Comprehensive Guide to Landing Your First Software Engineering Internship

Introduction

• Speaker: Sad, Computer Science Master's graduate from Georgia Tech
• Experience: First big tech job at age 20, $220,000/year at companies like Amazon
• Purpose: Provide an 8-week guide for landing internships as slots for summer 2025 open.

Week 1-2: Build Projects

• Importance of Projects: These serve as experience before formal work.
• Beginner Projects:
  • Simple calculator in Java
  • To-do list in Python
• Intermediate Projects:
  1. Full Stack Web Application:
     • Example: Pomodoro timer (project management tool)
     • Frontend: ReactJS
     • Backend: Python or Java
  2. Machine Learning Project:
     • Use datasets from Kaggle (e.g., predicting COVID-19 deaths)
     • Libraries: Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, Matplotlib

Week 3: Resume Preparation

• Common Resume Mistakes: Poor formatting.
• Resume Tips:
  1. Education Dates: Remove start dates; only include expected graduation date.
  2. Citizenship Status: Include if applicable for faster recruitment.
  3. High School Experience: Remove unless it’s technical.
  4. Value of Experiences: Focus on projects over volunteering.
  5. Quantify Achievements: Use numbers to highlight impact.

Week 4: Networking

• Networking Basics:
  • Use LinkedIn to connect with professionals at target companies.
• Cold Outreach:
  • Message engineers for informational interviews.
  • Build rapport before asking for referrals.

Week 5: Job Applications

• Resources for Job Openings:
  1. NotifyDoc Careers: Daily job postings based on location/salary.
  2. Levels.fyi: Information on compensation packages.
  3. LinkedIn: Easy application process.
  4. Google: Search for internships directly.

Week 6: Behavioral Interview Preparation

• Key Tips:
  1. Maintain a good personality.
  2. Know your resume inside out; prepare stories for key experiences.
  3. Understand and incorporate company leadership principles, especially for Amazon.

Week 7: Technical Interview Preparation

• Interview Formats:
  1. Online assessments
  2. Video interviews
  3. Whiteboard interviews
• Focus Areas:
  • Data structures and algorithms.
  • Recommended resource: LeetCode (practice based on types of data structures).
  • If stuck, use Geeks for Geeks for solutions and explanations.

Week 8: Offer Negotiation and Preparation

• Negotiation:
  • Do not negotiate salary unless you have a competing offer.
• Post-Offer Activities:
  • Celebrate, then reach out to recruiters/managers to prepare for the internship.

Conclusion

• Thank you for watching!
• Encourage likes and subscriptions for more content on software engineering.