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Comment by sarchertech

21 days ago

>When 1200 people compete for 1 open internship position, can I really afford to waste my time like this?

The ratio of internships to qualified students is far better than 1:1200. You don’t need to be in the top tenth of a percent to get an internship.

Worst case scenario you don’t get the internship you want and it takes you an extra year or 2 to get the job you wanted.

Take some time to enjoy your youth without worrying about min maxing everything. You’re never going to have fewer responsibilities than you do now.

>slower than if we just read the docs

Don’t take classes where the content of lectures can be replaced by reading the docs. Take theoretical classes. Learn the practical stuff on your own.

Also seek out the experts. Ask questions. Spend time with them. Unless you do to grad school, you’ll never have this kind of access to experts again.

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sarchertech

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doright  21 days ago

> The ratio of internships to qualified students is far better than 1:1200.

To be fair, for a person with several years of industry experience it feels like the ratio of applicants to openings for tech jobs really is some absurdly high number - high enough to where you can be out of experience-appropriate work for years, plural.

I don't know if the overall market can generalize to university internships however, which may be the disconnect.

However, I remember one time in the recent past where I was offered to interview for a position that was designed for recent graduates with no industry experience. They offered this to me knowing I had graduated long ago and already had industry work for a while. My conclusion was that after a whole two months of interviewing candidates, they simply could not find any recent graduates qualified enough for their own recent graduates opening.

I did feel some guilt being offered that position knowing it was supposed to have gone towards someone with far fewer opportunities to get hired than me. I don't know if this is an indication of the state of universities, recent graduates, hiring managers who write up the postings and don't know what they actually want, the job market in general, or some other factor I haven't considered...

  • sarchertech  20 days ago

    Oh there really are thousands of people that apply to each job. But that’s because people who have a hard time finding a job stay in the market longer. Think of it as if there are 1000 permanently unemployed people who will apply for any job opening.

    But if you look at unemployment and underemployment rates, it’s clear that the ratio is nowhere near as what it feels like just from looking at the number of people who apply to a job.

    We’re in a job market downturn. It is definitely possible to be out of work for years.

    But unless you’re in the bottom say 20% of developers that’s not likely to happen.

    Even after the dotcom boom tech unemployment only got to 6.5% or so.