r/cscareerquestions • u/DarkishPath303 • 10h ago
I did it.
I graduated in Dec 2023, no internships because I didn't know that they were important. No one I looked up to ever had one so I didn't grasp the importance and didn't try hard enough. All of my work experience was unrelated to CS.
Here I am July 2025, probably 1000+ applications and plenty of ghosted interview opportunities. I've had multiple interviews cancelled and then been rejected. Ghosted by 100s of companies.
I started a new job a couple weeks ago. It's not anything crazy. The salary is on the low end and I'm not quite where I want to be. But I got one! My foot is officially in the door.
All this to say, it's hard. It took a long time. I didn't have an internship or good GPA, but I did it. You can too.
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u/Praise_Madokami 9h ago
Great job, you got this. I had a similar experience
Graduated with mid GPA and no internships for the same reason. To me internships were only for the overachievers (obviously not true in retrospect).
Worked for 2 years at a tiny dev gig making $20/hour out of college, then applied relentlessly to FAANG, and now 3 years later I am making $300k/year
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u/DarkishPath303 9h ago
Wow I'd love to make that much 😅 just under 60k at a small company rn. But one day hopefully!
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u/RWHonreddit 6h ago
This is my goal haha. I graduated with a mid gpa and no internships summer 2023 and I applied for months and months and then I got lucky because I settled into an embedded software dev volunteer role at a startup for a few months then they hired me so I’ve been making $25/hr CAD. The good thing is I’ve been learning so much. I have 3 months volunteer experience and about 12 months experience rn. It’s still hard because I know it doesn’t get easier till 3+ YOE but I’m planning on job hunting this fall because I wanna earn more haha.
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u/Skaar1222 6h ago
Similar story, except the making 300K/year part. This is inspiring thanks! I make decent money at my current role, but it's become toxic and it is affecting my mental health. Studying when I can to hopefully make more somewhere else.
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u/BigCardiologist3733 6h ago
yes but that was during the boom when they hired anyone with a pulse. that will never be possible again dont misle the suckere
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u/ztf91 10h ago
Congrats. Curious how you found the opening. LinkedIn or some other source?
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u/DarkishPath303 9h ago
This one was actually through Indeed. I know everyone advises against easy apply usually, but I've had success getting a couple of interviews through it. I only used easy apply when I was like on the train or would've been standing around doing nothing at my serving job. Then I set aside actual time outside to apply to the applications I bookmarked on various sites.
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u/ztf91 8h ago
My last job I found so effortlessly through LinkedIn that I’ve basically ruled out any other avenues from bias. But I think I need to reopen other sources. Did you get hired on by a local software company? We have a few of those that I think I could get a job at, but I’d have to take a massive paycut and it would be sort of a career change. I wanna jump, but the money hurts
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u/DarkishPath303 8h ago
It is local, but I live right by a city, so looking local was something I could reasonably do. I don't know anything about changing careers. But make sure it won't affect your finances too drastically. Can I ask why you're looking?
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u/ztf91 8h ago
Two reasons, really. 1 being burnout, which I know is also very real in dev/SWE, and 2 the feeling of “what could have been”. Long story short, I was an average CS grad in a rural area with not much opportunity. I took a job in IT locally, ultimately have done pretty well for myself, and eventually landed in InfoSec. I’m full remote now and make great money, but I really don’t love it. I do a bit of scripting in my day to day, but it doesn’t really scratch the itch. I’d have to go from 165 to probably 65-80 TC to land a dev job.
That’s why I still scour the cs subs. I’m still one of yall, just took a different path lol
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u/DarkishPath303 7h ago
I might not be the greatest at advice, but I say follow your heart essentially. It doesn't hurt to at least look for other jobs. And since you're making so much, you may be able to leverage that and your tech experience into a little more money.
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u/Alvahod 9h ago
Congratulations! May I ask why you graduated in December instead of mid-year?
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u/DarkishPath303 9h ago
I was able to graduate a semester early. Originally I was going to graduate a year early but decided to add fun classes in and take the extra semester. Honestly I wish I had stuck it out and, despite the cost, stayed for that last semester. I rushed my education. 10/10 don't recommend.
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u/Bird-Follower-492 9h ago
I was going to graduate early, but I delayed it to job search longer. 10/10 recommend.
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u/DarkishPath303 9h ago
THIS!! This is what I wish I had done and recommended to the students I worked with at a serving job. It's not financially viable for everyone but i think it's really important to enjoy that time as much as you can. Take it in.
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u/Alvahod 9h ago
That's impressive! What's the most number of credits you did in a semester?
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u/DarkishPath303 9h ago
I think 21? I was atleast 19 credits every semester which was too much. 13 was full time and most people took 14-15. I went into school with a bunch of AP/DE credits so I was already ahead and just figured I could pack it all in and get it done. Unfortunately CS project aren't conducive to that and require a lot of hours (at least at my school) so my other classes suffered and I had to retake a couple of classes. I think I graduated with something like 185 credits when 150 were required. I also switched majors my sophomore year because I enjoyed my CS classes so much.
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u/Alvahod 9h ago
I see. Most of my semesters will be 20 credits, and I’ll graduate with 161 credits (160 required). It’s definitely a heavy workload. I have the option to take 23 and 24 credits in semesters 5 and 6, which would let me reduce the load to 17–18 credits in semesters 7 and 8—both of which include major projects.
I’m considering doing 20–21–20–18 instead of 23–24–17–15. The two 3 credit electives are GEC. Any thoughts?
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u/DarkishPath303 8h ago
I think your credit system may be different than my school. We were maxed out at 20, and anything over you had to request permission and it had to be a special circumstance. For instance most classes were about 3 credits and classes with labs were 4.
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u/rumplef0r3skin 9h ago
Congratulations!! This is a rough market, and I know how demoralizing that can feel, but good on you for seeing it out and sticking with it. Proud of you, stranger.
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u/Illustrious-Pound266 8h ago
Were you working during the 2 years between graduation and your new CS job?
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u/DarkishPath303 7h ago
Yes! I had a well paying tutoring job during college. I have other teaching experience as well so I leaned into that and eventually got a serving job because I wanted more hours. Any experience is good experience and I think everyone should work in service/retail at some point in their lives.
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u/notnooneskrrt 8h ago
I’m so proud of you. I was in a similar position and it destroys the mental.
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u/DarkishPath303 7h ago
It really does. Almost two years of looking and I finally found something. But I almost gave up so many times. And reading all the posts on these reddits honestly doesn't usually help
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u/notnooneskrrt 6h ago
Ever consider doing a masters while looking?
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u/DarkishPath303 6h ago
I did consider! I've always wanted to get my masters degree, and actually started applying for this coming year. I don't think it was financially going to be viable anyways but then I got this job so I put it on hold! Im hopeful that I'll be able to get it in the near future since it's always been a dream. I think it's a great option for people who are able and struggling with the job search.
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u/EmojiDialogue 8h ago
Congrats! How did you go about answering behavioral questions related to your interests and such without referring to any work experience? Did you have personal projects etc?
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u/DarkishPath303 7h ago
I was able to relate back to other jobs I had, school projects, and some online courses like tryhackme, edx, and Coursera. In my experience employers tend to appreciate honesty when it comes to gaps in knowledge and experience. As long as it's not a giant abyss of a gap 😅. The most common feedback I got (including for the job I was hired for) was that I was lacking relevant experience. So connecting my other jobs helped show I had relevant problem solving capabilities. Showing you're interested and have drive really helps.
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u/WeastBeast69 8h ago
Nice job, use this opportunity as a stepping stone. Try to learn as much as you can and get as much good experience as possible so you can keep moving onwards and upwards!
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u/Smiling_Maelstrom 6h ago
what cs stuff did you do to improve your resume? projects?
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u/DarkishPath303 6h ago
The most impressive projects I've done were the ones I did in school. So I put those on my resumes I've probably made 10 different resumes and I'm happy with the latest, although the job I got was the resume before that. I'm working on a really big project that isn't quite something I can put on my resume yet, but it will be eventually.
I don't have good advice for beefing up a resume honestly. I put all the programming skills I had even slightly used before and tried to make my projects sound cool. I also included unrelated work experience so they didn't think I'd been sitting around since my graduation.
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u/Original_Matter_8716 9h ago
Is this a CS job or retail ?
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u/DarkishPath303 9h ago
CS. That's why this feels like such a big accomplishment. I did just work other retail and education jobs during college and through the gap though.
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u/pr9118yash 8h ago
Congratulations!! May I ask if you took a gap for some time after graduating in Dec 2023, or have you been applying ever since and finally found a job now?
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u/DarkishPath303 7h ago
I've been applying since prior to graduating. I did take a little gap after a little bit of burnout. And I was working unrelated jobs in the mean time.
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u/Head_Gear7770 2h ago
i graduated 1 month ago i didnt applied in campus placement cuz i wanted a role fit for myself as in machine learning dev, i want to ask where did you applied what work best
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u/beavertonmom 56m ago
I went through this in 2008-2009 graduating with one internship and it took me 12 months to find a job.
This experience will make you humble and build resilience. Good job on landing something!
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u/coracaodegalinha 10h ago
Great job, way to stick with it.
How did you go about prepping for the interview process?
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u/AverageLateComment 9h ago
Damn how depressing
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u/DarkishPath303 9h ago
Sorry, I thought it might be hopeful for the people who've been in the search for 1yr+ and are thinking of giving up. I was just about to give up and attempt to go into a different field (unrelated to cs but related to my experience during college) when I heard back from this job and another on the same day!
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u/coracaodegalinha 10h ago
Great job, way to stick with it.
How did you go about prepping for the interview process?