Senior Year Recruiting (1/3)
In the fall of 2015, I went through full-time recruiting for tech companies. It was time-consuming and stressful but it also made me more reflective and self-aware about what I wanted in the year after graduation. The following series of 3 posts convey some of what I learned and some of what I wish I had done differently during the process. The parts are roughly divided into before, during, and after interviews info. It will be pretty straightforward and dry because I hope to lend some clarity to a very opaque process. I hope you find it helpful!
Disclaimer: Everything is purely from my own experience and I make no claim that this is recommended or best
Timeline
This is a rough month-by-month timeline of how I proceeded through recruiting:
- July/August - first calls with recruiters, especially at bigger companies
- September - mostly first and second phone interviews, one on-site final interview
- October - half of my time on phone interviews and half on onsites, starting negotiation calls
- November - calls with mentors/potential team members, recruiters, final negotiations
- Thanksgiving - sign offer
Background before the fall
I study Computer Science at Harvard and had completed three technical internships, one in each of the summers during college. My favorite internship was at the Microsoft Foundry program in my second summer in which I was in a program of 40 interns, every engineer in my team of five had significant ownership, and we ideated then shipped an entire product in ten weeks. In looking at full time recruiting opportunities, I wanted to recreate that tight-knit, fast-paced, well-supported environment so I made up my mind on the basics of what I was looking for.
What I was looking for
I had several hard and fast rules that I adhered to when choosing companies to interview for:
- No social networks
- Office in the Bay Area
- Only software engineering roles
- Software Engineering-driven company (e.g. not design, hardware-driven)
I also came up with three values for what I wanted out of my job/company and I told every recruiter:
- A meaningful company mission that I can feel satisfied contributing to on a day-to-day basis
More social impact driven companies, with a product that was close to immediate impact on the user - Ownership my projects and code
Having a fair amount of responsibility even as a new engineer, being able to choose my project and change teams easily, not be bound by a lot of legal corporate constraints - New grad mentorship and support for women in CS
Not just a sink-or-swim company, values employee growth in long term rather than burning them out, with a culture that was self-aware about problems in the industry
What I wish I had done at this stage
Even with the rules that I had, it was hard to say no to companies and recruiters. I wish I had been more confident in my ability to pass through recruiting and didn’t “cast a wide net.” It took up a lot of the company and my time and ultimately I would only be able to choose one offer. I also wished I had sought advice from alums or friends who had worked at the companies to get a truer idea of the environment there without going onsite. With that knowledge, I feel like I could have withdrawn from the interview process of some companies earlier.
Next section will cover what to do for interview prep and tips during interviews themselves.