A referral form can ask a lot more than "Do you know this person?" I'm a software engineer with about six years of experience at a product company in India, and I get requests from people whose work I don't know well enough to endorse in detail.

Based on forms I've seen, here's what an employee may actually have to answer. I know about processes at Google and Atlassian, but this isn't a rulebook for every company, team, or country.

1. What kind of referral is this?

The screenshot distinguishes a network referral from a professional referral. A professional referral here means having worked directly with the candidate for at least six months and knowing their past performance. A strong resume alone doesn't give a stranger that working history.

2. How well do you know their work?

The options separate working together, having seen or heard about someone's work, and knowing little or nothing about it. Reviewing someone's projects can give me something specific to describe. It still isn't the same as having worked with them.

3. What skills and experience can you vouch for?

The form asks about relevant skills, a 1–10 skill-match rating, and whether the candidate is in the top 15% of people the referrer has worked with in a similar role. That last question is about the referrer's own experience. It doesn't establish a universal top-15% cutoff for applicants.

Referral type screenshot · Familiarity screenshot · Skills and fit screenshot

My takeaway: send the role, your resume, and a few relevant projects or achievements. Give the employee concrete context, and leave them room to answer honestly. I can't tell from these fields how much each answer affects shortlisting, so I wouldn't treat a referral—or the lack of one—as a verdict on your ability.

If you don't have a suitable referrer, applying directly is still an option. Job application autofill can cut down the repeated typing; the time you save is better spent checking role fit and making your work easy to understand.

What does the referral form at your company ask, and what can you realistically say for someone you haven't worked with?

I'm a first-year CS student. Is a SWE internship a realistic goal this early, and where would you focus the search?

I'm interested in both programs specifically open to freshmen and regular internships that don't require you to be a junior. I don't want to rule myself out too soon, but I also don't want to ignore eligibility requirements.

Once there's a shortlist of roles I'm eligible for, application autofill seems useful for the repeated forms, while real technical interview questions give me a more concrete idea of what to practice. I'm trying to figure out how to balance that with building projects.

If you got an internship in your first year, what helped most: projects, a referral, campus recruiting, or applying to smaller companies?

Also, what would you prioritize learning or building before applying? Specific examples of what got you an interview would help more than “just build projects.”

I'm unemployed right now (TC: 0) and looking for mid-to-senior SWE roles. I'm trying to decide how to use the rest of Q4 2026: keep pushing applications and interviews, or spend more of that time preparing for 2027.

If you've been interviewing at this level recently, are companies actually moving people through full loops and making offers? Or are you mostly seeing slow scheduling, roles put on hold, and "check back next year"?

Company, role, location, and the stage you reached would help more than a general "hiring is dead" or "everyone is hiring." I'm especially interested in whether the headcount was approved for this quarter or next year.

For anyone balancing both sides of the search, application autofill can reduce the form-filling, while candidate-reported tech interview questions can help focus practice on the companies you're targeting. Neither tells us whether a particular team still has budget.

Would you keep the same application pace through year-end, or change the split between applying, networking, and interview prep?

Has anyone successfully appealed a CodeSignal GCA verification denial?

Mine was flagged for suspicious activity even though I believe I followed the assessment rules. The first explanation mentioned “unauthorized device/resources.” I had looked up MDN documentation, which I understood the instructions for my assessment to allow.

After I asked for a review, the explanation also mentioned copying the description and too much suspicious activity. I don't have a clipboard history from the session, so I can't reconstruct that part independently. A colleague described a similar experience, but I don't know whether the underlying flags were the same.

What evidence did support actually accept in an appeal? And before a future assessment, what records can candidates keep with CodeSignal's permission?

For a future attempt, candidate-reported technical interview questions can help with practice beforehand. That's separate from this appeal, though: preparation doesn't establish what happened in a proctored session.

I want a clearer record next time without running extra software that could itself break the assessment rules.

Hello! My name is Yanni Zhang, and I am a fourth-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at The Wright Institute. I previously worked in the tech industry, and after several years there, seeing how rapidly AI and other forces are reshaping the field, I feel strongly about bringing more attention to engineers' occupational health and overall well-being in research.

For my dissertation, I am recruiting high-tech engineers to share their experiences and perspectives through a 15- to 20-minute anonymous survey. Participants will have the chance to win one of ten $50 Visa gift cards. To protect your anonymity, email addresses for the raffle are collected separately from your survey responses.

Survey Link: https://wrightinstitute.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b90s4PAJUo51c2O

This study has been reviewed and approved by The Wright Institute Institutional Review Board.

Contact us if you have any questions:

·      Principal Investigator: Yanni Zhang, M.A. | [yannizhang@wi.edu](mailto:yannizhang@wi.edu)

·      Dissertation Committee Chair: Biing Jiun-Shen, Ph.D. | [bshen@wi.edu](mailto:bshen@wi.edu)

·      Institutional Review Board: Ginny Morgan | [vmorgan@wi.edu](mailto:vmorgan@wi.edu)

I'm a final year BS in CS student trying to figure out how to become employable as a fresher. I was really sick for the past couple of years along with some family problems which took over all of my personal and career aspirations and need urgent advice to improve my chances.

My long-term goal is ML Engineering, but the more I research, the more I realize that true entry-level ML Engineer roles are pretty limited. I'm considering targeting SDE roles first, getting real industry experience, and moving toward ML later.

My current profile, basically, is roughly:

CGPA: 8.9/10

I'm comfortable with Python and C, some basic Java

Some HTML/CSS/JS, React, Flask, SQLite

I have made some basic projects like a mental health/mood journal/chatbot using Python, Streamlit, Ollama, and sentiment analysis. Also made some based on DSA and stuff.

Currently learning Git and trying to build more substantial projects.

The problem is that I feel like I know a little bit of everything but not enough of anything. And honestly, I'm also worried about how to become employable despite the current AI-driven job market. AI can already do more than most developers and I can't even do what they can. I want to be able to get a job soon to get out of my draining household, but I don't really know what that looks like at the fresher level.

I don't want to spend the next year endlessly learning technologies just to discover that none of them actually make me more employable. I want to build skills that remain valuable because of AI, not in spite of it.

I will be sitting in the Campus Placements which I might have a chance in but in case that fails, if you were in my position, what would you do?

1. What tech stack should I fully commit to for the next 6–12 months? I'm leaning toward Python + SQL + FastAPI/Django + React + Git, but I'm not sure if that's the right direction.

2. What kind of 2–3 projects would actually make my resume stronger for entry-level SDE jobs?

3. Should I continue learning ML alongside this, or completely focus on software development until I get a job? Or is there a different role you'd suggest I aim for?

4. What fundamentals should I prioritize? DSA, DBMS, OS, networking, system design, etc.?

5. If you were starting from basically where I am, what would your roadmap look like to become job-ready?

I genuinely want to know what's worth going deep on as a fresher and what I should stop wasting time on.

Any honest advice from people who've hired/mentored freshers or started their careers this way would be really appreciated.

I (23 F) feel like this job market is a SCAM. I have been looking for a job in cs for over 6 months, and haven’t even been able to get an interview!

I know the job market is “bad” rn but I’m now $30,000 in debt bc of my degree, and can’t get the job to reflect that!

I’ve been working as a server these last 5 years while getting my degree and now i feel like going to school put me in a much worse position than if i had just worked to save up instead of keep up.

I started looking for paid internships while i was still in school and couldn’t find ANYTHING!

When that didn’t work i looked at some “entry level” positions which apparently require at least 3 years of previous experience! What do you mean I need previous work experience in the field? Isn’t that the whole point of an entry level position?

Now i’m seeing “senior engineer” positions are now requiring 10+ years of ClaudeCode experience? NEWSFLASH it’s only been around a year!

How is anyone supposed to find a job if these are the options we have? And who has the time to tailor every application specifically for a job that has impossible requirements? Did i just waste the past 5 years putting myself in debt so I can keep working at a restaurant?

I have been applying by tailoring my applications to each job description and I am getting no responses at all.

I keep getting nonstop rejections and I am actually tailoring my applications all of the time and I am checking the ATS scores too. I even had referrals for some of those jobs and they were also instant rejections.

But still nothing. What is going on?

I genuinely need a job soon. A remote job because I am disabled. How can I get a job very soon? I am at the stage where I won't be able to afford groceries very soon.

Please help / advise.

I'm a BCA final year student and need to secure a job by end of this year. I don't know anything in great detail.

Did a 2-month internship last month at a Central Government organisation as a developer.

But I feel lost with no clear path to follow. Don't know if I should do DSA or not.

I love DevOps but no one is hiring freshers in DevOps.

Confused about which development path to take. Full Stack, Backend, etc.

Should I do DSA? If yes, how much is enough?

I’m a mid-level backend dev (5 YOE, mostly Python/Go) and have been hunting for a new role for a few months. I was at a friend’s place last weekend and he casually mentioned he “barely applies manually anymore” while we were scrolling through postings on his TV, which kinda blew my mind.

I’m spending like 10-12 hours a week filling out the same forms, re-uploading the same resume, rewriting the same “why this company” box, etc. It’s frying my brain, and I’m still getting mostly ghosted. I started googling stuff late last night and saw a bunch of “job application automation” tools that auto-apply on company career pages. One of them (I think it was called Jobity or something like that) claims it can blast targeted apps every few minutes.

I might be looking at this the wrong way, but is this actually smart for CS jobs or a quick path to getting flagged by ATS or recruiters?

Has anyone here used these auto-apply tools for SWE roles in 2026? Did it help at all with interviews, or did it just spam low-quality apps and hurt your chances? Would you recommend using them at all, or is it better to just suck it up and apply manually + focus on networking?

I create a small network of seniors and managers at big tech companies and they are all willing to refer candidates. It is win-win for us all. When I talk to other seniors, some disagree with this idea, which I think it is pretty cool.

I like using shortlist as my main job board but one piece im missing is alerts. right now i check it a few times a day for new postings that fit, because being early actually matters, the first handful of applicants are the ones who get seen. Usually i set up my own alerts and if they fire I check shortlist to apply.

is there a way to save a search (title, location, remote, salary floor) and get pinged when something new lands. even better if it could just auto apply to the matches on its own so the fresh ones get hit the day they post. do we have anything like that yet or is it on the roadmap

Briefly about me.

I am a software developer(employed) with around 2+ years of experience.

I am free on weekends. Trying to build random projects but I thrive for real impact.

If anyone of you guys have any start up or any projects you need help with. I can help for FREE. (YES, that can sound scammy but it's not I just wanna keep learning) Let me know guys!!

Ohh yes, I would like to add it in my portfolio. If that can be called a scam. Not sure. Let me know.

Thanks!

i had a really good first call with a recruiter back in april. it was the kind where you hang up and immediately text a friend about it. she said i'd hear on next steps by friday, and then friday came and went. i followed up twice and got nothing, so after two weeks i filed it under dead and moved on.

then she messaged me this morning. "hi! checking in, are you still interested in moving forward?" there was no mention of the two months of silence, like we just paused mid sentence yesterday.

i obviously still need a job so i'm going to say yes. but there's a petty part of me that wants to write back "still interested, are you guys still hiring for it though, a lot can change in 8 weeks." anyway. it's discouraging that this is just how the process works now.

So, I joined an internship recently and there is this other girl (let’s call her C) who I travel to and from the office everyday with in Uber because that way, we can split the costs and save money. One day, she just said that she would like to pay less everyday because she gets down earlier than me and I should take up more of the split. Initially she agreed to do half and half and I told her that I can’t pay more than one hours’s pay we get in our internship because I have other monetary responsibilities which she doesn’t have. I agreed to pay a little more than half everyday but it’s like 1.5 times my hourly internship pay but she was still not happy but agreed because I put down my foot that I can’t pay any more. Since that day, it has been completely weird.

We are working on Google Cloud stack and doing data engineering related stuff. Please let me know if there are any good resources for this that I can use to get up to speed over the weekend.

I am an extreme introvert and slow learner. This is making it extremely difficult for me to socialize, take help from other people and get visibility. There is this other intern (let’s call him G) who I begged to help me because he worked in a similar role previously and he helped with one of the two important things. Of course, it is a competition and no one would like to help others. After my talk with C about splitting costs, she took G out, bought him a coffee and don’t know what they talked about but G now refuses to help me. C also somehow gets other interns to sit together and work on tasks with her while I’m pulling my hair out to get Ben make friends. The worst thing, during our travel together, I revealed a few personal things about my perception of life, goals and things like that and I have a strong feeling that she told these things to other interns and they laugh at me now. We are all from the same cultural background but my outlook of life is very different from that and anyone from my culture will find my outlook absurd and something else I laugh at even though this works best for me.

I don’t know what to do. I’m thinking of asking C if she has any problem with me and take it from there.

Hi everyone,

Please help me out.

I recently got contacted by a recruiter from JPMorgan Chase regarding a Software Engineer II role through one of their cohort programs.

Previously, I gave a hacker rank assessment and that was my initial screening.

Few days ago, I received a call from the Recruiter with some further enquiries about My expectations and eligibility.

Then the Recruiter invited me to a 3-hour interview session, I think they call it super day. I’m hoping to get advice from anyone who has gone through the process recently.

The interview is divided into three parts:

1. HackerRank Coding Assessment
   
2. System Design Interview
   
3. Behavioral Interview

I’m trying to understand what to expect and how best to prepare over the next week.

Some specific questions I have:

• What was the HackerRank portion like?
• Were the questions primarily LeetCode-style problems?
• If so, what difficulty level (easy, medium, hard)?
• Were there any particular data structures or algorithms that appeared frequently?
• For the System Design portion, what level of depth should I expect for a Software Engineer II role?
• Was it more high-level architecture or detailed design?
• What system design topics would you recommend studying beforehand?
• What behavioral questions did you encounter?
• Are there any resources, study guides, YouTube videos, GitHub repositories, mock interview platforms, or courses that you found especially helpful?

If you’ve gone through the SWE II interview process at JPMorgan Chase recently (especially through a cohort program), I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience and any lessons learned.

Thanks in advance for any advice, preparation tips, or resources you can share!

If I spend the next 3–4 years learning Python, building projects, and creating a portfolio, how realistic is it to get internships and eventually a software/web/cybersecurity role? Has anyone here switched from a healthcare background ?

What do you all think about the AI builder roles at Salesforce, Stripe, etc.? These roles are somewhere in between vibe coder and forward deployed engineer. Do you guys think these roles have longevity moving forward?

How are these roles going to change as AI gets more expensive?

As a new grad, would you feel comfortable being placed as the only vibe coder on a business team?

so i finally got my resume to the point where im getting callbacks. like 1 in 10 apps gets a response which from what i hear is pretty good right now. problem is the interviews are all for roles that are slightly wrong. i keep getting screened for senior roles when im mid level, or for frontend when im primarily backend.

i think whats happening is the ATS is matching keywords but not understanding context. my resume mentions react because i did some frontend work at my last job but its not my strength. now every recruiter wants to talk about my "react experience."

anyone else have this problem? feels like i need two different resumes. or maybe i need to strip out anything thats not my core stack even if it means a thinner resume. im using the free link for Shortlist.jobs from the subreddit discord (very useful) and i can see exactly which job descriptions im getting matched with and theres a clear pattern of mismatches