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Ask HN: Is it too late to avoid wasting my summer?

5 points by socksy ↗ HN
I'm in my penultimate year in an honours CS course at a Scottish University, and have failed to procure an internship or any work experience over the summer. I'm based down in the South East of England (just outside Reading), and have pursued a few places in London, to limited success. Most recently been rejected from Twitter after interview (one of the nicest rejections I've had!).

I don't think I'm unable to apply myself, having had several years of experience in programming in a few languages (Python, C, Java, JavaScript, Haskell...) and having done projects relating to coursework, hackathons, and fun.

It feels like it's too late to do anything relevant to computing, for experience, except at the expense of money. Last summer I did an internship in my CS dept. at university, and whilst the experience was valuable I made a loss overall. This compounded over term time, and I'm now £1800 overdrawn with a limit of £2000; so whilst I don't want to concentrate on the money issue, it is an issue that does have to be addressed. I may have an offer for a place in Edinburgh, but I don't think it is going to pay enough to be able to live there, and I really don't have the buffer to be able to afford another loss.

It feels really late in the day to find an internship nearby, and my university term starts again in September. Is it too late? Should I just look at getting an ordinary retail job, damn the consequences for my CV? I suppose I could try to do FOSS stuff in my spare time.

Would there be small companies in commutable distance that wouldn't have even considered interns still? It seems like most formal application processes are long over. Is it worth my while continuing to cold email companies?

Thanks for reading this far. I'd love to hear any input anyone can give on the matter.

5 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 25.7 ms ] thread
Robin_Message
If you can show you can deliver, a small company is more likely to be able to take an intern. But finding small companies is somewhat tricky. Go to talks, hackathons, user groups, stuff like that to meet people, but try to filter out blowhards from people who might actually employ you.

Remember that companies find recruiting good developers hard, so if you can ship, someone will employ you.

Oh, and cold e-mailing is fine, but try to not sound desperate. Say something vague that an opportunity fell through or whatever and that you are interested in doing an internship with them. You can start now, and you are skilled in X/Y/Z, as shown by A/B/C.

tagabek
Have you thought about freelancing?
socksy
Sounds interesting — but how would I go about finding the work in the first place?
firegrind
It's far from too late, if you identify your goals and focus on them.

Get involved with your local tech communities. Spend a few evenings with local tech groups. You'll find a broad cross section of technologists at your local hackerspace [1] who will be happy to talk shop. Check Meetup for local groups related to your favourite languages. If there isn't one, start it.

Hotdesking at a local business incubator is a way to make connections, advertise your presence and concentrate on $project while you seek out opportunities.

If money is your primary concern, then sacrificing a few days a week to balance the books will pay off in peace of mind as you prepare for your final year.

[1] http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/United_Kingdom

WasimBhai
What is your primary motive, experience or money?

1. If it is experience, then find an open source project to contribute. Mozilla, VLC Player, that come to my mind. The upshot is you get to work on something that is huge, and if you work hard enough, and your patch gets accepted, it will shine on your CV.

Of course, on the flip side, no money is involved.

2. You want to earn some bucks? Elance, Odesk. Create a profile, and start bidding. Simple as that.

My recommendation: Go for open source. You will learn more.