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: