College students: it’s time to bet on yourselves.

Picking an internship or new grad role is a big deal. Luckily, we're here to help!

Picking an internship or new grad role is essentially betting on yourself. It can feel terrifying to wager on a decision shrouded in uncertainty. I’ve worked with thousands of CS students over my career, and I see many fall into the same traps.

Here’s my main piece of advice: rather than trying to evaluate offers from 4+ companies, narrow your decision down to your top 2 offers. Focus that time on self-reflection and gathering the information you need to make your decision. You’ll gain a lot more clarity and conviction this way.

Here are a few tips to help you make an empowered decision:

Reflect on what matters most to you.

Look both backward and forward. Consider your past internships: which experiences energized and drained you? Then, think about what you want for yourself over the next few years. At this stage in your career, you should optimize for voracious learning. Ask yourself, “Which company will help me do that? Which company is going to nudge me toward my edge, and which people will help me get there?” After that, you can start considering secondary factors like mission, engineering culture, how this next role helps you move toward your long term goals, etc.

Self-reflection is also about disentangling your values from the noise. Some examples of noise: interviewing with 50 companies just because your peers are doing it, choosing a large tech company over a smaller company you're more excited about for its “resume value” or because you think your parents would disown you if you didn't (shoutout to all my fellow children of immigrants!).

Even compensation as a value can be tricky. Look, I get it — who doesn’t want to be paid as much as possible?! However, you can prevent gratuitous stress by realizing that intern/new grad compensation is fairly rigid, and a $10k difference is negligible over time. Assuming your offer is fair, your focus should be on maximizing your learning and skills. That is what will set you and your value/compensation apart in a few years.

These “noisy” things aren’t bad, but it's worth asking yourself if your decision is rooted in empowerment or fear. Enumerate what you believe to be true about your career, then decide if it’s necessarily true. If it isn’t, you might be letting other people and circumstances make your decision.

Gather more info.

Talk to each company’s current and former employees, especially engineering managers/leaders, interns, and new grads. Get specific with your questions, ask for examples, and don’t be afraid to ask hard questions. For example, rather than, “What do you like about working here?”, asking something like, “What have you learned here that you wouldn’t have learned elsewhere?” and, “What’s one thing that would make your job better?” will yield much more insightful answers. “What’s it like for a new grad?” is fine; “What philosophy or practices are in place to support new engineers?” is better.

Broaden your perspective to narrow in on where you land.

After gathering information from each company, speak with folks who offer a wide array of perspectives: mentors, folks a few years ahead of you, former managers, etc. You’ll find that some answers resonate more than others, and you might even notice what you’re hoping they’ll say. You can discuss with peers, but note that many may also be struggling with drowning out the noise.

Finally, take a deep breath and trust that you’ll be okay.

If your high-order bit is going to the place where you’ll learn most, surrounded by brilliant engineers and leaders who will challenge and inspire you, you’ll set yourself up for success no matter how the company fares or what you pursue next. And if things don’t work out? There’s no better time to be a software engineer¹ — there will be jobs, and you will be fine.²

Wishing you the best of luck with your decision. May the odds be in your favor 😉.

Jan Crisostomo, Head of Talent & People Operations, Neo

Jan is the Head of Recruiting & People Ops at Neo. She has spent the last decade growing world-class recruiting functions, engineering teams, and university programs for Sentry, Google, Dropbox, and Bessemer Venture Partners. When she's not awkwardly composing third-person bios, she enjoys coaching, writing, and mentoring her brand new intern (her son Jones).

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At Neo, we have the privilege of helping hundreds of college students navigate their career decisions each year. We believe there are few places that can jumpstart your career like an early-stage company can. We’re excited to continue helping students bet on themselves by connecting them to exciting startups through Startup Connect. Subscribe to our newsletter below to be alerted when 2023 applications open!

1. Okay, okay, 2019 - 2021 was a pretty lit period when capital flooded the markets, every company needed engineers, and they were handing out salaries like candy on Halloween night.

2. At least until the robots take over. AI folks — slow down, will ya???