I hear new graduate hiring is shrinking... How should I prepare then?
Lately, looking at the news, it seems new graduate hiring itself has decreased a lot, and the requirements in job postings are getting higher. Honestly, I don't have a very impressive background, so I keep failing at the first document screening stage.
I'm thinking about trying an internship, but I've heard internships are also very competitive, so I'm stuck. Would running a dev blog diligently not be enough? I'm curious what experiences current professionals found most helpful in practice.
4 answers
Yeah yeah, seriously these days if your specs are lacking, they won't even look at your resume.
Honestly, isn't having a dev blog kind of old news these days? Everyone's just putting projects on GitHub now. I think it's better to make one solid project first and then write it up on a blog. And rather than internships, look into open source contributions or competitions. I found that appealing through real experience worked way better than just stacking credentials.
Well, I don't really agree with that. Interns ultimately also go by credentials, and running a blog has its limits. It's not that entry-level hiring has decreased—it's just that open recruitment shifted to rolling hiring. Still, there are many places that look at your school/GPA on the application. Rather than focusing on just one thing, I think the priority should be building a project you can get feedback on from current professionals.
As someone who's currently employed and came in through experienced hiring... Actually, whether it's regular new-grad recruiting or internships, I think what really matters is 'problem-solving experience.' Personally, blogging is great too, but instead of just diary-style posts, writing concretely like 'I hit this error and solved it this way' helps a lot. Also, ask around to developers you know and try to finish at least one side project together. That definitely makes a difference in your resume screening pass rate. Haha, you got this!