Intern/Graduate Job Hunt Playbook

Intro

Look job hunting sucks, from re-submitting details on Workday to constant rejections, I often wondered how people landed these roles. I went through my university’s career’s guidance resources and yet didn’t find any additional success. So… what changed?

I realised that the whole area of software engineering has certain “niches” to it. For example, having an ATS readable resume is key and yet my career counselor recommended a weird two column resume template with long paragraphs. It was only after lots of failing and reaching out to existing graduates is where I found my success. What seemed obvious to some, was not obvious at all to me at the time, hence with this post I hope to clarify tips that I wish I knew and that will “min-max” your next job hunting cycle.

Your Resume

One of the biggest ways of standing out in the application phase is to have a nice resume. Find any resume template that is ATS friendly, one that I often use and is very popular is Jake’s Resume. Once that is sorted, we now need to revise your resume content. I usually structure it like the following:

  1. Education - List out your university and any relevant awards here
  2. Experience - List out any professional experience here
  3. Projects - Any non-university projects are recommended, include a link to your repository and any live deployment if possible
  4. Skills - Here you can list our some technical skills you are comfortable with

Now that we have the structure ready we can now dive into the dot points. I could delve into it here, but this article from r/EngineeringResumes sums it up quite well.

Finding Jobs

With a well crafted resume, finding jobs would be the next obvious step. My previous setup which seemed to get almost all the openings were all through SEEK, LinkedIn and Prosple. All you really have to do is setup alerts with mandatory terms. An example would be:

“Graduate” Technology Software Engineer Developer

By doing so you can force job boards to only display Graduate roles, I often found that without these mandatory terms you will get notified with a lot of irrelevant roles.

And honestly that’s all there is to it. Apart from traditional job boards another recommendation is to reach out to your personal network for unlisted jobs, but I understand a lot of people might not have time to do so.

Passing The Interviews

First Stage

We submit our resume and finally get an email back… it’s an OA (online assessment). OA’s can vary a lot, but can often be broken down into two main types:

Psychometric - This is my least favorite. Preparation is not needed but outcomes are hard to predict. Usually these will involve simple problem solving and behavioural activities/tests. These OA can last anywhere between 1-3hrs of testing and might involve a VI too. No hard tips can be given for this section as usually the “correct” answer will be obvious, however some firms may focus on their core values so some research is necessary as well.

Video Interview - VI’s can often be found in conjunction with Psychometric OA’s and usually just involve a one way video response to a series of questions given. These at least can be practiced upon by recording yourself. You can easily find behavioural questions to practice with through a google search.

Coding - Usually a leetcode based OA hosted on a platform like Hackerrank or Codility. Tips for this is abundant on the internet, but I will recommend Neetcode as a great free resource to go through.

Second Stage

Wooo we passed the first stage of interviews, what’s next? Well unfortunately this heavily depends on the company and their own process. But, I usually found tech focused companies have their own processes while everywhere else usually followed another set of the same processes.

“Tech focused” companies (Tiktok, Canva, Atlassian, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.)

These companies most definitely focus on technical interviews the most. You might have 1 to 4 rounds in this stage involving a mixture of leetcode, role specific interviews, system design and behavioural. My biggest tip would be asking the recruiter on what to expect for each round, usually they will give you a breakdown where you should be able to prepare accordingly. Internships roles tend to have less rounds for this stage than graduate roles and may not place as much emphasis on system design (if any).

Other companies (Banks, Telecoms, Government, etc.)

These companies usually do not focus on technical interviews (some may). Rounds that are common are usually a HR interview where the focus would be about your own motivations and maybe some behavioural questions and/or an assessment centre round.

The assessment centre round is usually done in groups, where you might be given a task to do. Honestly here all they are looking for is your ability to collaborate in a team. Don’t be overbearing, listen to others and you should be fine. Another vital part of an assessment centre is the interviews you have with the team. Here you definitely want to prepare to talk about your motivations, this will help you stand out the most if done well.

Offer

Hopefully with all your effort you finally get a call with an offer! Not much to say here, but I do heavily recommend to continue applying regardless on what stage you are with any company. Nothing is ever guaranteed until you get that written contract!

Conclusion

I may have missed some details, and the job market is always evolving, but I hope this has given you a clearer roadmap for your next job hunt. Breaking into the industry can be daunting, especially at the entry level, where competition is fierce. Some people land a job after just a few applications, while others persist through hundreds. Beyond skills and preparation, luck also plays a role, so don’t be too discouraged by setbacks. Every rejection is a step closer to the right opportunity. Stay patient, keep refining your approach, and trust that your efforts will pay off in time.