I'll be going to the University of Arizona in March to recruit bright-eyed college kids for Microsoft. Unfortunately for them, many won't get a serious look... and we're actually more proactively looking than many others there. I used to work for [another company] and for a period of time we literally weren't hiring. We'd still go, of course, to keep the brand alive!
I was once on the other side too. I was wrapping up my computer science, computer engineering and math degrees. I knew I was good. I could barely get an interview. I wondered why. I wondered how those other kids looked better than me when I was sure they weren't actually. My friends and I would moan about how no one could see past the GPA or the previous internships, etc, that despite chatting with recruiters for 30 minutes they remained uninterested in us.
To understand what just happened, we have to look at it from the employer's side. I once did a resume review for a group of underclassmen from the University of Washington. Telling them that Microsoft probably receives 1000 resumes a day opened their eyes. We all want to think that our resumes will get deep attention and careful consideration, but there's simply no time for that. In an effort to streamline the process, certain traits are filtered. Naturally, experience and GPA matter; they are a few of the reasonably objective things on a resume. Recruiters know they lose some candidates that would perform well, but these are coarse bucketing mechanisms that allows them to focus on a smaller pool that has a higher likelyhood of being a good hire.
So where do I fit?
I graduated with a 3.4 cumulative GPA and no industry internships, and I am absolutely sure that it left me in a less desirable bucket in the eyes of many prospective employers. For example, Google (at least for a while) had a strongly enforced 3.5+ policy, and that other company I worked for tended to make that a condition for a strongly desired employee.
I could have just done this from home ...
The process is deeply dehumanizing. Most employers make you feel like nothing but an application form. They make no attempt to find out who you are. Aren't they recruiting?? The disconnect between employer and prospective employee expectations amplifies the mystery of it all. Students want to be interacted with and wonder why they just get a flyer for the company.com/jobs site. What was the point of coming by in person?
So, about all those resumes in the database ...
Even after any initial filtering is applied, there are a giant number of resumes left. Resume ordering (by desirability) is a very difficult task; really it's impossible. There's probably still a good chance yours will be selected (or not) for an interview or followup somewhat by random, unless you can tip the odds in your favor. Facetime is the biggest advantage you can have. It is the one way to elevate above your resume.
Ok, facetime. I'll ask lots of questions and nod approvingly!
No, I will stare at you with contempt. You have to make the other person want you, which stems from being unique. You need to provide value to the conversation, unlike this guy, this guy, and this guy. You need to convey that you are in tune with the employer. You're unlikely tell them something they haven't heard, but you can ask them insightful questions. Try to apply the principles you know from class. Talking Micron? Don't ask them what feature size they are down to. Ask them if they are speeding up RAM by adding parallelism or through sheer bus speed. Are they experimenting with new materials or just feature size to reduce capacitance and increase speed? Show them you get what their problem space is about. Talking to Microsoft? Tell me in detail about your project, including the technical stuff. Anyone can tell me they worked as a team and cite a few design patterns. Admit you butchered it on the first go, that's fine. Tell me you tried to add networking and it didn't fit with your model-view-controller architecture on the first pass so you had to refactor. I want to see you analyze and get better, and relate to me.
Oh wait, I've only taken the intro programming course ... do I even have a chance?
Realistically your odds are decreased. You likely don't have the same maturity of understanding and less insight, making the above better conversation harder to achieve. Specifically in programming, you can help yourself. The beauty of software is that you only need imagination, curiousity and initiative. You already have a computer (or access to one) to code on. Pick a problem you want to solve and work on it as a side project. The lessons you learn on your own in uncharted waters like those are invaluable and give you a great platform to talk from. You get to talk about the problem, how you thought about solving it, how you had to iterate, how you had to learn new technologies, how you were successful (or if you weren't what was missing, describe the component that's missing or that you haven't gotten to yet). These projects don't have to be big. I wrote a ghetto photoshop program in java in an evening just to try out some design patterns. I never fleshed it out, but that wasn't the goal. The goal was to better understand approaches to problems. Now I can talk about that.
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