been lurking on the sub for a while, seen a lot of doomers. there's hope, I just got the meta email yesterday night and I go to a no-namer uni

here is what worked for me:

ngl, you got to be down bad for opportunities. down atrocious for internships.

here's what I did:

get that referral first! don't blame lack of connections or how it is unfair, its still a meritocracy for those that go out and choose to pursue them. no-life linkedIn blast out message requests to get a referral (warm up the conversation first). also, the church community is op, you wanna find some sort of network of working adults later into their career to get referrals. note that, meta won't give bonuses to employees for referrals anymore (they just started this)

highly recc competitive programming through code forces/ICPC. recruiters start salivating when they read this. gotta be good though, have an intimate knowledge of the language you work with. competitive programming will translate nicely into technical interview prep.

your resume cannot be basic, there needs to be some sort of differentiator. try to find an angle to sell yourself during the interview. projects shouldn't be basic try to find something clickbaity, much more memorable.

leetcode is your life, just stay consistent and it'll pay off. me and my friends used an app to keep each other accountable for solving leetcode daily. It was solid for keeping each other accountable, it was sort of like BeReal for group habits where everyone needs to post a picture of a leetcode solution by midnight or the streak ends.

also, don't focus on your current stage of skills, focus on the velocity of your growth. spend some time reviewing your week and measure your growth and find spots to optimize. to keep it real with you, your time is limited, give it a complete effort.

you're gmi

edit: someone requested for the app name in the comments so i pasted it there

shooting from half court for these internships:

Hi folks

Just get an email stating Meta has stopped hiring processes for all 2026 interns. Have others received the same email from the recruiter?

Updates: I talked with a couple of intern candidates, it seems like Meta-wise intern pause at all levels(DS, SWE, UX etc).

I received a Meta internship offer, but I'm graduating May 2025 and have to pursue a Masters so I can do this internship (I'm international and it seems like there's no way for me to push my bachelors graduation date by a semester).

But I'm still waiting for my full time return offer from my past summer internship (current getting processed) . Recruiter said that I'm most likely getting it at the beginning of next year since they have to process everything. The company is alright, it's a Crypto Unicorn and we haven't discussed salaries but it's of course no where near FAANG salary.

I applied to Meta internship since I wasn't sure I'd get my RO but now that I know that I will be getting my RO, I'm conflicted and don't know what to do.

SInce I'm an international student, I'm scared that recruiting next year will be way harder due to the market and getting an RO from Meta is of course not guaranteed.

Can I please get some thoughts on this? Is it better to take a FTE offer from an okay-company or risk it with Meta?

EDIT: Return offer company says they will sponsor for sure so I don't have to worry about that

I am the type of overachieving person who always had good grades, scholarships, good jobs, and good evaluations in my country.

I have dealt with stressful jobs before, but at least I could always have the satisfaction of, despite everything, doing a good job. I have always had friends at work who made my day more manageable and happy.

I came to study a master's in the US. While it has been challenging and stressful, I have made good friends and had fun.

I had always wanted to work in Tech, and somehow I managed to get an internship at Meta this summer. It sounds like I am achieving all the dreams I have worked so hard for.

The problem is that my internship hasn't been going well. I haven't achieved the expected progress in my project, despite dedicating many extra hours outside of work and on weekends. I feel like the expectations placed on interns are more than I thought. Is it assumed that I should work all weekend to keep up? But no one says it directly. I feel like it's implied. I would prefer more transparency about it.

I know this is a phase that will pass. But my biggest concern is that I am not enjoying this American work culture. People are not very close; I feel like I can't make real friends with my coworkers, and I really miss the culture of my country. Does it make sense to come to the US to live in such a cold and hostile environment?

It makes me question the decision to go into debt to study here (with the money I could make in my country, it would take decades to finance a master's in the US, so I depend on finding a full-time job here in the US and working for a few years to pay off my debt).

I just want to vent. It's 4 a.m. and I can't sleep from the anxiety. I think I should get up now and work on my internship project, but I keep wasting my time on Reddit.