How to Land a Referral or Interview from Top Tech Companies
If you’re in college, about to graduate, or a full-time professional trying to get into one of the “Big N” companies, here’s exactly how to land an interview.
In this article, I’m going to talk about how you can use networking to significantly increase your chances of getting a callback from the company of your dreams. Let’s say you want to work for a specific subset of companies out there. You’ve probably applied and received many generic rejection emails also sent to millions of candidates applying with you. Are you ready to settle for the fact that some companies just require a special type of candidate? Don’t do it!
Companies can receive up to tens of thousands of resumes each day. Due to high volume of applicants for both internships and full-time positions, recruiters may only have time to shortlist resumes that contain specific keywords. How can you hack your resume so that it always gets selected past the initial screening? This one is easy. You can’t. While there are websites like jobscan.co that can assess specific keywords in job descriptions to optimize your resume, they aren’t necessarily proven to increase the chances of you getting a call back.
This means you have to think of another way to get your resume to the hands of a recruiter or hiring manager. The following is a step-by-step strategy to help you crack the code and potentially get that job at your dream company.
Before We Start
Before we begin, however, it’s important to leverage your existing set of direct connections. The following is a summary of people that may be able to give you invaluable advice regarding how they secured their position at XYZ company and how you could do the same.
- University alumni who work at the company you are interested in
- Friends/classmates who previously interned at the company
- Professors and lecturers
- Friends of friends who work at that company
If any of these direct connections intern(ed)/work(ed) at a set of companies you target, make it your first priority to reach out to them. They can either internally refer you, refer you to a recruiter, or better yet, send your resume over to the hiring manager.
Landing an internship or full-time job in technology is hard nowadays. If you’ve searched online for advice on for tech company referrals, you may have came across various platforms such as Repher, Referral HQ, or Rooftop Slushie. These platforms claim to offer referrals through a peer exchange. Use these peer exchange referral platforms as a last resort after following the strategic advice we will go through in this article. Don’t rely on them to hack your way in. Often times, these platforms are not free nor do they promote genuine networking and mentorship. They also have extremely low response rates and are susceptible to false promises.
Evidently, I understand the struggle, as I have friends who have applied to over 600 companies to land their current position. I also have friends who’ve never applied to a single company but have been landed multiple offers from companies such as Uber, Stripe, Facebook, Nextdoor, etc. This article focuses on the latter set of my friends. They discovered the power of a professional network with nearly 660+ million users worldwide: LinkedIn. They didn’t go to a prestigious school nor did they have a competitive GPA. All they had was a well-structured resume, relevant work experience from past projects and unbranded companies, and a LinkedIn account.
For instance, during 2014, Google had 2.5 million applicants. Do you really think Google had recruiters that went through each and every resume and application to find only the 4,000 best candidates out of all of them? Absolutely not. After emulating their strategies, I too was able to attain interview opportunities at some of the most competitive companies in the world. Keep reading to find out how ~30 — 40% of engineers from the top tech companies obtained their initial interview.
The Power of LinkedIn
Before you go through the steps and leverage the power of a professional network, make sure your LinkedIn profile stands out as much as possible. Treat it just as meticulously as you would with your resume. There are hundreds of articles out there if you need help building a LinkedIn profile that will stand out.
Here we go:
1.First, go to the LinkedIn page of the company you are interested in working at. Click on the button that says “See all XXX employees on LinkedIn.”
2.Filter down to view only the people who were alumni at your school or you share a mutual connection with. If you don’t have any matches, that’s perfectly fine too. Keep reading.
People who have something in common with you are much more likely to connect with you and take time out of their day. However, messaging people who aren’t a direct connection is also completely fine. In this case, make sure you find people who would relate to you over others. For instance, if you’re trying to land an interview from Google and don’t have any direct connections, it makes sense to find people who share a certain set of criteria:
- Same age group as you
- Currently working in the position you are applying for
- Same state or city as you
- Similar college standing year or graduation date as you
- Immigrants from the same country as you
3. Click “Connect” and then “Add a note.” In my note, I explain why I’m contacting them and my request: a 10–15 minute brief chat. Keep it short, friendly, simple, and to the point.
Here are two of my typical notes:
TIP: Sometimes, people will accept your connection request but won’t respond to your note. This is a design flaw with LinkedIn as connection notes don’t directly appear in message threads. If this happens, simply send a follow-up message.
4. This is the most important step. Be patient for a reply, maintain a meaningful conversation once they respond, and always perpetuate a professional attitude.
Repeat steps 1–3 with people from different companies. Try not to consistently connect with people from the same company and region within a short timeframe. Moreover, don’t be discouraged if some people never get back to you. I reached out to 5–10 people a week. Some working professionals simply don’t check or use LinkedIn anymore.
Either request your connection for an informational interview phone call or simply ask to converse with them on the same LinkedIn thread. It’s important to have meaningful conversations in which you are genuinely learning from your new connections.
Here are a few questions I asked during my chats with new connections:
- What is the culture like at XYZ company?
- What are the expectations like working at a company like XYZ?
- Would you say most entry-level engineers learn on the job or have prior expertise?
- Is there an emphasis on work-life balance amongst the teams?
- Is it easy to switch teams if you find new technical interests?
- What is your team working on?
- How did you end up at X company? What made you choose this company over other companies/offers?
- How did you get into your particular area of Computer Science (ex. machine learning, databases, full-stack, etc.) and what are some resources for learning more about it?
- What are internships like at your company?
Questions like these are a great way to get a better understanding of both the company culture and about the industry. I found these chats to be much more helpful than any advice I’ve received during college. These conversations helped me assess my personal fit across many companies, prepare for technical interviews, and formulate my ideal career path. Nonetheless, once you have conversations with a new connections, it gets a lot easier. Most importantly, if you are looking for an internship or full-time opportunity there’s one question I asked every connection I’ve had a meaningful conversation with: How can I stand out in the application process for XYZ company for this position? You can also phrase it differently like this: Attending a non-flagship school, what would be the best way to secure a first-round interview with XYZ company?
This question is great because the person you’re on the phone with will give you direct advice on how to work there. If you had a genuine, meaningful conversation, then it’s likely that the person would connect you with a recruiter or even refer you to his/her company.
There are so many other ways to strike meaningful conversations with new connections. Practice makes perfect. As an example, here is a chat transcript that lead me to receive a referral with a Big N company.
Me: Hello, ___. My name is Sandeep and I’m a college senior. I’m passionately looking to apply for XYZs SDE internship. I do have reputable experience in the cloud, tech, and product space. I’d love to connect and learn from you.
Me (Again): Hello ___, Thank you so much for accepting my connection request. For a long time, I’ve been trying to align my resume, interview skills, and technical knowledge around this position. May I ask how you applied for this position to be considered for an interview? I also go to XYZ University, a less-recognized school based on the name, however, I have exhilarating passion and technical experience to bring value and excel in the SWE intern positions with XYZ. Thanks so much for the help in advance, Sandeep
LinkedIn Connection: Hi Sandeep. Happy to help here! I found out about this role from a recruiter I was speaking with about software engineering positions. I realized it was a position I was more interested in. Throughout the interview process for this role, they are looking to see where your area of depth in terms of tech skills is (continued)…
Me: Hello, Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I do have great depth of technical skills around this position. I’ve been meticulously studying data structures and Leetcode problems. I’m also taking cloud development courses for months and am set to take one of the exams next week… I also wanted to seek guidance from you in terms of how you were able to hear back from such a prestigious company like XYZ despite attending a non-flagship university (continued)…
LinkedIn Connection: I recommend going to conferences where Amazon will be. I spoke to recruiters from Amazon at both GHC and SWE conference. I didn’t go in either a referral or anything. I think face to face interaction helps the most. Amazon is also at the your college’s career fair as well.
Me: I was unable to attend my campus career fair due to extremely long lines. They opened up the entire fair to graduate students this year round. I really agree with you that face-to-face conversations can definitely convey one’s passion and skillset much better. I will definitely take your advice to heart and consider flying out these conferences.
LinkedIn Connection: These are just examples of conferences I attended but there are lots of others! They usually offer scholarships to attend as well. If there is another career fair this semester I would recommend mapping out which companies and roles you want to dedicate your time at the fair to. But I can also send you a referral if you would like.
Me: That would be so great. I’m thrilled. Would you like a link to the positions I’m looking at?
As you can see it’s very important that you do not prolong the conversational unnecessarily or repetitively. That can be even worse than hinting for a referral too early. In just seven messages, I was able to receive a referral to one of most competitive companies in the world. In fact, the referral did get me into the interview process within just a few days. I also learned instrumental information about how some public career fairs prioritize on-site applicants over the traditional applicant pool.
Wouldn’t you love to receive messages like the following in your LinkedIn inbox when you wake up?
Final Thoughts
By using the above strategies, I was able get interviews from such prestigious companies that would’ve never thought about hiring from my school. Earning a position in tech is not easy especially with the highest enrollment of STEM majors in history. It’s especially hard if it’s a top tech company like Google, Facebook, or Amazon that doesn’t recruit often from your school.
All in all, this post is meant for the general public to build meaningful connections and get selected for interviews from competitive tech companies. If you don’t apply fundamental LinkedIn networking into your job search, you will have a 0.2% — 0.5% statistical chance of being selected for an interview. Once you’re working for your dream company, continue to carry the favor by assisting other connections with invaluable advice.
I hope that this post helped you in some way. The key takeaway from this is not to leverage a LinkedIn network to get a few referrals. It’s to illustrate that anything is possible in terms of your career goals if you have clarity about what you want, plan precisely, practice genuine networking, and don’t give up. Companies are constantly on the search for highly motivated individuals like you.
If you have any questions or need more conversational examples to converse with your new connections, feel free to contact me via the submission form located on my website: sandeepnamburi.github.io.