👋 AMA: I’m Michael - ex-Meta Principal Engineer + #1 code committer, now co-founder at Formation.dev + interview expert. 📌🎈💥 AI popped the Bootcamp & LeetCode bubbles. Ask me anything about how tech careers have changed in 2025, how to stand out, and what still gets you hired. No 🍬🧥. No 🐂💩

Hi! 1. Internships are like 5X the next point so it really is the biggest tip. But other tips are: network with past alumni as they might be able to help refer you, pay attention to companies or recruiters that come on campus (IRL or digitally) to recruit, try to be willing to move anywhere and consider jobs absolutely everywhere. 2. A MISTAKE was I was not remotely self aware of my communication in meetings and it was very bad, like absurdly bad. Like I was not good at energy and jumped too quickly to solutions without giving a chance for people to explore. A MISCONCEPTION was that work would be really academically hard and raw intelligence was most important. Things weren't complicated but they were complex and success was about understanding and navigating the complexity. A corollary was that you I learned you could do just as well as the smartest people by our working them. I wish someone would have told me this in college because I would have actually learned more instead of trying to hard to solve the hardest problems and win all the competitions (which I didn't do). 3. Practice harder DS&A by slowing down and following a consistent problem solving method. And practicing explaining that out loud as you solve. Too many people practice Leetcode try to cram through problems and keep submitting until it passes type things and don't actually level up their fundamental understanding 4.My advice for projects aimed for the resume is you want to have something there is when the interviewer asks you about it, your face will light up from the passion intensity you have to the project. Even if the project failed but you learned something by telling giving it your all and relentlessly debugging, then put it under projects. Bootcamp grads have sparse resumes and put their projects under experience and make it seem like a complete job, but this is such an epic failure and waste for them.... if a project was a job it would be a complete experience and the point of a project is to be a spiky display of passion and example of the above, not a super polished final product. The best project I've ever seen was a 3/4 complete one and the person was explainign in detail what the final 1/4 was and extremely nuanced challenges be was having in making that 1/4 feel really good. Rather than finish it for the sake of finishing it, he was obsessed over making it GOOD and didn't finish it.