I Applied to 500+ Software Engineering Jobs and This Is Why I Finally Got Hired

I had four internships at 20 and broke into big tech at 21. If you're scared of the tech job market, this is for you.

Over the last 2 years, I spent thousands of hours job searching, submitting over 500 applications, getting rejections every single morning, and spending months and months coding while also interview prepping. And after all of

interview prepping. And after all of that, I ended up going from someone with no big tech experience to two internships at Amazon and Autodesk and a full-time offer at Amazon as well.

Despite all of this success, I still feel like I wasted my time because I did not know everything that I do now. So,

in this video, I'm going to take you through every single lesson I learned from learning to code, perfecting your resume, building good quality coding projects, and then how to actually stand out so you could land that software engineering job. First of all, if I was

engineering job. First of all, if I was restarting my coding journey from scratch today, these are the three coding languages I would learn and how based off everything I did at Amazon.

So, my first language would definitely be Python. It's the most beginner

be Python. It's the most beginner friendly because it's the closest to English you could possibly get, and it's honestly the only coding language you should be using in your technical interviews. To learn it, go to YouTube

interviews. To learn it, go to YouTube and start watching Programming with Mosh. He's the goat for Python. And then

Mosh. He's the goat for Python. And then

use this website called Python Tutor for visualizations. Now, the next language

visualizations. Now, the next language would be Java. 80% of Amazon's existing codebase is written in it. And so many other big tech companies still use it just because a lot of legacy systems are written based off of Java. To learn

Java, I personally taught myself with Amigos code on YouTube. I honestly owe that man half of my salary. I swear. And

then I would go even further and learn Spring Boot. I swear it's a cheat code

Spring Boot. I swear it's a cheat code to land big tech jobs. And to do this, I would continue watching Amigos code and then go to project-based learning on GitHub and build out the backend projects, namely learning how to do stuff like JWT authentication because

this is what you will actually do on the job. Now, finally, there's JavaScript.

job. Now, finally, there's JavaScript.

And there is a reason why this is the most in- demand coding language in 2025.

It covers literally all aspects of web development. So, you could build

development. So, you could build whatever you want with it. I would watch all the crash courses by Free Code on YouTube, but this would only get the fundamentals down. So then go and

fundamentals down. So then go and complete the entire Odin project online because it's a completely free project-based learning approach. So you

get to build something handson while learning the language which I think is amazing. Now what nobody tells you is

amazing. Now what nobody tells you is that coding and your CS degree are not enough alone to get you hired. And this

is because the brutal truth is coding is not a high value skill anymore in 2025.

There is so much more that goes into software engineering. Besides, it's not

software engineering. Besides, it's not 2016 anymore where you could land a six-figure job just because you know how a for loop works. There is now so much more that goes into software engineering. I highly recommend you

engineering. I highly recommend you focus on these three things. The first

is version control with Git and GitHub.

Think of Git as a collaborative time machine where you could work with your code with other developers. This is an absolutely fundamental part for any software engineering job. And if you do not know this, you will struggle to land a job. To learn everything, just go to

a job. To learn everything, just go to this website called Learn Git Branching and go through all the different levels they have because they use visualizations to perfectly break down all of these complex subjects. It'll

only take you like an hour or two of studying. And trust me, this is a game

studying. And trust me, this is a game changer. The second thing would be

changer. The second thing would be system design. And I cannot stress

system design. And I cannot stress enough how important it is. You learn

this earlier if you want to stand out.

Basically, your job as a software engineer is architecting these solutions and not just building them. And that's

where system design comes into play. So

stuff like planning the entire software systems architecture, different components and how they should interact with each other and how to build scalable solutions that will actually last. For this, the only resource you

last. For this, the only resource you need is the system design primer GitHub repository. go through everything and

repository. go through everything and try to get at least a surface level understanding of each concept. The most

important is stuff like working with APIs, memory caching, how cues work, and then your DNS and load balancers and all that jazz. Now, finally, and this is a

that jazz. Now, finally, and this is a bit more niche, is mastering cloud development because I personally believe with the rise in AI, a lot of our work will shift towards this kind of DevOps

field. Namely, I would master AWS. And

field. Namely, I would master AWS. And

personally, for me, when I learned AWS and put it on my resume, it helped me get my first ever internship. For AWS,

you have a bunch of options. is you

could try all those free crash courses on YouTube. That's what I did and then I

on YouTube. That's what I did and then I just played around with a bunch of different features on AWS. But you could also complete this course that Amazon offers completely for free to get the cloud practitioner levels. Now, I'm not going to lie to you. All of this information can be a bit overwhelming

and you might not know what path you want to follow because I sure as hell did not know at the time. I could tell you all the different coding languages and things I recommend, but in the end, your road map and what you should learn should be highly specifically tailored

to each role you want. And man, do I wish I knew about this resource earlier.

So, it's called roadmap.sh SH and you just pick the job that you're looking for. For example, I wanted to be a

for. For example, I wanted to be a backend engineer. And then they give you

backend engineer. And then they give you all the coding languages you should learn and then take you through an entirely detailed road map covering everything you need to know from the basics to advanced subjects. So for me, this includes the stuff I talked about

like the version control systems, caching with Reddus, and then learning how to containerize with Docker, all that stuff that's highly specific to backend engineering. So if you take

backend engineering. So if you take anything from this video, please just save that resource because it actually is a lifesaver. Before we get into the rest of the video, I wanted to talk about the elephant in the room, AI.

Instead of being scared of it, this is a non-negotiable skill to learn if you want to get hired in this job market. In

particular, learning generative AI is crucial. This is because AI is not going

crucial. This is because AI is not going to replace software engineers anytime soon. But engineers who understand how

soon. But engineers who understand how to use and leverage AI will replace those that do not. So getting ahead of that curve now is the smartest thing you could do. The program I recommend is the

could do. The program I recommend is the applied generative AI specialization offered by SimplyLearn in partnership with Purdue University. It's a 16week long program and it's taught by instructors and reviewed by industry

experts with real enterprise AI and software engineering experience. You get

over 70 hours of hands-on learning with tools like Lang Chain, OpenAI, Hugging Face, Dolli, and GitHub Copilot. There

are 60 plus exercises and seven hands-on projects plus a capstone project. So

you're not just watching videos, you're actually building something. The

curriculum starts with the foundations of LLMs and prompt engineering and moves into advanced topics like REGGG, agentic decision-making, and custom tooling. And

the best part is when you finish the program, you get a certificate from Purdue University and Simply Learn. And

then you're also eligible to become a member of the Purdue Alumni Association.

And this is just extra credibility when you're job hunting. I recommend you check out the program page because it shows the full learning path, frequently asked questions and financing options, and real student reviews. All in all, this program is designed for

professionals looking to gain applied AI skill. Thank you to SimplyLearn for

skill. Thank you to SimplyLearn for sponsoring this video. I highly

recommend you invest in your future and check them out in the link in the description. All right, now that we have

description. All right, now that we have all the fundamentals down for software engineering, we need to talk about the resume. And this is the resume that got

resume. And this is the resume that got me into Amazon. So, I'm going to teach you literally everything you need to know to trick recruiters in the next like 2 minutes. So, first of all, if you didn't know already, this is a heat map of what recruiter's eyes look at when

they look at your resume. In particular,

you can see them scanning specific sections, right? So, I don't care what

sections, right? So, I don't care what you're doing, you need to be using a template that's built for this. This

could include Jake's resume template, Harvard's RSé template, an MIT resume.

It doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Don't get bogged down in the

the day. Don't get bogged down in the template itself. Just make sure you're

template itself. Just make sure you're building it perfectly for the ATS system. And this means applicant

system. And this means applicant tracking system. If you want to rebuild

tracking system. If you want to rebuild your resume, I built a tool called resumax.ai AI where you could sign up for free, import your old resume, and then select the template that I just showed you. Now, either way, if you're

showed you. Now, either way, if you're looking for a software engineering job, this is a breakdown of what your resume should look like. You should start with your name and personal information, which includes stuff like your LinkedIn and your GitHub, because your GitHub is as important as your resume as a

software engineer. And this is because

software engineer. And this is because your GitHub should include code you wrote so recruiters and other software engineers can go identify how good you actually are. In my interview with

actually are. In my interview with Autodesk, they literally opened up my GitHub while I was talking with them.

Now, next, you should briefly include your education. Only include stuff like

your education. Only include stuff like your GPA if it's above a 3.5. Otherwise,

don't bother. Then you should have your experience section as the bulk of your resume. Now, remember the heat map we

resume. Now, remember the heat map we talked about earlier. For this reason, you should be using the accomplish X through Y using Zed method in your bullet points. And this is what Google

bullet points. And this is what Google teaches people to get into their jobs.

So, let me read you an example from my time at Amazon. Optimize integration

with live systems processing 40 million events per day, enhancing efficiency by 23% through AWS, SNS, and SQS connections with internal services. Now,

doesn't that sound impressive? Now,

another important part is quantifying all of your metrics with business logic because more often than not, that first readrough of your resume will be done by an HR person with little to no technical knowledge. So, another example from my

knowledge. So, another example from my time on Amazon would be deployed AWS Cloudatch dashboards reducing costs by 8K monthly and saving 80 plus hours of manual work weekly for the Ring marketing team. It doesn't matter what

marketing team. It doesn't matter what that bullet point actually means from a technical perspective. It is obviously

technical perspective. It is obviously really impressive. Now, after your

really impressive. Now, after your experience, I would add a leadership section. When I added this section, my

section. When I added this section, my interview rate tripled, by the way. And

for me, this includes stuff like building out my own startup and this YouTube channel. So, yeah, that's a bit

YouTube channel. So, yeah, that's a bit more niche than what you guys might have, but this could be anything from winning a hackathon to being a president of a club, anything that will make you stand out in recruiter's eyes. Now,

after that, put your coding projects with source code so recruiters can see it. And then just enumerate all of your

it. And then just enumerate all of your technical skills at the bottom because the ATS system that we talked about earlier will pick up all of these technical skills in one line. And that

is what actually gets you through to the next round sometimes. Okay. Now, before

we move on to the last part, which is where in the world do you actually find these jobs to stand out, you need to figure out if you're in a place where you should be building out coding projects or grinding leak code to land jobs because there is a massive difference and you could be wasting your

time. So, first, if you're not even

time. So, first, if you're not even getting interviews, it means your resume is just plain and simply not good enough to get these jobs. And the only thing you could really do is buff it up with coding projects. Here, you should not be

coding projects. Here, you should not be putting a coding project that you could build in a week or that's just ripping off some YouTube video you watched. It

should be something that either has a real world impact and solves a problem or has thousands of users. For example,

my engineering capstone project where I developed the full stack satellite collision prediction tool for the Canadian Space Agency. Like damn, did that ever get me interviews. But before

that, I also had this exam scheduling app with thousands of users on it. I

also built Empor or my new project, Resumatch, which is an AI resume builder and reviewer with thousands of users and thousands of dollars in revenue, will also look amazing on my resume once I add it in. Now, you might be like,

"Eric, where in the world do I find these ideas? This is so complicated. A

these ideas? This is so complicated. A

hack no one ever teaches you is this."

Go to the list of the most recent YC startups, pick one that interests you, and build out just a small piece of their software, not their entire product. Trust me, this is a great way

product. Trust me, this is a great way to actually stand out and it is really impressive if you could pull it off.

Okay, now these coding projects just get you to the door, but to actually push yourself through the door and get hired, you need to be grinding le code. I'm not

going to lie to you, software engineering interviews are the hardest part of the job. So, first you need to master your data structures and algorithms. And to do this, I would watch Abdul Bereie religiously on YouTube as well as Michael Sample for

quick breakdowns. And then use the

quick breakdowns. And then use the website visualgo.net because they visualize all of these complicated concepts so simply that it will actually stick in your head. While doing this, go to Node and complete the blind 75

because these are the only questions you will need to pass an interview. Node

himself also posts YouTube videos breaking down each solution. So instead

of wasting hours and hours when you're stuck, just watch his videos because that guy honestly has probably gotten thousands of people hired. For me

personally, during my Amazon interview, I actually had one of the blind 75 questions asked of me and I was basically playing back his video in my head to remember the solution. [music]

It's crazy how good a teacher he is.

Now, the final hack that a lot of people know about is this website called shanashad.com/leopatterns.

shanashad.com/leopatterns.

Because you just pick the company that you're applying for, for example, Amazon, then you can see all the most recently asked interview questions. So,

if you have an interview coming up, you just spam through those because more often than not, you're going to be asked the exact same questions or something very similar. Screw the lead code style

very similar. Screw the lead code style software engine. I swear. Now, besides

software engine. I swear. Now, besides

that, just practice the STAR method, which stands for situation, task, action, and result for your behavioral interviews, and do mock interviews with your friends. It'll go a long way, and

your friends. It'll go a long way, and you should be set. Now, the only part remaining is where in the world you even find these software engineering jobs to apply to. So, you have a few options

apply to. So, you have a few options here. First, you could go to LinkedIn,

here. First, you could go to LinkedIn, search for jobs that came up in the last 24 hours, then find this number in the URL and change it to 3,600. So, you can see all the job postings that came out in the last hour. Go ahead and apply to

those because you'll be one of the first candidates, which really helps a lot. If

you want to go a step further, you could also tailor your resume to each role.

And for that, you could just copy the job description and paste it into ResMax, the website that I built, and click optimize your resume because this has helped so many of our users so far.

Sorry for the shameless plug. I had to.

But besides that, I'm not going to lie, LinkedIn on its own is not enough anymore. So, you're going to use these

anymore. So, you're going to use these three resources. The first is suist.com.

three resources. The first is suist.com.

You just sign up once on their website for free, and then every single day, you'll get an email with all the job postings that came out that day, so you do not miss anything, and you get a reminder every single morning. Now, a

lot of these job postings do not include startups, and startups are an underrated way to break into your first experience.

So, you're going to use this website called wellfound.com. They've helped

called wellfound.com. They've helped

millions of users connect with hundreds of thousands of startups, and they have basically every single job posting out there from startups. And finally, you have the goated GitHub repositories by Simplify. Whether you're a new grad or

Simplify. Whether you're a new grad or an intern, these repositories are updated every single day with all the new job postings as well. So, I

recommend you star them. That is

everything you need to do to get a software engineering job in this awful job market. It took me years and years

job market. It took me years and years of trial and error to figure it out, and I'm just happy I could pay it forward and help you guys out. If you found this helpful, receive a like and subscribe.