Aug 26, 2026
How to get a tech job out of college. Lots of ppl are asking so here goes:
Proof of work:
- you have to send credible signals of competence that are hard to fake
- that means you have to get good at Leetcode, sorry. You can argue it's an unfair or useless or unnecessary in the age of coding agents (you'd be wrong on all points), but it doesn't matter. Great companies test for this or something like it. So let go of your fear/resentment, get your chin up, and just do the thing
- you don't have to grind through a thousand problems. You just have to (a) know the basic DS&A stuff and (b) get good at programming tactics
- for tactics I'm not aware of a good focused resource, I should write one maybe. Basically be careful, be thoughtful, don't get flustered, watch off by 1 errors, be consistent about open and closed intervals, learn to treat errors as completely normal part of the process, learn to debug, etc.
- back in my day we did it with @StevenSkiena's competitive programming class (last I checked videos were still online). Leetcode is better but Skiena's class is charmingly retro and you can take it from my cold dead hands
- you'll need to contact busy ppl who are allergic to claude-speak so it helps if you're good at writing. Twitter is actually a surprisingly good platform for that because virality is correlated with tight clear writing and is objective, thus impossible to lie to yourself about
- you need a link to your resume you can email/DM ppl. But unless you went to maybe top 5-10 unis or interned at top 5-10 firms (in which case you don’t need my advice) your actual resume contains no credible competence signal
- thus you need a substitute. Codex can now build any project for anyone so projects aren't a credible signal. But there is one thing Codex cannot yet do-- virality. Keep shipping until your project writeups start hitting top of HN and/or going viral on Twitter. That's your resume. A recent one where they RL'ed a model to generate javascript to paint in watercolor is a world-class example of such a project
- this may seem daunting but it's not as hard as you think. And as you're doing this your skills will improve along many many dimensions, which is extremely valuable
Visibility:
- you now need to get in front of the right ppl
- something to understand: everything that happens in business can be bucketed as front office or back office. Front office is where decisions are made (e.g. a hiring manager decides to hire you, a trader decides to buy $100M of SPCX, etc.) Back office is where ppl turn the gears of the machinery to make it happen (e.g. settling the money, printing out hiring paperwork, and so on)
- both are important for civilization to run. But to get hired you want to be visible to front office ppl. These are engineering leaders doing the engineering work. HR, recruiting, etc. are doing back office work and are unlikely to help you
- the distinction isn't always so clear, and sometimes the right recruiter can advocate for you to the right ppl. But in general you want to tilt your effort toward front office ppl as much as possible
- the higher up the org chart you go, the less constrained ppl are. So, counterintuitively, a founder is more likely to help you than a front-line EM
- you have an advantage-- you are young. Almost everyone in any position to make real decisions is eager to help ambitious competent young ppl. And also it's expected of young ppl to look a little foolish
- most candidates apply on LinkedIn. Remaining ones send LinkedIn DMs to front line managers. Again, no absolutes, but generally speaking, do the opposite of what everyone else is doing
- therefore: email founders, VPs, directors. Be very brief and polite. Be persistent but don't spam ppl obviously. Show them proof of work and ask for what you want. Get your email down to maybe 5-7 brief clear sentences.
- ppl will not give you a job on the spot, but you'll have your foot in the door. You then go through interviews, put your leetcode practice to work, and eventually hopefully get an offer
If you think it's crazy you have to do all this to get an entry level job after four years of college, I agree with you. But average is over. It's true that most new grads can't and won't do this (which is why it works), and that an economy that doesn't work for most ppl isn't sustainable. But that's a different slice of the problem. For now if you want an offer you have to get past all that and meet the market where it is.