Job Search Advice for Recent Grads in Today's Market

Question

I graduated University of Toronto computer science (ranked by ARWU as 1st in Canada and 9th in the world) with a decent GPA around a year ago. Following graduation, I applied to hundreds of jobs, networked aggressively, and skilled up as much as possible for around three months straight, every day, for the entire day. I landed a ridiculously small number of interviews, and I ended up landing a low-paying dev job with a stack I did not want in a tiny company with no employee benefits. Not exactly the tech bro dream 🥲.

Comparing with many of my peers who have similar backgrounds to me and who landed great jobs straight out of college, it's hard for me to know whether I'm falling victim to LinkedIn survivorship bias (i.e. I'm only seeing those who succeed) or if I am missing something here. Perhaps it's that I didn't do any internships during college, or that the market is bad right now, or that one simply needs referrals to get interviews. I am hoping to gain clarity on this.

My formal questions:

I am a graduate of one of the top computer science programs in North America, have a decent GPA, and have a portfolio of college projects. It's hard for me to assume my resume is that suboptimal that it undoes those facts. Why are companies not interested in interviewing me?
I have two years of experience total at two different companies, both of which are very small consultancies owned by friends of friends, which I suspect may be hurting my application. Is it better to apply for recent grad jobs or internships (which I'm applying for anyway) with no professional experience listed on my resume?
Something that I've seen emphasized on Taro is that it is much more attractive to specialize. For example, in the resume course, Alex recommends applying with a small number of technologies you are proficient in / have experience with. As a recent grad not getting interviews, I am (a) nervous I'll get thrown into a tech stack I don't care for, but thereafter only have a real chance at success interviewing for jobs with that stack, and (b) not actually proficient with any tech stack, so not sure I can craft a "specialized" resume. What are your thoughts on this, and what does a strong recent grad resume look like?

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer and for Taro's support in the job search!

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

Not having internships is really rough. Past internships are far and away the #1 signal for whether a junior engineer will succeed on the job, which is why employers optimize so hard on them. The problem with junior engineers is that they have 0 work experience, but internships gets around that problem.  That being said, we can't change the past. Your current background is your current background, so focus on optimizing the present and future. In general, I always try to have a growth mentality (and that's what I tell all my mentees) - As long as you genuinely feel like you're getting better, you'll be fine at the end of the day. Level, company prestige, total compensation - These are all lagging indicators of your skill level. In this market, that lag will unfortunately be quite big 😅  When it comes to advice for new-grad engineers in this job market, these are my Top 5 recommendations:  Have grit by taking care of yourself Find a buddy (or multiple buddies) for moral support and accountability, especially when studying for interviews Truly network (i.e. not just connecting with random folks on LinkedIn) Build cool stuff (side projects + open-source) Do your best at your current job as it's best to interview while employed  I cover all this and more in my overall job searching course: Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer  Check this thread out as well: What can a junior engineer do to gain a competitive advantage in this market and land a better opportunity?

Job Search Advice for Recent Grads in Today's Market

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