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How to Score a Great Software Internship

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My Views are my own and my own only.

Internships are a great way to get valuable experience and make some 💰💰 while you are at it. They help you chose a career path and make connections. Below are a few tips which will help you score a software internship. These tips helped me land an internship and I hope they help you too.

WHERE TO APPLY

  1. University Career Portal
  2. LinkdIn
  3. Glassdoor
  4. Indeed
  5. AngelList

RESUME

More often than not companies use resume scanners to filter out good candidates. Application Tracking System (ATS) use match rate algorithms to check how well the resume matches to the job description. 99 percent of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS as part of their recruiting strategy.

  • Make sure your resume is tailored to the job description.
  • Include buzzwords and keywords.
  • Try out a few free ATS available online ( JobScan , resume worded , cv scan etc)
  • Resume should ideally be a single page and should be up to date

There are a few subreddits and Facebook groups for resume critique, you might find them helpful.

SIDE PROJECTS

A good substitute for work experience are side projects. Your side projects need not be groundbreaking. As long as it is complex enough to teach you something new and a fairly large project , it is a good way to showcase your skills and experience. You could start off with code-along projects on udemy, youtube. Make sure you know the ins and outs of your project and are able to speak about it in an interview. Be prepared to answer questions such as “What could have been done better?” , “ Why did you chose technology ?” .

Here a few helpful resources:

INTERVIEW

You don’t want to end up like that guy 😅

Here are a few points to keep in mind:

  • Before going for an interview research about the company.
  • Read about the experiences of the past candidates who interviewed for a position similar to yours at that company. Glassdoor has a section where candidates talk about their interview experience and mention the questions they were asked.
  • Search for your interviewer on LinkedIn and during the interview, ask them about their experiences and interests. Your are more likely to get the job if you can keep the conversation going. Interviewers want to make sure that they can work with you for 8 hours a day and in high pressure situations.
  • Prepare questions to ask at the end of the interview. Asking good questions will make you stand out.
  • Send a mail to thank the interviewer for their time. Also try to mention something interesting you discussed with them during the interview.

A few questions you could ask, “What are your views on technology X?” , “ What do you like most about working at company Y?” , “ Which aspect of the internship do you think will have the steepest learning curve?”

CONCLUSION

Whether you are an internee or a full-time employee, you have to make sure you are familiar with what tech stack companies are using.  Particularly, project management tech are pretty confusing and each company has their own criteria and SOP for project management. So I would recommend getting some experience using these basic softwares.

You will face a lot of rejections in the process, you might be ghosted by a few companies but don’t take it personally. As a few of my friends like to say, “Just take the L and move on”. It is all a game of numbers and if you keep on trying and work hard, I am sure you’ll be able to score an internship 😃

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