finally graduated this summer. got my b.sc in computer science from an OK college.

i've been applying for the last ~4 weeks for jobs, mainly from linkedin and ********. builded my CV with the help of some people that are familar in the industry - so overall its the best I can send companies (without lying ofcourse).

polished my linkedin profile and my github. uploaded a couple of projects.
keeping tracks in an excel for every job i apply to.


over all?
sent my CV 64 times so far
2 phones calls
0 intreviews

i understand it takes alot of time to get your first job and that the situation in the IT world is slowing down atm but still, not even getting an intreview?
im getting seriously depressed about this lately. im legit poor af atm and keep stressing about money.. meanwhile i work in a chitty part time job that pays like ~60% of what i spend.
i want so hard to finally start my career, to learn from top companies and grow, to finally have some decent money and invest and afford good chit.
its been hard AF this last 3 years, study wise mentally wise financial wise but i always told myself that after those 3 years chit will start to go the right way...



how did you got your first job? what would you recommend me to do? i build personal projects and send CV's everyday

Are you applying for internships too?

Apply at bigger companies too. Small companies can actually be harder to get a job at because they often are unreasonably picky with what specific experience/knowledge you have, whereas big companies just care that you can code well

Work on leetcode problems in your downtime. If you get an interview. You don’t want to fail it

Don’t worry about your personal projects/GitHub. Nobody cares about that on the other side

Consulting agency. Great cause they usually have like boot camps to help in some skills and also you could get a few different clients in a short time to get experience on a few projects. Makes interviewing for a better job easier.

internships here are no pay so no. and yes i leetcode every other day to be intreview-ready.
ye i talked to a bunch of them... on average its a couple of months bootcamp that you dont pay for and then later the take a small cut for a year from your salary. the problem is the bootcamps are full time and i cant afford to have 0 income for so long.

Internships are not no pay -- you should have done at least one while still in school and you wouldn't be in this sitaution.

We pay our interns over $30 an hour.

If you aren't in USA which it appears might be the case then idk -- Europe and Asia tech workers don't seem to be treated and compensated nearly as well.

here its no pay sadly.

Well first you gotta join the terrorist team. You join the CTs and you gotta buy the defusal kit because nobody else on your team buys one even if you bitch at them over teamspeak.

Always get a rifle instead of SMGs or pistols. Only loser ****s use snipers all the time because it's pleb and takes little skill after you get the hang of using one. If you get the AK you can fuk up some limpdick using an awp trying to snipe from 40 feet away like they always do. He won't be able to get his **** straight so he won't land any shots. If some ***got camper is being a camper get the bomb and set it. That will get his ***got ass out of hiding. Yeah dude this is how we play the game; if you want to play deathmatch go play Unreal Tournament

That's how you get a good K-D ratio. Make sure you check your /rank in the server every round or two so you can keep current

Bruh gonna be honest if u didnt get an internship your 2nd or 3rd year summer it will be way harder, thats when you are supposed to get an internship that gives you a return offer.

Also it is not a great time for tech jobs right now, might even be hiring freeze. Are you American? If not, will be harder to get a job in SF where most cs tech bros work..

Cold applying for jobs is also extremely low chances unless you have a great resume and prior experience. You need to hit up some connections at these places to get internal recommendations.

Otherwise, it will probably be 100 applications for like 1-2 interviews srs

Good luck

It took hundreds of applications and over a year to land my first job, and it ended up being something kinda crappy.

I know a bunch of people that went through what I did. On the other hand, I have a friend who went to a for-profit unaccredited school that was placed at an amazing job while still in school.

If you're not having any luck after a while I'd try revature if they're still around. They suck, but it'll at least get your foot in the door. In the beginning you can't be picky at all, this field just sucks. Don't get depressed or be hard on yourself, a ton of people go through what you're going through. You'll make eventually.

This tbh. I’m actually trying to jump from the trades and it’s the same way on that side of the career fence too.

I’m assuming you’ve never had a career job OP (no hate) so you probably don’t understand how the workforce in general works when it comes to hiring.

It’s always easier to get a job at a bigger company with little experience because they either have the staff to pick up the extra slack while you gain experience or are willing invest in you and guide you as you get better.

Just how it works with most jobs. Smaller companies never want to teach anyone and are always more stressful to work for.

Edit : I see you didn’t do an internship in college. That’s probably your issue tbh. No professional experience.

You can’t be picky entering a new career field either so take whatever you can get when a opportunity does come along DFS.

Edit : you’re not in the US so essentially you’re treated like a tradie as a tech worker lol

Kind of a long post, but I was in this situation 5 months ago.

I work at a Fortune 200 NOC w/ a computer science degree. Graduated in March. Hired in April. Spent 2-3 weeks applying. Make roughly 65k/yr.

If you are going for SWE roles, I really can't help you on how to GET the job, but I had a similar resume from what it looks like. BSc in CS, a handful of projects on github, and mass applying.

There are programs that put you through a boot camp and require a year or 2 long commitment. You sacrifice max salary for that contract, but usually they will sign you on based on good performance. Check out a company like Wiley/MThree. I heard good reviews on Dev10. If you are DESPERATE, check out Revature. Your salary will be 40-50% of what it COULD be, but if you really just want to get that first 2 years of experience, then you can sign with them and afterwards, you will be employable everywhere.

Tips:
1) 67 CVs is NOTHING. I sent at least a few hundred, and even then that is nothing. Do not get disappointed by going 0 for 67. I get it though and I had days where I would vent to my fiancee but realistically speaking, I was venting after not hearing anything for the 3 days after I sent my first batch of resumes. In hindsight, that is pathetic. Ignore the results, and just keep applying. Some companies will contact you legit 2 weeks after sending a resume. Don't get discouraged.

2) Leetcode. One of these days you will get an interview. Entry-level SWE roles are heavy on Leetcode. Learn how to do Easy and Mediums for all data structures on Leetcode. If you are able to do those relatively easily, then when you do get interviews, you will eventually ace one of them getting you a job. However because my current role is in an NOC, I didn't have to do this for my interview obviously. I had my CCNA and was able to answer the networking based questions they had. However, do leetcode because you do not want to be caught unprepared when you eventually get an interview.

3) Think about the programs that put you through a boot camp. Companies like MThree and Dev 10 will put you in a paid boot camp (Like $15/hr during the bootcamp) then pay like ~50k for a 1-2 year contact. If you are wanting to just kick the door down, this might be a good option. However, the downside is that you limit your initial earnings. If you are patient, this might not be a bad option because once the contract is over, you will have a high chance of being signed on by the company(Usually a solid company) or getting hired with another company for a non-entry level SWE role typically paying 100k+ depending on how good your skills are on completion.

4) There is a hint of luck involved. I'd be dumb to not even mention it. I happened to luck into my job because a whole bunch of people left, and while my job wasn't necessarily entry level, I happened to message a recruiter who was new and wanting to sign on her first person. If it had been someone w/ experience, I probably would not have heard back.

Increase your chances of luck by not getting discouraged and keep applying.

The process is really simple OP. It really is, however, you just need to be unwavering when you get rejected by job after job after job. I would send resumes one night. Like 50. Then on 8am the next day I would just get auto-rejected by 20-30 of them. Absolutely demoralizing, but you can't let it get to you. Stay applying, be persistent, and eventually you will get call backs, interviews, and if you're prepared for the interviews, the job.

All it takes is one OP.

Back when I was job hunting, I averaged 1 interview per 100 resumes, so you aren't doing too bad.

Apply nonstop to any job you meet even 50% of the requirements for. 100 apps a week isn't crazy at all. And ask anyone in the business you know for a referral.

Worst case scenario - go into the Military for something IT and/or Cybersecurity related to get experience/certs/etc. IF you do it correctly it could pay off big time and you could be in very high demand for civilian jobs afterwards.

My bootcamp I got paid for that time. Guess it depends on the company.

I would start a side project that you can include in your resume/cover letter to show your skills. Doesnt have to make money or be unique business idea.

I fukking hate recruiters from the bottom of my soul.

There was a point of my Rona-tacular job hunt where I was looking at contract work cause that was all that was available. Some Indian recruiters wanted to hook me up with a contract job at Intel that was paying $40/hr. I told them I'll take it, tell this boss I'm cool with it and interested in signing.

They come back to me with a contract. "The boss has changed his rate, $35/hr." Strong wtf, Indiabro. You told me $40. "You did not affix your signature for the $40/hr rate. Please sign now for $35/hr."

That's the kind of scummy closing technique Brad might use to sell his mutual funds. Get me committed, then change the terms at the last minute and hope I'm in too deep to back out. If I just fold like a beta and go along with it, that's 12% extra profit on the contract for ******

I raged at that guy for a couple emails calling him a liar and asking how stupid he thought I was, he got all pissy back, and then I just blocked him. Wood Sparta kick that dude into a bottomless well of death if I saw him IRL.

I've had some interviews with them, but they have always been for garbage roles srs

What kinds of jobs are you applying for? What country are you from?

There are a fukton of software jobs here in the states.

Indians are a plague on software and technology in general. There are exceptions, but I avoid 99% of anything involving an Indian.

I've even turned down a job once because I would be working with one as a boss. ded fkn srs.

IT data science masterrace checking in.

For the few years before my career change I found ways to apply data science to projects in my current job, i.e. building dashboards into my reports to upper management, automating tasks with python etc.

Keep doing everything you are doing, and do everything you can to use your skills wherever and whenever possible.

nepotism

try networking, the system is bullchit

average entry level role receives 200+ applicants and it's highly unlikely you will be the top pickEveryone cares about that lmao. You NEED experience for people to even look at you. Especially big companies that ask many behavioral questions which you need experience to answer. They are not going to give a fukc if you answer those questions with your minimum wage job experiences.

To OP, do not do some gay hello world prototype and push to git then be proud of yourself. Employers want something tangible. For example if you are applying to full stack roles, they want to see at least one deployed project with an active website with backend services. Furthermore, they are going to ask questions about development challenges you overcame, metrics, etc..

A big downside of solo work is that you can't answer any questions on leadership, teamwork, or communication, so it also helps to work on community projects for free. The Unreal Engine game dev community for example has tons of startup projects which don't go anywhere, but at least provides good experience of working with a group of developers.

You sound like my friend that went to DeVry lol

Got hooked up for his first job and the rest is history. Now he can get any job he wants because he has a decade of experience.Pretty much this. If you're already out of school though you might as well just grind or go the boot camp route like some people have mentioned. Just don't go to one that you have to pay, go to one that pays you. They have 2 year contracts, but they're a joke, and honestly 60k a year for 2 years isn't that bad to pick up experience anyway.

I walked into an Intel office of one of the cubiccels and loudly announced that Golden Bull is taking this man's job and told him to leave. HR lady corrected name and mailing address for paychecks.

I applied to hundreds of positions not 60, I got 2 offers. Keep applying

Keep in mind that there's actual hiring freezes going on due to the expectations of recession. I've heard of multiple people lately getting multiple steps into the interview process and then told they can't be hired due to a hiring freeze and they'll be reconsidered at a later date and time. Not always the case, but that's how it goes. This is for the IT space in general.

It sounds like, based on the mention of updating your GitHub, that you just want a programmer / software engineering job, which is typical for CS. I got a degree in CS 5 years ago and then went into cyber security instead, took 2 months to DECIDE I wanted to get into cyber, and then another 1-2 months to get into an entry level position at a company who had several people I knew from college. Would recommend seeing whether or not your colleagues from college can help you out with a referral.

Hang in there op, have been in your shoes and know exactly how you feel. Brb all your other friends moving cities for new jobs etc etc

Apply more, you’ll fail your first few interviews probably but you’ll get better

Do stuff like cold emailing engineering managers, even if they’re not the exact hiring manager it can only be positive. Heist of the time, no response/rejection nobody has even looked at your resume it just didn’t pass the filter

You’ve got it backwards, bigger companies are the least likely to care. Smaller companies get hung on random chit

Nobody I’ve ever met that’s done resume reviews at any of the companies ever even OPENED a candidates GitHub profile lol, let alone open it and review commits lol

I used to do that and it’s a waste of time. Nobody ever has anything substantial on their GitHub, so why bother looking, nothing some newbie could make in their free time will even come close to the complexity to something that a full sized experienced engineering team will be working on

What I want to see from junior people is raw ability to code, and some basic behavioral stuff. I don’t care one single bit if a candidate copied and pasted some tutorial for making a todo list app

if you have less years of experience in your language or stack than your age, is is 100% over for you in 2022

How do you like cyber security? After ML that would be my next biggest interest in the field

I've always been in an operations / incident response type of role, including now. The first 4.5ish years were specifically for detection / incident response for EXTERNAL considerations, like bad guys attacking my company via phishing emails, suspicious inbound traffic attacks, malware, etc. Now I'm getting into INTERNAL, looking at compromised employees, insider threats from employees, people leaving the company involuntarily and exfiltrating data, etc.

I was in the "external" considerations role too long. Got too boring, srs. Wanted to substance abuse, play video games, do the bare minimum while being fairly responsive. But TBH a big part of that is the fact I knew my pay, at the time, was lower than it should've been. Cyber is very diverse, you can be a "red hat" guy like Mr. Robot and try to break into things and identify vulnerabilities to assist your company. You can be like I've always been, which is more "blue hat", on the defensive side. And then there's more beyond that, engineering of the security tools, penetration testing, endpoint security, identity access, threat intelligence, forensics, content creation, risk management. You get your foot in the door into cyber, you might get bored sitting in the same "field" for too long, and you might want to dabble in something else.

It pays well. Starter salary is usually $50k-70k. Now 5 years later I'm at $110k base, but closer to $140k gross. But you gotta get certifications, try hard, hop companies, to make those big pay movements happen.

Was mid PhD then applied to random job and got it lol