Hi all, just received a CBA technology grad program offer for 84k base + super. So the TC is 94k. Is this something I should be happy with or disappointed with? Thanks !
Hi all,
I'll be starting as a software engineering grad at a Big 4 bank next year. However, my long-term goal is to transition into Big Tech, specifically Atlassian.
Since I missed the Atlassian intern/grad windows for this cycle, my plan is to gain experience at the bank first and then make the jump. I am wondering how realistic it is to move from a Big 4 bank grad role into a P40 (mid-level) role at Atlassian later on?
How many years of bank experience should I clock before applying and how easy or achievable is this goal, and what should I focus on during my bank grad rotations to make myself competitive for a P40 interview?
Thanks!
For the last 6 months I invested myself heavily into development + DSA, built projects, learned full-stack, tried improving every single day and hoped it would eventually help me land an internship.
But now when I’m applying, there are barely any responses. Everywhere I look people are talking about layoffs, oversaturation, AI replacing jobs, and how hard the market is.
And after literally banging my head over all of this, I even invested 35k into a Data Science course out of panic/confusion, and now I’m regretting that decision too because I don’t even know if I’m going in the right direction anymore.
I’m currently in 6th semester, placements from my college don’t look very hopeful, so lately I’ve also been thinking seriously about preparing for GATE and maybe going for masters later because right now everything feels uncertain.
Today I finally decided to keep the hardcore DSA/dev grind aside for a while and move a bit towards Data Science + UI/UX because I genuinely love designing and creating frontend experiences, and I don’t want to leave that part behind.
Let’s see where life takes me honestly.
But I genuinely want honest opinions from people already working in tech:
Am I making the right decision or should I continue applying more in development itself?
And if you know any companies/startups currently hiring interns for frontend/full-stack/UIUX/data related roles, please let me know.
Also please don’t try to scam/sell courses in DMs. I’m already mentally very disturbed.
Hey everyone, I just finished freshman year as a CS student at ASU and I’d really appreciate some honest feedback on my resume. I’m mainly interested in SWE and AI/ML internships, but I honestly don’t know where I currently stand compared to other students applying for these roles.
I’d love advice on what I should improve, what I should focus on next, and whether my projects/experience are actually meaningful or just look scattered. I’m also not really sure what recruiters expect from freshmen/sophomores for these kinds of internships.
Some specific things I’m wondering:
Should I focus more on SWE fundamentals or deeper ML knowledge?
I’m completely open to blunt feedback because I’d rather know early what I need to work on. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to help.
Hi all,
I have the opportunity to go at Duke university for fall term in their MBA program in september (till december).
At the same time, I got an internship in a medtech company in Paris (my country of origin) as a Sales intern (with 90% of converting to full time). They can only accept me in September, not later.
I have a good resume but given the pretty bad job market I don’t know what to do, as next year is my last year of study and if I don’t find quickly an internship or job right after coming back Duke it will be complicated.
Should I play it safe or go 3 months at Duke (mostly for my personal experience) ?
I just received an offer from EasyGo and I'm seriously thinking about taking it. The compensation package is great and the role sounds like a really good fit.
Before I make my decision, I'd love to hear from people who have firsthand experience there.
Anyone currently or previously at EasyGo? I'm curious about the daytoday culture, what the management is like, and what the team environment feels like. The recruiter was super easy to talk to throughout the process, which is always a good sign.
I want to get a well rounded picture before I commit and any thoughts or experiences are welcome!
I’m finishing my degree next year and trying to decide whether to do Honours or go straight into the job market. I’ve heard mixed opinions about whether it actually helps with grad applications. Current students or recent grads, did you do Honours? Was it worth it for your career?
[Mid level SWE, 3.5 YoE @ mid tier bank]
Admins feel free to delete if write ups like this one dont belong here..
Heres a quick brain dump of my job hunt prep & what I think was successful for me. TLDR at bottom.
Context. I'm:
-not that smart
-got into the field mostly for the money (was easier back then I know)
-am passionate about what I do. not sure how to quantify passion but lets just say im above avg (I build 2-3 projects a year lol)
I got my offer recently for a dream big tech company. Just coming out here to say there is hope & to stop listening to the doomer bs on reddit and around social media, because it still is very possible.
Tips for mid levels like me (in order of importance):
-Understand the cs fundamentals well. This is where a good degree helps, but books can get you there too. Understand DSA and computer architecture on a fundamental level. Network concepts are important too. Some good books: Grokking algos, Operating systems 3 easy pieces, Designing data intensive applications, TCP/IP illustrated. Reading books is not a must, I hate reading, most I just skimmed through. Read the contents first to get a top level view.
-do grind leetcode (but it doesnt have to be the death grind some ppl say it is), just do easy-medium levels and you can crack most companies. Only a few companies (e.g. google) will ask you genuine ball ache questions. Up to you if thats where you wanna go, but most 'big' or 'S/A tier' tech wont ask all that. Do neetcode 75 at least before you start applying.
-do 1 system design Q per week. check out hello interview, their stuff is great. I also read the book 'designing data intensive applications' and that gave me a good foundational understanding too
-Tie it all together by building projects. Not just todo lists, but actually complex stuff. If claude code or codex can build the whole thing for you in a day, its not complex enough. I try to go with the mindset that what I build may become a startup/eventually make me money. Also, if its truly impressive make sure to talk about / showcase it in your interviews.
You wont internalize anything unless you actually apply it. Leetcode & projects are a must.
Dont underestimate the help of AI when prepping. For example, any time I drew up a system design sketch on excalidraw I'd screenshot & hand it to chat gpt to assess me. Ensure your prompts/agent instructions are good.
If you have an interview coming up:
-it may be worth buying leetcode premium. If the company's question bank is small, it will be an absolute lifesaver and may very well be the thing that gets you the job. I cannot overstate how important this is.
-do plenty of research online about the company's recent interviews etc. Use chat gpt deep-research to look across forums etc. for posts on interview experiences. Can also be a lifesaver.
-Do the hello interview roadmap for system design (theres about 10 questions on it - covers most concepts)
-For behavioural interviews just remember STAR and use chat gpt / any AI to give you questions. Build up a 'story bank' of at least 5 work stories that can cover most behavioural questions.
Remember that interviewing is a system that can be gamed. Fundamentals matter but it wont get u to a pass. I know some talented devs that likely wont crack these companies coz they dont care about getting good at interviews.
TLDR / conclusion
All of the above was about 1 year of prepping, and last 6 months of on and off applying to jobs. It does take a while, but about 30min - 1hr per day of practise is all you need. Doesn't even have to be consistent. Do grind when you have interviews coming up though.
Really clean up your resume, this is a high ROI activity and is the very thing to get u an interview. dont sleep on it.
Also make sure to do plenty of mock interviews. Check out exponent, pramp, interviewing io etc. to do p2p mocks - very very helpful.
Theres a crap tonne of luck involved. If I had to quantify it I'm gonna say about 50% of the whole process / getting in is just luck. So dont worship big tech devs like theyre some hero, many are just gronks like myself.
Tips above are overall what I did to get my offer, I do believe if you do the same it will work out. Of course all this advice may not apply to juniors, as getting your foot in the door is a different ball game.
Take it ez and ilchay (but dont be an itchbay). Good luck o7
I made it past the initial recruiter screen and the recruiter told me the next rounds would be an AI assisted coding interview followed by a system design interview. Then a Java fluency round and a behavioural round after that.
I’m not familiar with how an AI coding round or a Java fundamentals round would work. It sounds like they scrapped Leetcode style questions entirely.
Would love to hear about your experience with Canva’s interview process recently if you have any.
I keep seeing different takes on this, and it’s got me thinking about what actually made the biggest difference for people getting their first role. Was it the projects you built, the internships you managed to land, or did grades still end up carrying more weight than expected when everything was said and done?
Hey Everyone,
I’m a third year CS student, and right now I’m on a path(s) to have an internship at a bank at the end of the year. The thing is for most of my time studying CS, I never really decided on what I wanted to do. I’ve thought about it more and I really want to go down HFT and C++, but I’ve either missed the internship dates for most of these programs or failed their OAs.
It’s my understanding for places like Optiver, IMC and Citadel that the probability of getting into their grad program without being an intern prior is near 0. I also understand that post grad if you don’t get into HFT in Aus it’s really hard to find relevant systems C++ roles to even be relevant for transition into HFT.
So I feel like I’m left with a choice right now: extend my degree by a year to have access to another recruiting cycle and grind LC/OS fundamentals/algos (with a potential to still not get into HFT) OR graduate and accept the that getting into HFT is probably not going to happen.
I really would appreciate a sanity check on this, idk if I’m missing something and it’s weighing on me. Thanks.
Hey everyone, I'm a first year computer science student, would it be a mistake to focus on C# and .net?
I really enjoy this language and I'd like to get comfortable with it,
so far I've done some Python and JAVA but find C# actually fun to program with.
Hi,
Posted around a month ago that I was in the pipeline for an intern position at Atlassian... Heard back this week and they've sent me the details to schedule a live coding interview next week!
I'm shitting bricks tho, first coding interview ever, feel like i'm going to forget how to index an array or initialise a dictionary or smth LOL
Just gotta hope and pray I've prepared enough and it's a question I'll know how to answer ig
I'm a Computer Science graduate from 2024 who still hasn't managed to land a job. Partly my own fault since I didn't realise I had to be applying during my final year and missed the boat for 2025 roles. I get the occasional OA and have had probably 5-6 interviews in the past 14 months (Some government, some smaller local defence companies, even did Amazon's 5 hour interview loop last year), but not as many as I would like obviously.
My thought process is that this year is probably the last time I can keep applying for roles before I am cut out from too many and my degree starts to lose it's relevance, so some advice would be appreciated before I send off a new bunch of applications.
Some Context:
- I had never really considered studying computer science until a couple years into uni. I was originally studying astrophysics and then mathematical science before finding computer science and loving it. Thats why uni took 5 years becuase it was actually parts of 4 different degrees.
- My GPA is pretty terrible, hence why I dont have it on my resume, so I know that alone has disqualified me from more than a few roles. That's mostly from me having a pretty poor "a pass is a pass" attitude at uni after burning out which I obviously regret.
- I've got some current projects I work on like the Weather server project but a combination of working full-time and feeling a bit lost and stuck means I dont really know what else to be doing.
- I've tried applying to both graduate and junior roles as I've seen suggested before but I only ever seem to have any luck with graduate roles so that's really all I'm applying to at the moment.
Hi all,
So my situation for the next 8 months will be working full time as an intern, and I expect to only have ~6-10 hours a week to study (mainly weekends in the morning).
For some context I’m 3rd year CS (of 4), I know python and java to some extent, but don’t have any notable projects for either, aside from school projects. I’m most likely interviewing for grad roles next year and mostly looking for back end, devops, infra, systems (not entirely sure yet, keeping options open)
I’m wondering how I can best use my time to upskill before I apply for graduate programs. My current options I’m thinking about are:
Let me know if any of these are good choices, or if there’s another better way I can spend my time.
TIA
Looking for a free Cluely alternative on macOS that doesn't cost $20-$149/month?
Ghostbar — native Swift, invisible to screen sharing, completely free:
✅ Invisible in Zoom, Teams, Meet, OBS (tested)
✅ Ollama / local LLMs — nothing leaves your machine
✅ OpenAI, Claude, OpenRouter, NVIDIA NIM (free tier)
✅ On-device voice input via Whisper
✅ Screenshot analysis — AI sees your screen, recorder doesn't
✅ ~5MB, no Electron, no Chromium, instant startup
✅ Zero telemetry, no account needed, MIT license
The main difference vs Pluely/Natively/Vysper: those are all Electron or Tauri (cross-platform). Ghostbar is native Swift — purpose-built for macOS, much lighter.
This one really hits home because I have made this mistake a lott before I figured out how it all works.
Here is what nobody tells you. The first person reading your resume is not a person. It is a bot called ATS and its only job is to match your resume to the job description word for word. Word for word bro.
So if the job description says cross functional collaboration and your resume says worked with different teams, that is a keyword miss. Same meaning, but completely different outcome and YOU"RE GONE
Here is the three layer framework I use for every job description I actually care about. Save it and apply it, cause it took me forever to come up with this system.
Layer 1 is required skills. These are listed under requirements or qualifications. These exact words need to be on your resume, not synonyms, the actual words.
Layer 2 is preferred skills. Most people skip this and that is the mistake. These are the differentiators. For Verizon I had one semester of agile workflows from a class project, used the word agile twice on my resume and got the interview. Everyone else probably left it out thinking it did not matter.
Layer 3 is cultural and soft language. Phrases like fast paced environment, ownership mentality, drives impact. These are not filler, they are telling you exactly how the team thinks. Put them into your bullet points naturally (you can use AI for this, don't know why people are afraid to as long as you read over it. Oh and also use XYZ format)
Then rank your keywords by two rules:
- Frequency - where if a word shows up more than once in the description it matters more.
- Placement - where words in the top third of the job description carry more weight with ATS scoring. Bro science I know
I went from basically zero responses to a 10% response rate just by doing this. If you didnt know, 10% is insane. This includes things like OAs, recruiter screens and full blown interviews. Same experience, same projects, just the right language and the results are insane.
Do this for every application you actually want and you are already ahead of like 90% of people applying for the same role.
If you want a full guide on exactly how I do it step by step, I break it down in this video with cool COD gameplay :)
Let me know if you have any questions but give me your thoughts on this strat too or what you guys do to get more callbacks.
Hey, just a curious guy who want to know about are faang companies better than others in term of work culture and also about what are key perks working in such companies?
I’ve been fortunate enough to receive grad offers for Macquarie BFS Tech and CommBank Tech - Engineering. The current pays are essentially identical. CBA offers rotations in their program whereas Macquarie doesn’t which is making me lean towards CBA. Also from what I’ve heard from mates CBA has a higher pay upon rolling off the grad program. On the other hand, I believe Macquarie has a better international presence so might be more valuable for pivoting roles in the future (this may be waffle).
I’m conflicted about which one to pick between the two, any input would be greatly appreciated 🙏🙏.
Hey everyone, I'm a Melbourne based SWE with 2.5 YOE (1 YOE at F500 & 1.5 YOE at start up) with focus tech stack being TS + AWS + MongoDB (across the entire company).
I'm at a stage where I've done plenty for the company and team and no longer really finding meaningful work within the company and it seems like it will be like this towards the end of the year. A lot of repetitive work and working on minor feature and bug requests after some major releases.
The only thing I really want to focus on for the remainder of my time here would be
- learn the full architecture across all products (that were originally outside my scope)
- solidify my AI based workflow (haven't written a single line of code in a year)
- finish off some projects that I am currently planning
There are a few things that I want to finalise and I will be looking to start jumping ship towards the end of this year and start of next year, and wondering what are my options.
Here are some of my thoughts that I have right now.
- Since my tech stack is only across TS + AWS, I'm finding it hard to pass the resume stage for roles that need experience in Java, C#, Go etc (i.e. Canva), is there any way to jump these hurdles?
- Now that I'm not a new grad anymore, I'm assuming the interview process for mid level roles will be different from what I've experienced, what are some things I should focus on?
- My generic coding skill has rusted a lot due to Claude Code, will this become a problem when looking for jobs?
- If I want to pivot to AI Engineer roles, how complicated would it be?
- There just doesn't seem to be a lot of mid level roles in Melbourne, how has others experience with finding roles in Melbourne?
- Any experience finding roles in other countries (US, Europe, UK etc)
There some other WLB related things I would prefer but I will leave those out for now. Thanks!
Here (https://imgur.com/a/11MQ07F) is my resume if you want to see