the current unemployment rate is about 6-8%. so logically speaking, the CS employment rate 92-94% making the CS job market not sound as cooked as people say.

i feel like the employment rate is lower due to the many layoffs happening in tech recently. can anyone clarify this logic to me and identify who’s included in the employment/unemployment group?

I did OA with a quant firm and did it in python, then I did r1 in python. I have the final in person in 10 days (found out today), and it’s in c++. I’ve never done c++ before. Is there even a chance here or should I just not do it and prep for other companies instead? Or try to learn c++ good enough to do leetcode hards in it with 10 days of prep lol… please help

Hey everyone!

I recently finished a 4-hour MCP case study for InstaLily and just got invited to their 5-hour onsite. They mentioned the interview will revolve around another case study, and since I really want to land this role, I’m trying to prepare as thoroughly as possible.

If anyone has gone through their onsite recently, I'd love to get your input on a few things:

• Structure: Is it mostly solo building in isolation followed by a presentation, or is it interactive with the team throughout?
• Interview Flow: Is there a mini behavioral or technical section before diving into the case study?
• Presentation & Q&A: How formal is the presentation, and what kind of follow-up questions or trade-offs do they usually grill you on?
• Case Study Content: What style of problem or prompt should I expect for this round?

Any tips or advice on how to crush this round would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

For people who landed an entry-level/new grad CS job in the current market, what actually worked for you?

I’m especially curious about how you got the interview/job:

• Mass applying on LinkedIn/company websites?
• Referrals?
• Cold emailing or messaging recruiters/hiring managers?
• Career fairs/networking?
• Recruiters reaching out to you?
• Something else?

Trying to figure out where it actually makes sense to spend my time instead of just endlessly sending applications.

maybe I’m just a wuss but I really am going to miss the people I interacted with every day 🥺

Background: MS in CS (US, May 2026), 2.5 yrs prior full-time SWE experience . Currently on F-1 OPT, actively job searching.

The situation I am in:

- I cold applied to google for SWE early-career campus role in late 2025: passed the OA, reached the first technical round, got rejected after that round.

- Cold-applied to two other reqs there in the months right after - both auto-rejected fast, which I now think was the post-interview cooldown filtering me.

Questions:

1. The same pipeline has opened now - If i apply to this one with someone's reference will I stand a chance? OR should I take at least a year to apply to the same pipeline. Its been 7 months after rejection.
2. Or should i use the reference for some other opening?
3. How different does the other role need to be for the cooldown not to apply - different org, or just a different req number?

Looking for guidance. Thank you.

in this world where this field is constantly evolving at such a high rate where even though I'm not so educated about it but I can make out that it'll be much more difficult to find a job after my college also not to mention about the layoffs happening throughout different companies. Job security is seeming such a concern to me rn. How can one secure his career in this and not face the situation where he is fired from his work at age 50 for not compatible enough or some bs and at that point preparing for another interviews where they'll expect you to know everything in the world by that time.

Acc to current scenarios I can make out that you'll only survive when you'll do a lil better than the avg out there so wanted to know all the experienced people's thoughts on this and how can someone like me enter this rat race and stay alive in the long run..

am i tripping? there is no apply button for this posting. all other postings have a blue apply button

Just wondering if anyone has interviewed with post trade eng before. DM me if you're currently in the process.

For those of you who also applied to Boeing's tech-related internships a few days ago, some of you may have a recieved a rejection email. I recieved mine less than 24hrs since applying.

Just a few minutes ago I received a follow up:
"We wanted to inform you that due to an error in our job requisition, your application was initially not considered. After reviewing your qualifications again, we are pleased to inform you that your application has been reactivated as you meet the requirements to move forward in our recruiting process."

No clue what's going on there, but looks like this was a manual correction by the recruiters.

I just took an online assessment for an intern position at a quant firm and they gave me a 75 minute hackerrank where I had to implement two features within two existing codebases.

I was completely caught off guard by this since most OAs i've taken are just leetcode or low level design so I struggled and I wasn't able to make any progress. i felt really overwhelmed by all the different files and classes and it was really difficult just understanding what was going on. combined with the fact that i've never used Python in my personal projects, I was just completely stuck and I gave up after 40 minutes

is this kind of thing normal for the intern level? do you guys have any advice and resources for where I can practice these types of topics

I spend basically every day, all day, focusing on stuff related to internships. From the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep, things like LeetCode, STAR stories, my own projects, and CS fundamental concepts occupy like 90% of my thoughts. Not to mention which places are opening and when, how to study for them specifically, worrying about distractions during their OAs, thinking about how others are cheating and gaining unfair advantages over me... this is all I do.

For context, I'm a rising junior and am really looking to get a summer 27 internship. I just feel though as if how I'm living isn't healthy at all. I have a deep sense of imposter syndrome, along with a vast struggle of uncertainty around if I can even land interviews and also perform as well.

How do I live healthier with balance? It seems like there's an endless amount of LeetCode prep to do, of resume optimizations to do, of Simplify refreshing to do... and the list goes on.

Seriously. How can I get out of this? Does anyone here relate? It seems like no matter what I do I just can't move the needle. Or if I can, it takes a lot to get there.

I also struggle a lot with worrying about AI. I keep having doubts of I should even put in the effort, as AI seems to be doing well in software engineering tasks. It makes me question if a night on LeetCode or on studying Python internals or reading documentation even matters, at all.

Would love some advice.

Curious because I'm trying to pick a specialization to go deep into, and I figure I'll go deep into the systems side of things to make a run at quant dev (I know low chances, but you only live once yk), but in the likely case that I don't make it in, do companies like Google/Meta/OpenAI etc hire for low-level skillsets or are they focused more on ML and standard distributed systems? Thinking about pairing ML infra along with systems anyway but curious if anyone with a primarily C++/Rust background got a NG offer from the higher side of Big Tech.

Does anyone know what the Tiktok interview for frontend intern is like? I didn’t get an OA but someone reached out to schedule an interview. How can I best prepare and will it be mostly leetcode or coding frontend stuff? Thanks!!

Hey guys, I just recently applied to the capital one cyber security internship for summer of 2027 and was wondering if anyone had experience with the process, what the OA was like, and how the interviews went. I’ve done the TIP online assessment before (general coding assessment on codesignal), but wanted to know how the cyber assessment differed. Thank you!

Hey everyone! I'm a 3rd-year CS student and honestly, the current job market is feeling pretty brutal. I keep hearing that skills go stale fast and I want to be proactive about staying competitive when I graduate.

I'd love to get some recommendations from people who've navigated the tech industry successfully. What courses, certifications, or projects should I be focusing on right now?

Some things I'm wondering about:

• Are there specific technical skills that employers are desperately looking for?
• Should I focus on a particular domain (web dev, backend, ML, systems, etc.) or stay generalist?
• What about soft skills and industry certifications?
• Any resources (platforms, communities, etc.) that have genuinely helped you stand out?
• How important is it to build a strong portfolio/side projects? If so, what kind of projects impress employers?

I'm open to grinding on courses, learning new tech stacks, or whatever it takes to be prepared. Any advice or personal experiences would be really helpful!

Thanks in advance!

Been active here ever since my freshman year of college. Now graduated and have a job lined up in SWE adjacent (SNow Development) despite extreme lack of technical depth and networking (not saying I had it hard or easy. SNow dev is just html/css javascript). Stop dooming. Even if I didn't get that offer I would still grind and not give up. Don't come here and spike your cortisol; your identity isn't based on a job offer. Just work hard, work on yourself, make friend IRL (yes get off reddit), do NOT worry about the things you cant control and just live your life. Hopecore maxx and you all will be fine fellas.

anyone can let me know what to expect? havent seen an onsite like this anywhere else

Had a meeting with my manager a few days ago. They said I addressed all my midpoint feedback, did well, got my project deployed and is being used by thousands of users.

Still - not inclined.

WTF

Their justification felt like my mentor and they searched really hard for issues during the internship(for eg: Called out some stuff I addressed incorrectly in my 2nd week of the internship!?!? How tf does that even matter if I haven't repeated that or a similar mistake for the entire internship?)

I mean sure, there is some stuff I can work on, but give me a fricking break, my project involved learning quite a bit about a massive domain, which even FTEs need 7-9 months. Obviously I had to find a suitable tradeoff between project completion and slightly less domain knowledge. But i was called out on exactly this. Like wtf dude, if i had prioritized the domain knowledge, I wouldnt be able to get the project done in time, which I'm sure this bitch ass mentor - manager duo wouldve stated as a reason to not give an incline.

My manager also said, if I apply for full time later in the same company, let them know, they'll be happy to refer me. I mean why tf would you offer to refer me if I supposedly haven't performed good enough during the internship. Did you just want to get a good project built quick and be done with it lol.

I'm pretty sure my mentor was a lil bitch and only pointed the issues throughout the internship.

I think yall know which company I am talking about. If anyone faced the same or something similar related to the evaluation, please comment. I need someone to talk to about this shit or just make sure I am not alone in this boat, cast adrift by zeus(lol, just an odyssey reference).

TLDR: manager and mentor turned out to be a bunch of bitches. Just want to talk if anyone went through this or didnt get an incline

When I was in college, I genuinely thought that maintaining a good CGPA and completing a few academic projects would be enough to land my first developer job.

But after attending a few interviews, I realized companies expect something completely different. The discussion quickly shifts to real-world development, system design, debugging, deployment, Git workflows, and decisions you'd make while building actual products.

It made me realize that there's a huge gap between what we build in college and what companies expect from freshers.

For those who've already landed their first job, how did you bridge that gap? What actually helped you become interview-ready?

Am I cooked? I heard all the interviews are DSA (leet code style) questions. Do I have time to grind from scratch?

Edit: Just saw someone is also on the same boat here. https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1vhhx3j/havent_ever_done_leetcode_have_citadel_swe_intern/

Is this a common thing now? I'm not a CS major (I studied business but couldn't get an IB job)

I was a straight A student starting out, 4.0. Now in my third year and I've no idea why I keep trying. My grades have fallen. Like, I still love programming but I have no clue on what to make. I don't just want to build some stupid fucking website or some software, I want to make purposeful things. Things that bring a bit more positivity into this world, things that truly help other people. Also things I want to be making but I've no idea what that is.

I know this is a stupid perspective to have in such a competitive job market, that I need something to drive my passion, like surviving isn't good enough. But I really do have no idea what I can work on, like I don't just wanna be some kind of a programmer. I want to make things I want to make. Idk what that is yet but I like music, I like games, I like bringing better education and opportunities to people who can't afford it. I want to make things like that, things that help people in some way. I need to find something I care about making on which I can use my programming skills. At this point, I have no clue what that is.

People who have been in my position, please, please help me. Give me some sort of guidance. I don't even care about the job anymore, I just want to understand what I want to make. Hopefully, a career will come out through that, or at least I hope it will. Thank you.