Approached for intern position, got a 36LPA job instead in a US based startup from a Tier 3, 0YOE.

Spoiler: I'm the same guy who worked as a sub contractor earlier,
https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1ragm6n/how_do_i_convince_my_college_to_let_me_work_on_my/

I ended up using it as supporting document and paid fine so I wasn't debarred ( 65% attendance ).

Tl;dr: Approached a founder, he liked my projects, I asked if they do internship because their company sounded cool. Met the CEO, he liked me, met the engineering head, he LOVED me, and he himself vouched for me to the CEO and the CEO just asked me to schedule a meet so he could let me know.

Background: I'm a 3rd year student from a Tier 3 college, 0YOE, 0 internships, 0 course. I took the tier 3 college because we couldn't afford to pay fees and only this college had scholarship for my marks.

For context, read my earlier post about the contract. After my initial contract of $80k this year, I didn't do a lot of work but I tried to lock in. I was trying to get some leads for a while and I found that a person starred my project on Github and I just did a little bit of research on who they were and they were to be a CEO of a startup in the US.

I messaged them like "I know this is random, I'm the developer of this project... thanks for appreciating the work... [asking for intern position so I could learn from a team]" because I never worked in a formal setting and just wanted to shoot my shot.

He replied to me that all the paid intern positions were closed but just suggested me to mail him so he could connect and help me network, and I said yes.

It was during my end-sem and I was on a meet while me and my friends were shifting my apartment. We talked for a bit and he just asked me to explain what I do, and why I'm looking for internship. He was curious whether I was doing it for academic credits or the stipend. I told him, while I'd like a little side hustle, I wanted to be part of a team and learn more. I talked to him about my projects, the open source teams I was a part of and what I specialized in ( Android ).

He looped his Engineering Head and gave him context. While fixing the date for the meet, we went back and forth while choosing the time because my niece's birthday and my girlfriend's birthday (LDR) were on the only two dates he was free. I politely explained him the situation and he was cool about it. I was surprised because I suggested we post pone it twice so I wasn't sure if he'd even attend.

Coming back to the day it was scheduled, I got home after 16 hours of traveling and attended the meeting with droidcam because God knows what happened to my mic. We had a nice conversation about linux ( he uses arch btw ), and I talked about what I've built, why, and how I got into programming and open source.

I asked him a lot of questions, including but not just these**:**

- "What's one project you're proud of"
- "Are you against AI usage, and do you manually code if no"

One thing in particular surprised me is that he said "I like my interviews informal, when I let the interviewee talk, and not even make it feel like its one". So I asked him "Do you think a leet code interview would evaluate a developer more fit because I can build a product but not solve a lot of them because I feel that I never had the need to memorize or build things from scratch when in reality it would not be the scenario", he agreed and said "likewise".

Also, one of our points was about differentiating vibe coding vs how engineers use AI. We had a similar workflow and I openly admitted that I cannot code without AI but I don't distribute slop. We had similar views about it and it clicked.

Note: I'm not saying leet code doesn't help, but it depends on what and where you use it ( i love leet code SQL ), and helps you solve problems but if you've been a dev, it doesn't make a significant difference.

I told him my workflow with claude and we shared a few jokes here and there about it, talked about local models, different AI models and I explained him a few things about android and he was a good listener.

We stretched a 30 minute meeting into a 2:30 hour one and I was confident by the end of it that I made a good first impression.

Fast forward to two days, the CEO asked to schedule a meet and I allocated the same day just to not delay their conclusion. He said "[The engineering head] liked you very much and he wants to work with you, how about you join our team as a developer".

I literally stuttered lol.

He said "He told me that you were very curious and a talented engineer, and I take it very seriously because we've both been in field for 30 years and he's the best programmer I know". I signed my agreement that week.

One last important thing he (The CEO) mentioned, "I like how you threw caution into the wind and went for it, not caring about anything else. It's crazy you sent a message and got a job" lol

Today, I'm talking to the engineering head after his vacation, and I think he'd be happy to know that his opinion was considered and I got hired.

Shoot your shot people, it can work.

My advice for fellow students/developers would be to focus on developing BOTH your technical and communication skills. Work in real projects, learn about tech in general so you have an idea about everything.

Leetcode is good, but along with it learn about software architecture, networking, debugging, testing and concepts you use in actual software engineering. Don't hyper-focus on programming languages. I can learn and adapt to a programming language in a week because I have the foundation of the concepts really well, learning the syntax just takes a few days.

Cheers!