For all those computer science students out there trying to seek internships and other entry-level positions, I think we can all agree the tech industry is not only brutal right now, but there’s a lot of competition. It constantly feels like an uphill battle. We often see postings on LinkedIn like these:
and then we check Reddit posts like these:
or we see people post their resumes from an ivy league school and former NASA interns who still haven’t gotten an offer after 100+ applications…
Soon the reality of the job market quickly sets in and becomes increasingly daunting and discouraging. This is the reality for millions of students across the globe as the tech industry becomes increasingly difficult in their broken hiring processes. When you have 4-6 rounds of interviews just for an internship or new grad position, it’s easy to become stressed and overwhelmed on top of your studies. The truth is actual day-to-day work is a lot simpler than the interviews. Engineer’s days are not spent flattening linked lists or building Facebook from scratch under a stopwatch.
Don’t get me wrong – companies need to thoroughly evaluate candidates. But the current system takes it to the extreme. Spending weeks prepping obscure algorithms or being grilled on over-the-top whiteboard problems bears little resemblance to actual work. Real jobs involve collaboration, communication skills and pragmatic problem-solving – aspects difficult to gauge from a technical quiz show. A better approach sees candidates as humans, not just skills listings. Take-home projects and pair programming assess hard skills in realistic scenarios. Assessing potential, not trivia mastery, leads to quality hires who thrive long-term.
Companies want stars, but the path to find them must be accessible and equitable. With millions of lives impacted, the system demands reform that works for all.
Note: For those interested, there is actually a Github repo called Hiring Without Whiteboards (https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards) which has a comprehensive list of companies that use interview techniques that more closely resemble day-to-day work. The repo was created by Lauren Tan, a software engineer at Facebook.
