Hello everyone, I’m a 2025 B.Tech CSE student, and I’m feeling incredibly frustrated with the whole job recruitment process right now. On-campus placements have been a nightmare. It’s disheartening to see companies prioritizing non-technical skills when hiring freshers. Worse, the online assessments are often poorly proctored, leading to blatant cheating. Even when there is proctoring, somehow people still manage to get through. It’s honestly demotivating.
What frustrates me the most is when I’m not shortlisted for the next round, despite solving the DSA problems quickly and confidently. I can’t figure out where I’m falling short.
When it comes to off-campus opportunities, it feels like I’m hitting a wall. Despite my dedication to competitive programming—being an Expert on Codeforces, 6-star on CodeChef, and Guardian on LeetCode—it still seems like it’s not enough to make it through.
If anyone could offer some advice, guidance, or even connections for SDE opportunities, I’d really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Get this shit out of here. Go to reddit or leetcode discuss. Also, I wonder why any recruiter will be interested in those CP "achievements" you mentioned. Having them on your resume is cringe.
That sounds like the kind of thing a newbie would say.
I love how you complain in your blog about "blatant cheating", while you have an entire contest skipped in May 2024. I feel like you should have a good look at yourself before complaining about anyone else.
may is not so far?
he maybe changed after that?
I think you should learn about facts vs stories in applications (I learnt it in the context of college, but I think it can apply anywhere).
Facts are easily weighed against each other. For instance, a fact might be something like "1600 Codeforces rating." Here's another fact: "1800 Codeforces rating." See how the latter is much better than the first? If facts were all that colleges (in your case, a company) were enough to select an applicant, then nobody would be the perfect applicant, as there would be someone below your rating, and someone higher than you.
Stories are not easily weighed against each other. "I volunteered at my local pet shelter" vs "I went on a 24 mile bike ride to raise money for leukemia patients." (again, more in context of college apps). Both have their own places to shine, but you can't compare the two.
In your case, regarding a job, the facts would be what you have listed. Expert on Codeforces, 6-star Codechef, etc. If facts is all you have, then there is someone who has "better" facts than you. But nobody can have a better story than you, which in your case would be stuff like coding projects.
chill bro, cp is more important than job.
But only having paid job one can do cp.
But why? For me, job is for existential purpose only. By giving it more importance, we actually make it difficult for ourselves to get a job.
CP is not enough, companies need to make money by building products or getting information from data!
Same situation. Think it's better to remove cp achivements and put some small projects. Also some companies are afraid to take cp peeps as they they can switch jobs pretty easily.
I failed 6 interviews BTW
Wait till you interview with big tech companies and see their behavioral interviews. There's a reason why average engineering level at meta and google is absolute garbage. People always think about top teams from fair\gbrain doing cutting-edge research or guys from google sre who can achieve six nines and think the entire company is like that. But in reality most of L5 recent hires outside of those top teams are only good at sucking corporate dick and are absolute trash at actual engineering, while people who are capable doing actual job instead of talking are filtered out because of behaviorals and instead join smaller and more efficient companies.
It's important to realize that working at a company where cheating is common means you'll likely face a toxic and unhealthy work environment. Getting into such a place isn’t a win—it can hold you back. Instead of feeling motivated, you might find yourself in a negative atmosphere that drains your energy and slows your growth. Working in such a culture can kill your passion and make it harder for you to improve and succeed.
So, while it may feel frustrating right now, consider the fact that rejection from these types of environments might actually be protecting you from a negative experience. Your skills deserve a place where they can truly shine, and you deserve to work with people who inspire and challenge you in positive ways. Keep pushing, and you’ll find that the right opportunity is worth the wait! :)
Competitive Programming will not guarantee you a job. For that you're probably better off just learning React.js or something lol.
I have experience in react.js too
I don't feel that "non-technical skills" is the right way to put it. Also, you can increase your ratings to expert on codeforces if your target is to put it to make an impressive CV(Cheating and group formation for contest specific, etc.). So it's good if you can clear an OA using your friends and bypass the ATS. So other people are the same as you at the time of placement and internship. Also, many companies hire according to their job description(IDT if Microsoft has a job description they just need girls). Do some good projects and give a try to research internships if you are interested(it will help in the future).
Honestly, when it comes to cheating and the hiring process, it's the same across India.
Let me share a few short tips for getting a good job:
Explanation of above if you have time to read:
At the moment, I am in a hunt for a new job. In past, I was working for one edu startup, Google and Quantitive trading company (roughly 4 years of industry experience). When we add my CF rating, several big competitions, self projects, no way to not get a dream job, right :))) ? The story is completely different, I got 8/10 rejections on CV, and two did not respond yet :) Let me explain, I did not do all the things above (9 of these 10 I applied without refferal and I did not want to generate Chat GPT cover letter). I will not go into more here about my job hunt, just want to explain the situation is quite similar for everyone.
About Codeforces rating, 99.9% of companies do not care about it, but competitive programming can be a small +. Even, I was working in this 0.1% where we wanted to hire people from competitive programming, we still rejected 5+ grandmasters (let me be clear, I disagreed with that). But the company reasons are:
So, it is not easy :)
Expand your network (for example on Linkedin), and get some job oppurtinities would be super helpful. It does not need to be dream job at the beginning. But knowing and work with more people, build your experience and skills will help you to go up on the ladders.
All the best in job search!
but how would a grandmaster not have enough c++ expertise maybe the company cared more about how data structures are implemented rather than how the candidate could solve a new problem
It is not only about problem solving skills :) For example, C++ has many features/libraries which are not used frequently in CP:
The code design is quite important as well, usually CP codes are not written to be reusable. If you hire someone at early career stage, you need to do two things: wait them to acquire that skills + use someone more senior to help (this process probably can take between 6-12 months). Most of comapnies are priortizing to hire someone with experience over someone with potential. Nowadays, people are usually not staying in the company more than 2-3 years.
So is it wrong to spend 4 years only do CP?
If your final goal is to get job in industry then yes. Reaching 1500 rating, can be sufficient to get 99% of roles and perform well at them (from algorithms/data structures point of view).
However, I believe the most of people here are not doing CP to be able to get a job in future. They simply like solving puzzles and compete.
But it's said that the outcome from the CP is more that passing job interviews, it has a Great impact on general problem solving skills, mentality and thinking skills and makes your brain sharp so when u work in the market, you will deal with technology projects and products more easily and comfortably
but for HFTs such as graviton I think one needs to be atleast 1900