Artificial Intelligence)
💡networking
💡LeetCode
💡resume tailoring
💡job search platforms
💡referrals
💡experience
Highlights
The speaker shares personal experience of searching for a software internship and the challenges faced.
Sending out a high volume of applications is emphasized, with the speaker having sent out five applications daily for a month.
The importance of looking beyond co-op websites for internship opportunities is stressed, as not all positions are listed there.
Large tech companies may not always post on university co-op pages, so alternative job searching methods are necessary.
GitHub and LinkedIn are recommended as platforms for finding job postings and opportunities.
The speaker discovered GitHub repositories for internship postings, which are frequently updated.
The resume is crucial and should be well-formatted and keyword-optimized to pass the applicant tracking system.
AI tools like chatbots can help streamline the application process by reducing time spent on cover letters and resume customization.
AI can also assist in interview preparation by generating potential behavioral or technical questions.
Networking is important, but it's more about discussing experiences and learning from peers rather than just referrals.
The speaker emphasizes the value of sharing experiences and knowledge with peers, which can lead to discovering new opportunities.
Non-traditional experiences like hackathons and personal projects can be included on resumes to demonstrate skills and experience.
Applying to both large and small companies is encouraged, as it broadens the range of potential internships.
LeetCode is essential for technical interview preparation and there are resources available to help with LeetCode problems.
The speaker's Co-op coordinator's email highlights the importance of persistence and learning from the job search process.
Every job application brings one step closer to a job offer, and patience is key in the job search process.
Transcripts
hello everyone if you clicked on this
video you're probably looking for a
software internship maybe you've sent
out 50 applications and haven't really
heard anything back when I was looking
for my first software internship I sent
out five applications every day for a
month and I didn't hear anything I even
emailed my Co-op coordinator asking him
if something was wrong if you want to
know what my Co-op coordinator said back
to me stay till the end of this video
today I'm share with you seven tips that
hopefully you haven't heard about before
to help you land a software internship
these tips are not just theories or
things I saw on Reddit they're based on
my personal journey and I actually use
these tips every day when I apply for
new graad positions my first piece of
advice is know where to look for
opportunities don't limit yourself to
just the co-op websites this is a
mistake that I made for my first
internship the co-op website has a lot
of opportunities but not all of them a
lot of big tech companies are not posted
on the UBC Co-op page and if you're not
in Co-op don't worry I actually have a
lot of friends who dropped out of the
co-op program because they found
internships outside of Co-op and my
Amazon internship was actually not
through Co-op at all I found that job
posting just on the Amazon career Pages
now if you want to know a place to look
for these job postings aside from the
company career page you can use GitHub
or LinkedIn to find all the job
opportunities in one place I actually
only found out about the GitHub repos
about a year ago and I've been using it
ever since there will be GitHub repos
with every single internship posting
from Canada and the US these GitHub
repos are also updated really frequently
so you can check on them every single
day for new job postings another obvious
one is LinkedIn you can use their job
tabs to find new internships also if you
are interested in working at a startup
there are a bunch of Y combinator
startups listed in workast startup.com
I'm surprised that not everyone knows
about the GitHub repos and I've had to
tell a few of my classmates to apply to
new grad jobs on there number two your
resume is your ticket in in it's
important to note that about 75% of your
resumees are actually rejected before
reaching the hiring manager this is
often because your resume did not pass
the applicant tracking system basically
the ATS scans your resume and gives it a
score based on how well it matches the
job posting this shows how important it
is to have a resume that is well
formatted and keyword optimized make
sure your resume is one page keep it
really simple not colorful or any icons
on it if you're looking for a template
that you can you use Jake's resume and
I've linked it down below this is a
template that I've been using for my
resumés for the last 8 months tailor
your resume to include the specific
keywords or specific scills that the job
hting listed remember that a
well-crafted resume is your gateway into
getting an interview number three use AI
to accelerate the application process
Embrace AI to streamline your
application tools like chat gbt can
significantly reduce the time you spent
on writing cover l letters and
customizing resumes over a year ago I
actually made a video about how to use
chat TBT to write cover letters so if
you want to watch that video you can see
in the description I actually don't
really write cover letters anymore but
if you were writing cover letters it
would save you so much time to write
them using chat gvt another tool that I
just started using in my new grad job
search is simplify it will AutoFill in
your address it will AutoFill in all the
job work experience you had your
graduation date everything like that and
make your process so much easier
simplify also has features that allow
you to write customized resumés and
cover letters number four use AI to help
with interview preparation AI can
revolutionize your interview prep you
can use it to generate a list of
Behavioral or technical questions that
you can use to practice before when I
was preparing for an interview I would
often look at Reddit blind glass door or
even the Le code forums and look for
other people's personal experience when
when interviewing with a company this
can be really insightful and help you
learn exactly what this company is
looking for during an interview and what
kind of questions they might ask but
looking all over the Internet for this
information can be a little timec
consuming you can make this process a
lot faster if you have chat4 and use
their web scraping to find all of the
posts in one search this approach has
made me feel a lot more confident going
to interviews because I know exactly
what to expect number five networking I
know you've probably heard this word a
ton and it's really overused but I'm
going to use it in a way you might not
think one of the big things that I
immediately think of when I think of
networking is referrals but referrals
don't actually help you that much when
it comes to internship what networking
really is is talking to your peers you
can talk to them about their experiences
with their job search or their
experience working at a company I had a
friend tell me recently you should apply
to Microsoft because they just opened
their new grad and I've even learned
about new companies that I've never
heard about through my peers another
thing that I learned from a girl in my
tutorial class is that I should switch
from java to python when doing leak code
this summer one of my friends actually
introduced me to her recruiter from a
previous internship through this
connection I actually was able to get
past the resume screen and get a OA a
lot faster so talking to your peers and
networking and growing your circle can
have so many benefits to helping with
your interview prep hi just popping into
the video really quick I thought I'd
just Shar that in my first 2 years of
University I actually had a really hard
time making friends and I didn't have
any CS friends that I could ask any
questions about or learn from and if
you're on the same boat this February
I'll be sending out weekly emails
sharing all the things I've learned
throughout the years from my peers some
of the things I'll be writing about is
which language is best to use for lead
code and how to make your resume really
stand out and some job postings that I
think you should apply to if you're
interested in this there'll be a link in
description now back to the video number
six other experiences you can add to
your resume looking for your first
internships is a bit of a paradox you're
looking for an internship because you
want experience but the internship
itself requires experience so it can be
kind of difficult to figure out what to
put on your resume to show I have
experience when I don't actually have
internship experience on your resume you
can add any mentorships you've done
hackathons or projects when I was
applying to my first software internship
on my resume I included a full stack
project that I worked on if there's a
specific company you like to work for to
make your resume standout you can create
a project that uses their Technologies
for example if you'd like to apply to
stripe you could create a project that
uses the stripe API and if you like to
apply to Amazon you can create a project
that uses AWS Services number seven
apply to big and small positions when
you're applying to internships don't
limit yourself to small and midsize
companies because you never know know
your first internship could be big Tech
I honestly applied to Amazon on a whim I
did not think that I was qualified to
work there or I did not think that I was
good enough I think that if you never
apply to these places you never give
yourself the opportunity Amazon hired
over 10,000 interns in 2023 and though
it was not that common I did meet a
handful of people who worked at Amazon
as their first internship so cast a wide
net in your applications apply to both
big and small companies there are
benefits to working out both and don't
limit yourself number eight here's a
bonus tip do leak code if you don't know
already you should probably get started
on doing leak code when I was looking
for my first Co-op I actually did not
know about leak code I did not know that
I had to remember anything for my data
structures and algorithms class that
made doing my first round of interviews
really embarrassing and really hard leak
code is essential for preparing for
technical interviews now if you you're
looking for a really great resource or a
really great way to keep track of your
Elite code questions or figure out how
to solve these Le code questions you
should definitely check out NE code I
know this is really confusing but NE
code makes wonderful YouTube videos on
how to solve lead code problems and he
also has a really great website that can
help you keep track of these Le code
problems that you're solving personally
I think if if you just do the 75 blind
lead code questions that will be good
enough to prepare for any software
internship interviews it does seem like
a lot of work to do on top of any school
or job or any job applications you might
be doing but if you just do a few
questions a day this shouldn't take you
more than 30 minutes you can definitely
fit into your schedule and it'll be so
worth it in the end when you get your
offer now if you watch to the end of
this video thank you I wanted to share
with you what my Co-op coordinator said
to me when I was emailing in him about
just feeling lost looking for jobs this
email is from 2021 it goes hello my
friend I looked at your applications you
appli to 30 unique companies and you
have received two interviews that's not
a bad rate enjoy the job search process
because it could be a lot worse when it
comes to full-time placement and he's
right it is these experiences will help
you with your full-time job search when
you graduate which can be daunting
without work experience you are doing
the right things keep doing that just be
patient hold on do not give up yet and
let disappointment creep in again as I
said earlier enjoy the process and treat
everything as a learning opportunity an
interview and an offer is just around
the corner that's it for today remember
that persistence is key and every job
application is one step closer to the
job offer if you want to know how I got
my Amazon internship or my internship
Journey click these videos good luck on
your internship applications I'll see
see you in the next video
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