“I applied to dozens of places and got ignored most of the time; what moved the needle for me was shipping real projects and putting the code where recruiters could actually see it. My GitHub and hackathon builds did more talking than my resume ever did.”
“I drove 36,000 miles selling Handshake to colleges because I knew most students don't get a fair shot through the prestige pipeline. Apply way more than feels reasonable, message upperclassmen and alumni who've done the role, and get involved in something like IT Oxygen or ACM where you can actually build and tell a story.”
“I came from an HBCU and a nontraditional background, so I built proof instead of waiting for pedigree: a published ML project, a web dev internship in Lagos, and programs like Bloomberg Hbcu Academy and ColorStack that gave me signal when my school name did not. If applications are silent, the move is not more applications, it is one project or one warm intro that makes someone stop scrolling.”
“I applied to Booz Allen through INROADS and got my recruiter Teron F. after staying active in NSBE and DECA, so my advice is to stop mass-applying and find one person who can push your resume through.”
“I came from community college and had to build almost every door myself, so I stopped sending cold apps and started sending warm emails. Find one person doing the role you want at a company you actually care about, mention something specific from their background, and ask what they like about the work, not how to get referred.”
“I got into HNG Tech Internship partly because I had a weather app and a few builds to point to, not just coursework. If applications are quiet, ship one small real thing this week and put it in front of people instead of waiting for the next posting cycle.”
“I don't believe in sending 200 resumes and grinding LeetCode every day. Most of my internships came from hackathons, fellowships, and showing up to events in NYC where I could talk to panelists and follow up.”
“I applied to over 200 internships my freshman year at UChicago, and the thing that actually moved the needle was stopping the mass-application spiral and getting inbound instead. Post your projects, your failures, and what you're learning on LinkedIn; recruiters started coming to me once I looked like a real person, not just another resume.”
“I got my first real internship at AWISCO by building something that solved a painful, specific problem I noticed in their operations, not by mass-applying with a polished resume. If you can't land one right now, build a tool for a real person or local business and ship it: concrete, working projects beat credentials when you have no credentials yet.”