Is It Too Late?

Another notes from the underground /r/csMajors.

I recently read a post asking if it’s too late to apply to fall internships. This surprised me because we’re a solid 3 months out from fall.

Then I realized that if you’ve read that Google and Amazon finish hiring for the summer in mid January, you’d assume that all companies finish hiring that early.

In reality you can apply to an internship, go through a couple interviews, receive an offer and be on the job in a few weeks. How is this possible? What voodoo magic allows such speed?

Apply to small, local companies

So much of the talk around internships is focused on the large companies. If not Google and Amazon, at least Stripe and AirBnb. But there’s plenty of solid small companies doing great development work who don’t have to sort through an applicant pool in the tens of thousands.

These companies don’t fly people out for internships or pay relocation fees. They don’t put you up in corporate housing. They’re not going to hire their 1-2 interns three or more months in advance.

But they pay better than most college jobs, give you work experience and a chance at the big leagues next summer. Plus you’re only competing against other locals for the spot.

I’ve had this happen to me. In one case I applied to an up and coming hedge fund that I knew about via a family member. In the other case I cold applied to a smaller tech company. Both times I had a job within two weeks.

Apply local, apply frequently and keep your ear to the ground about job opportunities in your network. If you hear about it from contacts, you’re probably competing against 5-10 people instead of 50-100. You might even be competing for a spot that didn’t exist before.

If you’re at home right now without an internship, try sending out a few applications or cold-emails. You could¹ be working in a few weeks!