Ask HN: How difficult is it to get an internship if I have zero experience?

4 points by physloop 13 years ago | 5 comments

I'm seeking a summer 2013 internship in the San Francisco Bay Area. There's tons of opportunities available, but after doing some research it seems like only the most elite students get these positions. Folks from Cal, Stanford, and Ivy Leagues snatch these positions without any trouble.

I'm just a guy who is finishing his community college classes and wants some work experience before transferring to a 4 year college. I've taken various math, C++, Java, and UNIX classes but I don't have much experience outside of that. I'm currently teaching myself data structures/algorithms and try to code little programs implementing them. There's a few other languages I'm playing around with, but its nothing serious. Aside from that, my programming ability is a bit weak, and I'm worried I won't be able to compete with the other applicants.

My main strength is that I'm a fairly quick learner. Given a language or technology, I can probably learn it pretty well in 1-2 weeks with lots of studying. When it comes to actually implementing that knowledge, I'll need a bit of guidance. I'm still a newbie after all.

So what kind of qualities in an intern are companies looking for? Do they expect the intern to be a "rockstar coding ninja" or are they willing to take in a complete newbie and let him try to stay afloat? Also, would I be expected to do whiteboard coding during an interview to one of the smaller companies? I'm obviously not applying to Google or Facebook, but smaller companies. For instance, I'm interested in: Ooyala, Evernote Corporation, Terravide, and a few others like that.

I'd appreciate if someone could give me any insight, and perhaps even suggest any places to apply to that are willing to take in people like me. Thanks.

lacker 13 years ago |

You probably would be expected to do whiteboard coding in an interview. Places like Ooyala and Evernote might not be as large as Google, but they still have a pretty high programming bar.

If you're having trouble even getting in the door, the best way to turn a medium resume into an good one is to have interesting projects on github.

Failing that, the best strategy is to apply to more companies, and to not just restrict yourself to companies even as large as Evernote. Go for smaller startups. You could try, for example, contacting every single YC startup from the past few years. A friend of mine got a dream job at an NFL team this way - he applied to every American professional sports team every year for a few years, and despite a 99.7% failure rate, his persistence eventually got him a job.

27182818284 13 years ago |

Fear not.

No, the Ivy League is not a hard requirement. I know two people off the top of my head that graduated from a school ranked > 100 that both now work for Apple. (Compared with say, Stanford, whose rank is tied at fifth in the 2012 US News rankings)

There are a couple details: 1. They did not immediately start at Apple. Both worked elsewhere for 2-4 years at other locations. (Places that were less than the Google-Amazon-Apple tier) 2. They both were ridiculously hard workers. Like every second I knew them, they were working. Are they cooking dinner? Oh OK, while something sizzles they would turn around to the laptop and write either half of a line or one or more lines of code.

smit 13 years ago |

If you think you can learn things in weeks then I'd suggest you teach yourself a language that some of the companies you are interested in work with. Then just hit them up in spring and say you taught yourself in only weeks so imagine how much you can learn in months with them. Thats my two cents. Besides that a bit of hustle and luck will get you into companies you want.

orangethirty 13 years ago |

Shoot me an email (in profile).

physloop 13 years ago | |

Just sent it!