What is this blog about?

I hope to use this blog post and educate students who are looking for internships/job opportunities. I'll be sharing some Dos & Don't which could help you all land a job/internship.

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Background

Just before I share the Do and Don't, I want to add some background. Feel free to directly go to the tips section from here.

Getting a Gazillion

During December 2023, I opened three internships position at Techvito. To my surprise in about half a day, I got close to about 1000 resumes from folks looking for an opportunity. Just this number alone speaks volume about a lot of things. To quote a few:

1. The talent available.

2. Lack of opportunities.

3. Current market situation, trends and more.

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The challenge

Being an army of One(We do not have a HR for now), I set myself to start reviewing and filtering the resumes. I had to time box the whole activity (HR is one of the many hats I've to wear).

The good thing

I am proud to say that I've reviewed every single resume I got. It was exiting, tiring, few things made me chuckle.

The not so good thing

As the saying goes, Any person reviewing your resume (I'm not talking about a bot), when they have "huge" number of resumes to screen vs the time allotted, the average time spent in reviewing the resume will be roughly about 7 to 10 seconds. Sad but true.

This was no different for me. I had to run over many resumes and filter them down.

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The Realization

Right after this exercise I realized the difficulties Human Resources face. I often hear job seekers expressing their frustrations about not hearing back. Sometimes, it could be wrong from the HR as well. Flip the coin and at times it does not make sense to even reply back, such will be the state of the email from the applicants. I'll tell you why shortly.

Only when you have walked a mile in another's shoes can you truly understand their journey. It's not just about seeing the path they tread, but feeling every stone they stumbled upon and every ray of hope that guided them.

Some tips for students

1. Have a personal portfolio site without fail.

2. While having a solid resume is necessary, its won't be enough.

3. Proof of work is what will land you into an internship/job and not your resume.

4. Proof of work can be different for different skillsets/roles.

   1. For Developers, it will be Github

   2. For UI/UX Designer, its Behance

   3. For QA, It will be again Github

   4. For AI/ML enthusiast, it again be Github

5. Its not enough if you have Java/React or something like that on your resume.

   1. Doing similar projects as others won't help. Showcase variety & solve simple but different problems.

   2. Learn from everyone: Your Teachers, Youtube, Documentation, Blogs, social media etc.

   3. Do not rely solely on your college to set you up for success. Do your bit.

6. Research about the company you are applying for.

7. Learn how to set up meetings, Accept Meetings

   1. There are many tools like Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, Slack, Discord, Calendly etc. If you learn one, others are more or less the same story.

   2. Learn about meeting etiquettes & follow them religiously.

8. Research about the company you are applying. This is important and hardly followed.

9. Be active on LinkedIn/Twitter.

10. Be very sure what position you have to apply. It should be directly related to the skills you have been learning.

Things not to do as an applicant

1. Sending emails without a subject.

2. Putting email body in the subject.

3. Email with confusing or unclear content in the body.

4. Confirming and then not joining the interview. This is sad because you are taking someone else's opportunity.

5. Joining the call but not being on video.

6. Joining the call and lying about skills.

7. I'm not even going to mention cheating on Job interviews.

I hope this list helps some of you land an internship.

Good Luck