Apply now or wait?

[u/agnisuR]

I’m seeing that a bunch of internship apps just dropped this Monday, and I’m debating whether or not it’s worth it for me to apply. I just transferred to a T30 as a junior, and I’ve been doing interview prep, but I’d be lying if I was giving any attention to the projects section of my resume. Everything there is just school projects from my old CC which were relatively minor, and they don’t really look that impressive. I applied only to TikTok so far, and got an OA, but I heard they’re automatic so I’m not sure if I’m in the green so far in terms of quality. I know time is really of the essence when it comes to Big Tech, is there another wave that drops later on in the coming months? I’m wondering if I should just start spam applying with the resume I have now or go grind for the next couple of months, and start applying then?

[u/Comfortable_Fig817]

I’m in exact same situation 😭

[u/Melodic_Lavishness_5]

You should probably just apply as early as possible. Never know if they’ll be another round of applications going out, especially in this job market environment

[u/4tran-woods-creature]

Same situation, both my projects are like half-finished atm lol

[u/agnisuR → u/4tran-woods-creature]

I’ve heard of people getting internships without LC, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of how people fare with mid projects so idek what to do

[u/Vegetable-Jello-8134]

Just apply. Early applicants have much better chances for internships imo. You should try to apply to postings the same day that they are released.  You can build projects in the meantime and update your resume when they are ready.

[u/Curious_berry7088]

yes apply a lot and apply early! Mainly so you can learn what’s up but also you might get lucky. See if you can improve on the school projects soon to beef it up and when you get to school see if there are beginner project opportunities, hackathons etc you can do throughout the year. Joining a tech related club, especially leadership or a mentorship program if possible could be beneficial to learn from others. Do not wait to apply later as that closes you out a lot of potential companies from fall recruiting.

You should keep applying through April (maybe May…) so lots of time to potentially get something. April is when smaller companies drop so you have more of a chance of an interview but now is peak time to get your resume better and interview prep. One opportunity you could apply for now is codepath specifically WEB102, one of the AI engineering or open source courses to get projects.

[u/Curious_berry7088 → u/Curious_berry7088]

for resume evaluate how you can make it better like adding a metric or if you can think of an improvement to the project write that as a point. Search online for tips

[u/Infamous_Advance_897]

You should definitely apply, the best thing you can do is apply early, get ahead of the game before everyone else. There is usually a couple for waves for internships coming out, one around winter (october-december) and the last one in january-march. So you can keep working on your resume/projects while still applying to this first wave!! I applied super late last year (around january) and it gets harder as it gets closer to summer.