The Recruiting Pyramid

Recruiting can be thought of as a pyramid with different layers. Ideally, we want to be able to obtain an offer, but it might be a little overwhelming in exactly what actionable steps you need to take to get an offer.

The pyramid should be looked at as bottom-up. We should unlock the previous layer in order to get to the above layer. At the base, any offer will start with getting the interview. There are several ways to go about getting the interview, but at its root, it will come down to having a solid resume. This is at the bottom for a reason. No matter how competent you may think you are at coding interviews, if you are not getting any interviews, no one will ever know of your abilities. Make sure to make this distinction for yourself. In the resume, section I will dive deeper into actionable steps you can take to getting noticed by your resume. Once you are able to get enough attention from companies, there comes diminished returns in investing time into your resume. Your resume will not be the reason why you pass a whiteboard coding interview.

As much as it sucks, leetcode interviews are currently the meta for entry-level/internship positions at these tech companies. The downside with these interviews is that you specifically have to go out of your way to prepare for them if you want to be able to consistently pass the coding interview. The upside is that there is an objective bar and if you have the flashiest school name or companies on your resume, this is a huge opportunity to prove that you are just as capable. You are also able to have a huge return on your time investment if you prepare correctly. All companies will ask you more or less similar styled questions. If you prepare correctly, passing interviews will become trivial thus leading you to more opportunities.

The last layer is succeeding in the internship itself in order to receive a full-time offer. Being able to successfully succeed in an internship might seem like a heavy task considering that 2021 internships are likely to be remote. I have gone ahead and consolidated with those who were in similar shoes last year doing remote internships and will