sup baxate, i'm 18, and i just finished the first year of my cs degree
i'm doing everything right, playing everything by the book. i worked hard in high school to receive a full tuition scholarship to a prestigious cs program (think uiuc, umich, gt level). this summer, i'm doing research at a lab through my school. i'm not as up to speed in the gym, but i started last month thanks to you and i'm seeing some newbie strength gains
my resume is about as good as it can be without a big tech internship, but i'm struggling to bag my first internship. forgive me if this sounds like cope, but i feel like you (and every other computing major a couple years older than me) had a much easier time getting an internship after your first or second year because the swe job market was just so much better in 2020-2022 than it is in 2023. nowadays, it seems that a top 5 university or a prior big tech internship is a prerequsite to even land an internship. it's not as simple as just going to a good school and having an optimized resume anymore.
not sure if you have advice for this, but what's my next move? i guess i should just wait for the market to improve while spam applying + building up my resume in other ways, but in the meantime i feel frustrated and inadeuqate.
lmk your thoughts