CS new grads who were able to land SWE/ML/AI roles in this market - what do you think actually made the difference for you?
Everyone says “keep applying” which I have. I genuinely want to understand what specifically moved the needle. This is a problem, and there’s n ways to solve it, but I want the most optimal root cause brute force is clearly not working.
A few things I’m curious about:
- Did referrals materially help, or were projects/interview performance more important?
- What kinds of projects got recruiter or hiring manager attention?
- Did reaching out cold on LinkedIn actually work for you? 99% of the recruiters don’t respond to me.
- How much did internships matter compared to personal/research projects?
- Was there a specific strategy that suddenly increased interview callbacks?
- For people who weren’t from target schools / FAANG internships, what helped you stand out?
- If you had to restart your job search from scratch today, what would you do differently?
I know everyone’s path is different, but I’d really appreciate honest insights from people who recently went through it successfully.