
Jason Voorhees
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- May 15, 2020
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I get where you're coming from recruiters mainly filter by pedigree and prior experience especially for big tech with well defined internship programs that is true. Projects don't matter as much but for mid tier firms startups etc. I'd still argue projects matter when they reflect real world impact. That is the key word. If you've built something end to end deployed it, scaled it and fixed some real world problem it counts. I've seen folks land interviews and gigs because they showcased strong open source contributions or freelance projects.Props for making it to the US from India that's insanely hard to do. I'm not sure what year you cracked big tech but in case anyone reads this I'd like to stress that contrary to popular advice, projects don't really matter when applying to big tech in 2025. (They're good for improving as a developer but they won't improve your resume/job prospects).
The main things that matter are experience and your school. For big tech internships, recruiters want candidates at target schools with 3+ software engineering internships by junior year. This means that you should be doing everything you can to get software engineering experience, even if it's unpaid, or remote work for a local company, or research for a prof etc. My advice would be to spend most of your time looking for experience, and only do projects with the intention of learning. Getting experience in high school is ideal.
School + internships are the cleanest path in But for people outside target schools or traditional pipelines. projects, freelancing, or research are usually the only way to get that experience. I feel Tech is much better than finance and law in this regard. In finance and law you don't even get a call back unless you are from a top school. Tech is more meritocratic I've seen people without a CS degree landing jobs too. most of the stuff I learnt in my CS degree I don't even put them to use. Formal languages, general engineering math etc most of these things aren't necessary for a developer but are still taught as part of the program but yes a degree from a prestigious school does help a lot. My university brand tag carried all throughout my journey and opened doors that would have been otherwise closed
"Spend most of your time looking for experience."
I actually did the same I treated projects as stepping stones to experience. Like when I built my full-stack SaaS product, it helped me pitch myself to companies and land freelance/remote work. So it's not "projects vs experience" it's projects and experience if you're intentional
Yes. Also one more thing I forgot to mention is you need to keep refreshing these concepts and algorithms because DSA is one of those things that needs constant practice.What you said about interviews (DSA and sys design) is pretty good too. This is where projects can be good, since they force you to think about system design. DSA is basically about grinding leetcode + being good at explaining your thought process.
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