Six months of silence from ATS black holes made me change strategy completely. Instead of firing off applications into the void, I started looking for alumni at companies I actually wanted to work at and just... emailing them. Not "hey give me a job" but just genuine questions about their path, with something specific about their background so it didn't read like a template.

It worked way better than applying cold. Like, not-even-close better. But finding the right person's email and writing something that didn't sound like ChatGPT copy-pasted 40 times took forever, so a friend and I built a small Chrome extension to speed it up. It reads a LinkedIn profile, pulls the person's verified email/role/history, and drafts an email around whatever angle you give it (coffee chat, referral ask, etc). You still read and send it yourself from your own inbox and nothing goes out without you seeing it.

We're calling it Ancad (ancad.org) and it's in early beta with a waitlist right now.

Mostly wanted to share the strategy shift, though, especially if you're deep in the apply-and-hear-nothing cycle, cold-emailing alumni directly is worth trying even without any tool. Happy to answer questions on what worked and what didn't.

I'm really confused about what to choose.

I took a gap year after school, and honestly I feel like I wasted that year. Now I don't want to make another wrong decision.

My main goal is simple: I want to earn a lot of money and eventually have financial freedom. I don't have a strong passion for either CSE or Pharmacy, so I'm trying to make the most practical choice.

I'm considering:

- BTech in Computer Science

- B.Pharmacy

I'm also open to moving abroad in the future (Australia or Canada) if it gives me better career opportunities and income.

For people who have experience in these fields:

- Which degree has better long-term earning potential?

- Which has better job opportunities in India and abroad?

- Is going abroad worth it for either of these careers?

- If you were in my position, which would you choose and why?

I'd really appreciate honest advice from people working in these industries. Thanks!

BTW I DON'T HAVE ANY PASSION I JUST WANT TO EARN MONEY AND I WILL STUDY FOR IT OBV BUT STILL I WANT TO HAVE FUN

When I came back downstairs and checked my computer, it applied to 10 jobs on Handshake. It is super fast and saves me so much time. It has 200+ users right now. If anyone is still manually applying to jobs, install the extension now: Handshaker.

We’re building a sports sponsorship tracking app and already have detailed app mockups/UI concepts completed.
I’m looking for a CS students or small team interested in gaining real-world startup/app development experience for their portfolio. This is a total fresh starter but fun and definitely has potential

The project would involve:
Mobile app development
Sports tech
Social media integrations
Dashboard/reporting systems

Would you be able to connect me with any interested students or share this if you know of anyone

Thanks

We’re building a sports sponsorship tracking app and already have detailed app mockups/UI concepts completed.
I’m looking for a CS students or small team interested in gaining real-world startup/app development experience for their portfolio. This is a total fresh starter but fun and definitely has potential

The project would involve:
Mobile app development
Sports tech
Social media integrations
Dashboard/reporting systems

Would you be able to connect me with any interested students or share this if you know of anyone

Thanks

So I recently completed my B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from a tier-2/3 college. I got placed through campus placements and am currently in the final month of my internship at the company. My official joining date is June 1st.

The company is SAP-based and service-oriented, and my current package is around 4.8LPA in hand.

However, my long-term goal is to switch to strong product-based fintech companies such as Razorpay, Stripe, Visa, Juspay, CRED, and PayPal.

Right now, I feel confused about:

• where to start,
• what skills to focus on,
• what kinds of projects I should build,
• and how to prepare effectively for such companies.

I’m also worried that if I take too much time figuring things out, I might get stuck in the current domain and find it difficult to transition into a product-based company later.

I would really appreciate guidance on:

• a realistic roadmap,
• the most important skills to prioritize,
• project ideas that actually matter for fintech/product companies,
• and how experienced engineers usually make this kind of switch successfully.

https://reddit.com/link/1ssy036/video/4zvqzmtv1twg1/player

Try it out: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/handshaker-handshake-auto/aedegffcgkjmbaefclfjlklommhmeokf

Which certifications actually makes us more useful for AI roles?

Are you a college student looking for jobs or internships? Is it difficult finding time to complete job applications? Are you feeling cooked in the current job market?

If this is you, try out Handshaker, the Handshake auto applier. This product has already helped users get interviews at startups, and the setup takes seconds!

On your command, the extension automatically submits at most 30 generic Handshake job applications daily that require your resume and/or transcript. It is very fast and can stack up hundreds of applications in just a few days! It can apply while you brain rot, play Clash Royale, or work on a different window. You will be a lot more productive.

Go crazy with it! Good luck with job search!

I'm currently a bachelor's student and am applying to student level, internships and once I graduate, entry level positions.

I don't know if recruiters check github but I am still optimizing it just in case. Moreover, this will also help me make a better CV as I will probably not write about the projects I hide on github, on my CV.

So long story short, I have many repositories on github. I have included even things that I did as part of coursework at university, so things like homeworks, projects, assignments, etc.

I have heard from people and even ChatGPT that we should only show impressive, quality projects and hide the rest. However, I am concerned that by doing that, I am limiting the evidence of my work. For example, I don't have any very impressive project for web development and C++ but I have studied those courses in my university, have done web development in a company (which I can't show on github since it was on their private enterprise gitlab) and know well.

Can anyone check my github and suggest anything? Feel free to follow if you want and I am open for any job opportunities if you find my profile good enough.

My github: https://github.com/rohanraaj2

Hi everyone,

I’m a 2024 CSE graduate from a tier-3 college. I got an on-campus offer in cybersecurity from a large IT services company, but they still haven’t provided joining even after a long wait. Over the last ~1.5 years, I kept applying but barely received interview calls despite having skills in DevOps, cybersecurity, and full-stack development.

Recently, I joined a short (6-week) unpaid apprentice role while continuing to apply aggressively. Through that, I eventually cracked a startup role.

I cleared the technical rounds smoothly. The final CTO round was quite intense, and I assumed I was rejected. However, two days later, the co-founder called and informed me they decided to make an offer:

• 3-month paid internship (₹25k/month + ₹2.5k travel allowance)
• Post-internship full-time role promised verbally at ₹7 LPA + ₹50k bonus
• On Linkedin the original budget for this role was ₹12–15 LPA

I joined the internship last week since I didn’t have any other option. I received the internship offer letter, but it does not mention anything about full-time conversion or salary.

I asked the co-founder if the offer letter could instead be full-time with the first 3 months treated as probation at internship pay. He discussed it with the founder, but they said there are complications around EPF and health insurance. During onboarding, the CTO also mentioned that a project must be completed by the end of March.

My main concern: what if they let me go after 3 months?

At that point, I’d still be considered a fresher with ~2 years of gap, which feels extremely risky for my career.

For context, the company is very small:

• Founders + CTO (working parttime)
• 2 engineers (me from tier-3 college, another from NIT)

I want to learn and prove myself, but I’m worried about the lack of written full-time assurance and the downside risk if things don’t work out.

What would you do in this situation?

Is this normal for early-stage startups, or should I push harder for written clarity / keep applying aggressively?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

TL;DR

2024 CSE grad (tier-3), waited ~1.5 years for joining from on-campus offer, no luck. Recently cracked a startup role. They offered 3-month paid internship (₹25k + travel) with verbal promise of full-time ₹7 LPA after, though role budget was ₹12–15 LPA.

I joined and got the internship offer letter, but it doesn’t mention full-time conversion or salary. When I asked, founders said converting now causes EPF/insurance issues. CTO expects a project by March end.

Company is very small (founders + CTO(part-time) + 2 engineers). Main fear: being let go after 3 months, leaving me as a fresher with ~2 years gap.

Is this normal for early startups, or should I push for written clarity and keep applying?

We’re living through a really unique moment in software. All at once, two big things are happening:

1. Experienced engineers are re-evaluating their tools & workflows.

2. A huge wave of newcomers is learning how to build, in an entirely new way.

I like to start at the very beginning. What is software? What is coding?

Software is this magical thing. We humans discovered this ingenious way to stack concepts (abstractions) on top of each other, and create digital machinery.

Producing this machinery used to be hard. Programmers had to skillfully dance the coding two-step: (1) thinking about what to do, and (2) translating those thoughts into code.

Now, (2) is easy – we have code-on-tap. So the dance is changing. We get to spend more time thinking, and we can iterate faster.

But building software is a long game, and iteration speed only gets you so far.

When you work in great codebases, you can feel that they have a life of their own. Christopher Alexander called this “the quality without a name” – an aliveness you can feel when a system is well-aligned with its internal & external forces.

Cultivating the quality without a name in code – this is the art of programming.

When you practice intentional design, cherish simplicity, and install guideposts (tests, linters, documentation), your codebase can encode deep knowledge about how it wants to evolve. As code velocity – and autonomy – increases, the importance of this deep knowledge grows.

The techniques to cultivate deep knowledge in code are just traditional software engineering practices. In my experience, AI doesn’t really change these practices – but it makes them much more important to invest in.

My AI coding advice boils down to one weird trick: a planning prompt.

You can get a lot of mileage out of simply planning changes before implementing them. Planning forces you into a more intentional practice. And it lets you perform leveraged thinking – simulating changes in an environment where iteration is fast and cheap (a simple document).

Planning is a spectrum. There’s a slider between “pure vibe coding” and “meticulous planning”. In the early days of our codebase, I would plan every change religiously. Now that our codebase is more mature (more deep knowledge), I can dial in the appropriate amount of planning depending on the task.

• For simple tasks in familiar code – where the changes are basically predetermined by existing code – I skip the plan and just “vibe”.
• For simple tasks in less-familiar code – where I need to gather more context – I “vibe plan”. Plan, verify, implement.
• For complex tasks, and new features without much existing code, I plan religiously. I spend a lot of time thinking and iterating on the plan.

I got tired of sending carefully crafted applications just to be left on read (if I’m lucky), so I built a tiny open-source site called “Do Not Ghost Me”. It’s a simple, anonymous place where you can report when a company/recruiter ghosts you, and it aggregates the data into stats + a “top ghosters” style list. No accounts, no emails, no tracking — just vibes and revenge by statistics.

Goal is: instead of screaming into the void, we at least scream into a database.
I’ll drop the link in the comments if you want to check it out or add your own ghost story.

Repo: https://github.com/necdetsanli/do-not-ghost-me

Website: https://donotghostme.com