generated from bgoonz/INTERVIEW-PREP-COMPLETE
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathREADME.html
1551 lines (1551 loc) · 66.2 KB
/
README.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="" xml:lang="">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="generator" content="pandoc" />
<meta
name="viewport"
content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes"
/>
<title>README</title>
<style type="text/css">
code {
white-space: pre-wrap;
}
span.smallcaps {
font-variant: small-caps;
}
span.underline {
text-decoration: underline;
}
div.column {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
width: 50%;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<!-- ⚠️ This README has been generated from the file(s) "blueprint.md" ⚠️-->
<p>
<a href="#initial-page"
><img
src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andreasbm/readme/master/assets/lines/colored.png"
alt="—————————————————–"
/></a>
</p>
<h1 id="initial-page">➤ Initial page</h1>
<p><a href="https://bgoonz.github.io/INTERVIEW-PREP-COMPLETE/">demo</a></p>
<h1 id="getting-a-gig-a-guide">Getting a Gig: A Guide</h1>
<h1 id="introduction">Introduction</h1>
<h1 id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li>Introduction (you read that already)</li>
<li><a href="#your-resume">Your Resume</a></li>
<li><a href="#your-cover-letter">Your Cover Letter</a></li>
<li><a href="#your-attitude">Your Attitude</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#your-skills">Your Skills</a>
<ul>
<li>Building Them</li>
<li>Selling Them</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#your-search">Your Search</a>
<ul>
<li>Events</li>
<li>Networking</li>
<li>Referrals</li>
<li>Cold Calling</li>
<li>Fellowships</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#conclusion">Conclusion</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 id="your-resume">Your Resume</h1>
<p>
Your resume is your personal summary sheet. Your resume is the thing that
gets your foot in the door. So, there’s a few things you should do (and
not do) to make it as awesome as you are.
</p>
<h3 id="make-your-name-big.">Make your name <strong>BIG.</strong></h3>
<p>
Your name has to stand out from everything else, because you want it to be
remembered. Making it the biggest thing on the page is the easiest thing
you can do to make that possible. I’ve seen soooo many resumes where the
name is at the top, but it’s just bolded and centered and they expect that
to be enough. It’s not.
</p>
<h3 id="remove-the-objective.">Remove the objective.</h3>
<p>
Nobody looks at the objective. Nobody. I personally spoke to a bunch of
recruiters from various companies and they all said that they never look
at them. Use that space to talk about projects you’ve done, activities
you’ve done, etc.
</p>
<h3 id="keep-it-to-a-single-page.">Keep it to a single page.</h3>
<p>
Recruiters are looking for a short summary of you. They’re reading several
resumes a day, and if they see something longer than they typically read,
they could pass over yours for something more concise! If you’d like to
say more, put a link to a personal website or portfolio for someone to
find it. A resume is a summary, not a tome.
</p>
<h3 id="remove-irrelevant-information.">Remove irrelevant information.</h3>
<p>
I know that lifeguarding in high school was a good gig that helped you
gain people skills and attention to detail. But you’re in tech. That
doesn’t matter as much to tech companies. Sorry, buddy. I still think
you’re great with people. When you’re a first semester freshman, it’s okay
to have old high school stuff on there, just because it’s less likely that
you have other things to put on your resume. But as soon as you have a
college GPA to work with, a club or two, and some volunteer experiences to
replace that, do it.
</p>
<h3 id="dont-make-it-a-scavenger-hunt.">Don’t make it a scavenger hunt.</h3>
<p>
When an application reviewer (engineer, recruiter, or otherwise) is
looking over your resume, don’t make it difficult for them to understand
who you are and what you know.
</p>
<p>
For example, if you have online profiles like GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter,
or even your own personal website, put it on your resume. Don’t make them
have to search long and hard for you online if they want to know more!
</p>
<p>
If you decide to put relevant coursework on your resume,
<strong>please</strong>, don’t just put course numbers. Nobody knows what
that means. And nobody is going to go to your university’s website to find
out exactly what CS229 is. Put down the course titles instead!
</p>
<p>
And finally, put down your graduation date. So many students I’ve seen
don’t put it on there because they are hiding the fact that they’re a
freshman, or they’re “technically a junior if you count the credits.” That
doesn’t matter. Trust me. Just put down your graduation date so that the
company knows how much experience you have, and how soon they can
potentially pull you in for full-time.
</p>
<h3 id="include-only-certain-personal-information.">
Include only certain personal information.
</h3>
<p>
Companies aren’t allowed to ask about your religion, marital status, or
race/ethnicity, so you shouldn’t include that.
</p>
<p>
In terms of contact information: you don’t need your mailing address. That
is a thing of the past. Just like my youth. Tech companies email, and
<strong>maybe</strong> call. That’s all you need! Some great things that
you might also want to put on there are your personal website (if you have
one, which you should), your GitHub profile (if you have one, which you
should), and your LinkedIn (if you have one, which you should).
</p>
<p>
Though there’s some who might disagree, you should
<strong>include your GPA.</strong> If your major GPA is significantly
higher than your overall GPA, you might want to consider having both. When
you have graduated and have a full-time job, you won’t need it as much.
But at this point in your beautiful life, keep it in there. Some companies
care about GPA more than others, so you might as well play it safe and
have it there.
</p>
<h1 id="cv-sample">CV Sample</h1>
<p>
Your cover letter is your written sales pitch. You’ve got a resume that
summarizes everything. Now you have to write out a more complete,
professional description of you and what you can offer a given company.
Here’s a sample cover letter to get you started:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dear *<strong>*_**</strong>,</p>
<p>
I hope your day is going well! My name is *<strong>*_**</strong>, and
I’m a *<strong>*_**</strong> at *<strong>*_**</strong>. I am very
interested in working for *<strong>*_**</strong> next
*<strong>*_**</strong>. Your commitment to *<strong>*_**</strong> and
*<strong>*_**</strong> that I saw on the website inspired me! The
products you build and the values you stand for make *<strong
>*_**</strong
>
seem like an ideal workplace for me.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
A little about me, I [insert relevant work experience, extracurriculars,
and projects here]. I think these experiences would make me a great
candidate for you.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Please let me know if there’s anything else you need from me. I look
forward to hearing from you! I can be reached at *<strong>*_**</strong>
and *<strong>*_**</strong>.
</p>
<p>Best regards,</p>
<hr />
</blockquote>
<p>
Now, remember, this is just a sample. You can write a cover letter in any
format you’d like. But, you should be sure to include the following:
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Who</strong> - Who you are. Easy enough.</li>
<li><strong>Where</strong> - Where you’re coming from.</li>
<li>
<strong>Why</strong> - Why you’re interested in this company, and show
that you researched them.
</li>
<li><strong>What</strong> - What you can bring to the table.</li>
<li>
<strong>When</strong> - When you’re available to start, and when they
can contact you.
</li>
<li><strong>How</strong> - How they can reach you.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="your-attitude">Your Attitude</h1>
<p>
When you’re internship/job hunting, it’s very easy to feel down if you
don’t hear back from companies, an interview goes poorly, or you start
comparing yourself to people. It’s a tough field we’re going into.
</p>
<p>
So. I won’t spend much time on this. But I want to emphasize something:
<strong>You’re brilliant.</strong> You’re in this field for a reason. When
your grades aren’t awesome or someone gets something that you wanted,
don’t feel down on yourself. So many opportunities will come your way if
you just keep working hard and refining your skills.
</p>
<p>
Mark Twain once said, “Comparison is the death of joy.” When you start to
compare your skills to others, it’s hard to not feel as good about your
own, or to get a little too competitive about your work. Work hard and
don’t let others get you down. It’s remarkable how significantly that can
improve both your work and your interviewing experience!
</p>
<p>
When you’re talking to companies and recruiters at career fairs and
hackathons and over the phone, be confident, not arrogant. Be grateful for
the opportunity they’re giving you, and smile! A great attitude will take
you VERY far.
</p>
<h1 id="your-skills">Your Skills</h1>
<p>
Obviously, your skills are what a company is buying from you when they
hire you. So, honing in those skills and presenting them in an effective
way is <em>probably</em> the most important thing in getting a gig.
</p>
<h2 id="building-them">Building Them</h2>
<p>
Chances are, if you’ve had a data structures and/or algorithms class,
you’re already going to do pretty well in the technical interviews. That
is, if you can recall the information you learned.
</p>
<p>
Here’s a checklist of things that you should probably be prepared to know
in a technical interview:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Data types</li>
<li>Basic Bitwise Operations</li>
<li>String Operations</li>
<li>Arrays</li>
<li>
Linked Lists
<ul>
<li>Singly Linked</li>
<li>Doubly Linked</li>
<li>Circular Linked</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Queues</li>
<li>Stacks</li>
<li>Heaps</li>
<li>
Trees
<ul>
<li>Binary Trees</li>
<li>Binary Search Trees</li>
<li>Tries</li>
<li>Self Balancing Trees</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Traversing Trees
<ul>
<li>Breadth First Search - BFS</li>
<li>Depth First Search - DFS</li>
<li>Preorder, Inorder, Postorder</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Graphs
<ul>
<li>Dijkstra’s Algorithm / A* Search</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Hash Maps
<ul>
<li>Handling Collisions</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Sorting algorithms
<ul>
<li>Insertion</li>
<li>Selection</li>
<li>Merge</li>
<li>Quick</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Time Complexities</li>
</ul>
<p>
This guide isn’t for teaching you these skills. But there are several
guides, problem sets, and practice systems out there that can help.
</p>
<p><strong>General Guides</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/">Sorting Algorithms</a>
</li>
<li><a href="http://bigocheatsheet.com/">Big-O Cheat Sheet</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.dsalgo.com/2013/02/index.php.html?m=1"
>Data Structures and Algorithms Overview</a
>
</li>
<li><a href="http://algorithm.zone/">Algorithm Implementations</a></li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.programcreek.com/2012/11/top-10-algorithms-for-coding-interview/"
>Top 10 Algorithms for coding interviews</a
>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Problem Sets</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/data-structures/"
>Data Structures Questions</a
>
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.fitcoding.com/">FitCoding</a></li>
<li>
<a href="https://code.google.com/codejam/contests.html"
>Google CodeJam Practice Questions</a
>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Online Judging Systems</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://oj.leetcode.com/problemset/algorithms/"
>LeetCode Online Judge</a
>
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.hackerrank.com/">HackerRank Online Judge</a></li>
<li><a href="https://projecteuler.net/">Project Euler</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Mock Interviews</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.pramp.com">Pramp</a> - free</li>
<li><a href="http://www.careercup.com/interview">Careercup</a> - paid</li>
<li><a href="http://www.gainlo.co/">Gainlo</a> - paid</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.impactinterview.com/software-engineering-interview-coaching/"
>Impact Interview</a
>
- paid
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here’s some books that might also be useful.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-4th-Edition-Robert-Sedgewick/dp/032157351X"
>Algorithms, 4th edition, by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Edition-Thomas-Cormen/dp/0262033844"
>Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition, by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles
E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, and Clifford Stein (also referred as
CLRS)</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://greenteapress.com/complexity/thinkcomplexity.pdf"
>Think Complexity, by Allen B. Downey</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://larc.unt.edu/ian/books/free/poa.pdf"
>Problems on Algorithms, 2nd edition, by Ian Parberry and William
Gasarch</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://rineshpk.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/2/0/1820991/data_structures_and_algorithms_in_javatqw_darksiderg.pdf"
>Data Structures and Algorithms in Java</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-6th-Programming/dp/0984782850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443719471&sr=8-1&keywords=coding+interview"
>Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th edition, by Gayle Laakmann
McDowell</a
>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Typically, for an internship or your first job, questions won’t get much
more specific unless you’re applying for a specific role. For example, if
I wanted to be a mobile intern, I might be asked iOS/Android/Windows Phone
specific questions, or if I wanted to be a web intern, I might be asked
HTML/CSS/JavaScript questions, or if I wanted to be a backend intern, I
might be asked about Django or Node or Ruby on Rails. That definitely
depends on the company, and what you’re both looking for.
</p>
<p>
Make sure you’re able to implement and use the above data structures
without the assistance of an IDE. Typically, onsite technical interviews
involve coding on paper or a whiteboard, and phone/video interviews
usually involve some kind of collaborative text editor. Yes, that means
you won’t have access to auto-complete, auto-compiling, or the internet to
check for errors. So be ready for that!
</p>
<h2 id="selling-them">Selling Them</h2>
<p>
When you’re actively emailing and speaking with recruiters, they’re going
to ask you a lot of questions that are just checkboxes for what they’re
looking for in terms of skills.
</p>
<p>
If you’ve written anything in a language before,
<strong>put it on your resume</strong>. A lot of companies have parsers
that look for specific things that, again, will put a tick on those
checkboxes before putting you through to the next round of review. Now, if
you’ve only ever done “Hello, world!” in Python, don’t say that you’re a
Python ninja or whatever. You don’t want to be thrown into an interview
that will only hurt your self-confidence. Speaking from experience. Trust
me.
</p>
<p>
When a recruiter or engineer is asking you about a certain project you’ve
done, or how you’ve used a particular language, be as specific as
possible. Tell them <strong>exactly</strong> what you did on that
particular project (or internship or what have you). Tell them how much
you contributed, what languages you used, how long was the duration of
development for that project, what was the outcome of the project, etc.
etc.
</p>
<p>
For example, don’t say, “I’m the webmaster for a club website. Next
question.” Okay, Dwight Schrute. Go back to your beet farm. Instead, say
something more like this: “I developed and currently maintain the website
for my university’s computer science club. I built it from the ground up
with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery on the front-end. It’s a static
site, so a backend wasn’t needed. The website’s main function is to
promote the club and give members crucial updates about meetings and
events, and I update it regularly via a Python script I wrote.” Oh my, you
enchanting software engineer, you. Let me hire you.
</p>
<p>
When you’re talking to companies about specific things you’ve done, make
sure they know:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>What?</strong> - What? - What did you make? What does it do?
What impact has it made? What was the hardest part? What could you have
done better?
</li>
<li>
<strong>Why?</strong> - Why did you make it? Was it for a hackathon, a
school project, an open source contribution, or something else?
</li>
<li>
<strong>How?</strong> - With which technologies did you make this? Did
you use a specific API? What parts of it did you work on?
</li>
<li>
<strong>When?</strong> - Did you do this recently or are you still
living off of when you peaked in 10th grade?
</li>
<li>
<strong>Who?</strong> - Did you work on this with anyone? Who did what?
Who is this for?
</li>
</ul>
<h1
id="your-skills-are-something-that-you-have-and-the-reason-why-you-have-them-is-because-youve-used-them-in-some-way.-all-you-have-to-do-to-prove-yourself-is-to-explain-yourself-no-need-to-ggetting-a-gig-a-guide"
>
Your skills are something that you have, and the reason why you have them
is because you’ve used them in some way. All you have to do to prove
yourself is to explain yourself! No need to gGetting a Gig: A Guide
</h1>
<h1 id="introduction-1">Introduction</h1>
<p>
Hey friends! This is a guide for getting a gig in college as a tech major.
I graduated May 2014 with 10 job offers after having 5 internships
throughout my four years of college. You can do that, too. Because you’re
great.
</p>
<h1 id="contents-1">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li>Introduction (you read that already)</li>
<li><a href="#your-resume">Your Resume</a></li>
<li><a href="#your-cover-letter">Your Cover Letter</a></li>
<li><a href="#your-attitude">Your Attitude</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#your-skills">Your Skills</a>
<ul>
<li>Building Them</li>
<li>Selling Them</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#your-search">Your Search</a>
<ul>
<li>Events</li>
<li>Networking</li>
<li>Referrals</li>
<li>Cold Calling</li>
<li>Fellowships</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#conclusion">Conclusion</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 id="your-resume-1">Your Resume</h1>
<p>
Your resume is your personal summary sheet. Your resume is the thing that
gets your foot in the door. So, there’s a few things you should do (and
not do) to make it as awesome as you are.
</p>
<h3 id="make-your-name-big.-1">Make your name <strong>BIG.</strong></h3>
<p>
Your name has to stand out from everything else, because you want it to be
remembered. Making it the biggest thing on the page is the easiest thing
you can do to make that possible. I’ve seen soooo many resumes where the
name is at the top, but it’s just bolded and centered and they expect that
to be enough. It’s not.
</p>
<h3 id="remove-the-objective.-1">Remove the objective.</h3>
<p>
Nobody looks at the objective. Nobody. I personally spoke to a bunch of
recruiters from various companies and they all said that they never look
at them. Use that space to talk about projects you’ve done, activities
you’ve done, etc.
</p>
<h3 id="keep-it-to-a-single-page.-1">Keep it to a single page.</h3>
<p>
Recruiters are looking for a short summary of you. They’re reading several
resumes a day, and if they see something longer than they typically read,
they could pass over yours for something more concise! If you’d like to
say more, put a link to a personal website or portfolio for someone to
find it. A resume is a summary, not a tome.
</p>
<h3 id="remove-irrelevant-information.-1">
Remove irrelevant information.
</h3>
<p>
I know that lifeguarding in high school was a good gig that helped you
gain people skills and attention to detail. But you’re in tech. That
doesn’t matter as much to tech companies. Sorry, buddy. I still think
you’re great with people. When you’re a first semester freshman, it’s okay
to have old high school stuff on there, just because it’s less likely that
you have other things to put on your resume. But as soon as you have a
college GPA to work with, a club or two, and some volunteer experiences to
replace that, do it.
</p>
<h3 id="dont-make-it-a-scavenger-hunt.-1">
Don’t make it a scavenger hunt.
</h3>
<p>
When an application reviewer (engineer, recruiter, or otherwise) is
looking over your resume, don’t make it difficult for them to understand
who you are and what you know.
</p>
<p>
For example, if you have online profiles like GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter,
or even your own personal website, put it on your resume. Don’t make them
have to search long and hard for you online if they want to know more!
</p>
<p>
If you decide to put relevant coursework on your resume,
<strong>please</strong>, don’t just put course numbers. Nobody knows what
that means. And nobody is going to go to your university’s website to find
out exactly what CS229 is. Put down the course titles instead!
</p>
<p>
And finally, put down your graduation date. So many students I’ve seen
don’t put it on there because they are hiding the fact that they’re a
freshman, or they’re “technically a junior if you count the credits.” That
doesn’t matter. Trust me. Just put down your graduation date so that the
company knows how much experience you have, and how soon they can
potentially pull you in for full-time.
</p>
<h3 id="include-only-certain-personal-information.-1">
Include only certain personal information.
</h3>
<p>
Companies aren’t allowed to ask about your religion, marital status, or
race/ethnicity, so you shouldn’t include that.
</p>
<p>
In terms of contact information: you don’t need your mailing address. That
is a thing of the past. Just like my youth. Tech companies email, and
<strong>maybe</strong> call. That’s all you need! Some great things that
you might also want to put on there are your personal website (if you have
one, which you should), your GitHub profile (if you have one, which you
should), and your LinkedIn (if you have one, which you should).
</p>
<p>
Though there’s some who might disagree, you should
<strong>include your GPA.</strong> If your major GPA is significantly
higher than your overall GPA, you might want to consider having both. When
you have graduated and have a full-time job, you won’t need it as much.
But at this point in your beautiful life, keep it in there. Some companies
care about GPA more than others, so you might as well play it safe and
have it there.
</p>
<h1 id="your-cover-letter">Your Cover Letter</h1>
<p>
Your cover letter is your written sales pitch. You’ve got a resume that
summarizes everything. Now you have to write out a more complete,
professional description of you and what you can offer a given company.
Here’s a sample cover letter to get you started:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dear *<strong>*_**</strong>,</p>
<p>
I hope your day is going well! My name is *<strong>*_**</strong>, and
I’m a *<strong>*_**</strong> at *<strong>*_**</strong>. I am very
interested in working for *<strong>*_**</strong> next
*<strong>*_**</strong>. Your commitment to *<strong>*_**</strong> and
*<strong>*_**</strong> that I saw on the website inspired me! The
products you build and the values you stand for make *<strong
>*_**</strong
>
seem like an ideal workplace for me.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
A little about me, I [insert relevant work experience, extracurriculars,
and projects here]. I think these experiences would make me a great
candidate for you.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Please let me know if there’s anything else you need from me. I look
forward to hearing from you! I can be reached at *<strong>*_**</strong>
and *<strong>*_**</strong>.
</p>
<p>Best regards,</p>
<hr />
</blockquote>
<p>
Now, remember, this is just a sample. You can write a cover letter in any
format you’d like. But, you should be sure to include the following:
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Who</strong> - Who you are. Easy enough.</li>
<li><strong>Where</strong> - Where you’re coming from.</li>
<li>
<strong>Why</strong> - Why you’re interested in this company, and show
that you researched them.
</li>
<li><strong>What</strong> - What you can bring to the table.</li>
<li>
<strong>When</strong> - When you’re available to start, and when they
can contact you.
</li>
<li><strong>How</strong> - How they can reach you.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="your-attitude-1">Your Attitude</h1>
<p>
When you’re internship/job hunting, it’s very easy to feel down if you
don’t hear back from companies, an interview goes poorly, or you start
comparing yourself to people. It’s a tough field we’re going into.
</p>
<p>
So. I won’t spend much time on this. But I want to emphasize something:
<strong>You’re brilliant.</strong> You’re in this field for a reason. When
your grades aren’t awesome or someone gets something that you wanted,
don’t feel down on yourself. So many opportunities will come your way if
you just keep working hard and refining your skills.
</p>
<p>
Mark Twain once said, “Comparison is the death of joy.” When you start to
compare your skills to others, it’s hard to not feel as good about your
own, or to get a little too competitive about your work. Work hard and
don’t let others get you down. It’s remarkable how significantly that can
improve both your work and your interviewing experience!
</p>
<p>
When you’re talking to companies and recruiters at career fairs and
hackathons and over the phone, be confident, not arrogant. Be grateful for
the opportunity they’re giving you, and smile! A great attitude will take
you VERY far.
</p>
<h1 id="your-skills-1">Your Skills</h1>
<p>
Obviously, your skills are what a company is buying from you when they
hire you. So, honing in those skills and presenting them in an effective
way is <em>probably</em> the most important thing in getting a gig.
</p>
<h2 id="building-them-1">Building Them</h2>
<p>
Chances are, if you’ve had a data structures and/or algorithms class,
you’re already going to do pretty well in the technical interviews. That
is, if you can recall the information you learned.
</p>
<p>
Here’s a checklist of things that you should probably be prepared to know
in a technical interview:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Data types</li>
<li>Basic Bitwise Operations</li>
<li>String Operations</li>
<li>Arrays</li>
<li>
Linked Lists
<ul>
<li>Singly Linked</li>
<li>Doubly Linked</li>
<li>Circular Linked</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Queues</li>
<li>Stacks</li>
<li>Heaps</li>
<li>
Trees
<ul>
<li>Binary Trees</li>
<li>Binary Search Trees</li>
<li>Tries</li>
<li>Self Balancing Trees</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Traversing Trees
<ul>
<li>Breadth First Search - BFS</li>
<li>Depth First Search - DFS</li>
<li>Preorder, Inorder, Postorder</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Graphs
<ul>
<li>Dijkstra’s Algorithm / A* Search</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Hash Maps
<ul>
<li>Handling Collisions</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Sorting algorithms
<ul>
<li>Insertion</li>
<li>Selection</li>
<li>Merge</li>
<li>Quick</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Time Complexities</li>
</ul>
<p>
This guide isn’t for teaching you these skills. But there are several
guides, problem sets, and practice systems out there that can help.
</p>
<p><strong>General Guides</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/">Sorting Algorithms</a>
</li>
<li><a href="http://bigocheatsheet.com/">Big-O Cheat Sheet</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.dsalgo.com/2013/02/index.php.html?m=1"
>Data Structures and Algorithms Overview</a
>
</li>
<li><a href="http://algorithm.zone/">Algorithm Implementations</a></li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.programcreek.com/2012/11/top-10-algorithms-for-coding-interview/"
>Top 10 Algorithms for coding interviews</a
>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Problem Sets</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/data-structures/"
>Data Structures Questions</a
>
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.fitcoding.com/">FitCoding</a></li>
<li>
<a href="https://code.google.com/codejam/contests.html"
>Google CodeJam Practice Questions</a
>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Online Judging Systems</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://oj.leetcode.com/problemset/algorithms/"
>LeetCode Online Judge</a
>
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.hackerrank.com/">HackerRank Online Judge</a></li>
<li><a href="https://projecteuler.net/">Project Euler</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Mock Interviews</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.pramp.com">Pramp</a> - free</li>
<li><a href="http://www.careercup.com/interview">Careercup</a> - paid</li>
<li><a href="http://www.gainlo.co/">Gainlo</a> - paid</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.impactinterview.com/software-engineering-interview-coaching/"
>Impact Interview</a
>
- paid
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here’s some books that might also be useful.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-4th-Edition-Robert-Sedgewick/dp/032157351X"
>Algorithms, 4th edition, by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Edition-Thomas-Cormen/dp/0262033844"
>Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition, by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles
E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, and Clifford Stein (also referred as
CLRS)</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://greenteapress.com/complexity/thinkcomplexity.pdf"
>Think Complexity, by Allen B. Downey</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://larc.unt.edu/ian/books/free/poa.pdf"
>Problems on Algorithms, 2nd edition, by Ian Parberry and William
Gasarch</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://rineshpk.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/2/0/1820991/data_structures_and_algorithms_in_javatqw_darksiderg.pdf"
>Data Structures and Algorithms in Java</a
>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-6th-Programming/dp/0984782850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443719471&sr=8-1&keywords=coding+interview"
>Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th edition, by Gayle Laakmann
McDowell</a
>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Typically, for an internship or your first job, questions won’t get much
more specific unless you’re applying for a specific role. For example, if
I wanted to be a mobile intern, I might be asked iOS/Android/Windows Phone
specific questions, or if I wanted to be a web intern, I might be asked
HTML/CSS/JavaScript questions, or if I wanted to be a backend intern, I
might be asked about Django or Node or Ruby on Rails. That definitely
depends on the company, and what you’re both looking for.
</p>
<p>
Make sure you’re able to implement and use the above data structures
without the assistance of an IDE. Typically, onsite technical interviews
involve coding on paper or a whiteboard, and phone/video interviews
usually involve some kind of collaborative text editor. Yes, that means
you won’t have access to auto-complete, auto-compiling, or the internet to
check for errors. So be ready for that!
</p>
<h2 id="selling-them-1">Selling Them</h2>
<p>
When you’re actively emailing and speaking with recruiters, they’re going
to ask you a lot of questions that are just checkboxes for what they’re
looking for in terms of skills.
</p>
<p>
If you’ve written anything in a language before,
<strong>put it on your resume</strong>. A lot of companies have parsers
that look for specific things that, again, will put a tick on those
checkboxes before putting you through to the next round of review. Now, if
you’ve only ever done “Hello, world!” in Python, don’t say that you’re a
Python ninja or whatever. You don’t want to be thrown into an interview
that will only hurt your self-confidence. Speaking from experience. Trust
me.
</p>
<p>
When a recruiter or engineer is asking you about a certain project you’ve
done, or how you’ve used a particular language, be as specific as
possible. Tell them <strong>exactly</strong> what you did on that
particular project (or internship or what have you). Tell them how much
you contributed, what languages you used, how long was the duration of
development for that project, what was the outcome of the project, etc.
etc.
</p>
<p>
For example, don’t say, “I’m the webmaster for a club website. Next
question.” Okay, Dwight Schrute. Go back to your beet farm. Instead, say
something more like this: “I developed and currently maintain the website
for my university’s computer science club. I built it from the ground up
with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery on the front-end. It’s a static
site, so a backend wasn’t needed. The website’s main function is to
promote the club and give members crucial updates about meetings and
events, and I update it regularly via a Python script I wrote.” Oh my, you
enchanting software engineer, you. Let me hire you.
</p>
<p>
When you’re talking to companies about specific things you’ve done, make
sure they know:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>What?</strong> - What? - What did you make? What does it do?
What impact has it made? What was the hardest part? What could you have
done better?
</li>
<li>
<strong>Why?</strong> - Why did you make it? Was it for a hackathon, a
school project, an open source contribution, or something else?
</li>
<li>
<strong>How?</strong> - With which technologies did you make this? Did
you use a specific API? What parts of it did you work on?
</li>
<li>
<strong>When?</strong> - Did you do this recently or are you still
living off of when you peaked in 10th grade?
</li>
<li>
<strong>Who?</strong> - Did you work on this with anyone? Who did what?
Who is this for?
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Your skills are something that you have, and the reason why you have them
is because you’ve used them in some way. All you have to do to prove
yourself is to explain yourself! No need to go overboard and brag. Just be
honest, and confident.
</p>
<h1 id="your-search">Your Search</h1>
<p>
You have a resume and cover letter in hand, and you have the skills to
make anyone want you. Now, you just have to find the right gig for you.
</p>
<h2 id="events">Events</h2>
<p>
When you’re on the hunt for a great internship or first job, the events
you go to can really set you apart, and will help you meet people that
could potentially help you in the long run.
</p>
<p>The biggies that you will definitely run into are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hackathons</li>
<li>Meetups</li>
<li>Conferences</li>
<li>Career Fairs</li>
</ul>
<p>
So, how do you find these events? They’re happening all the time, you just
need to know where to look. Firstly, ask people in the field. Talk to a
mentor, a fellow student, a professor, a colleague… anyone could come
through for you! I remember my first tech event I went to in college was
because I ran into a guy that I met orientation day. And now he and I are
coworkers. Fancy that. Anyway, people can get you very far.
</p>
<p>
Otherwise, when people don’t work, we always have the glorious internet
leading the way. There’s so many resources out there I definitely can’t
list them all. So I’ll list just a few.
</p>
<ul>
<li>
Your School - Yeah, this is kind of an easy shot, but not a lot of
people consider their schools as an event generator, when they should.
Go on to your university’s website and find the career fair, find a
seminar, find a company presentation, find something that will help you
learn and meet people. You’ll probably find a lot of options!
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.meetup.com">Meetup</a> - Meetup is a great place to
find groups of people who are interested in the same things you are, who
meet regularly. Look for engineering meetups that are hosted
<strong>at</strong> companies. You’ll get to see an office, and meet