JobHunt is now available at jobhunt.fyi! You can sign up in seconds using either LinkedIn or email.

It’s an exciting time here at JobHunt. After nearly a year of development, beginning in the summer of 2019, we are proud to announce the launch of our beta. We hope this will allow us the opportunity to solicit product feedback so we can iterate and move closer to our goal of making job hunting as easy as possible. In addition to the main JobHunt platform, we will also be maintaining a blog, here at blog.jobhunt.fyi, providing career advice primarily to prospective intern and new grad software engineers.

Although the idea for JobHunt came long before the current coronavirus pandemic began, we believe JobHunt can make a difference in helping people who’ve lost their jobs to find new positions.

What is JobHunt?

Have you ever come across job postings you intended on applying to, but forgot, or lost the posting link? Do you track your job applications in a big, cumbersome spreadsheet where deadlines and your todos are forgotten? Have you ever wasted time searching through old emails to find forgotten information about a job application? JobHunt makes it easy to keep track of job postings, deadlines, todos, contacts, offer details, and more, so you can focus on what really matters: landing your dream job. JobHunt is a platform for job seekers to manage their job search.

How does JobHunt work?

JobHunt displays all your jobs in a kanban-style board in your dashboard. Jobs are organized into 4 columns, representing different stages in the application process.

If you click on a job, a popup will show you all the information you have about that job, and you can use the links on the sidebar to navigate.

Todos are for any tasks you might need to complete, or goals you set for yourself. Examples might be: “Apply to 10 more jobs”, or, “Complete online coding assessment”. You can see all your todos for all jobs from the Todos page, and add new ones if you like.

Hungry for some stats? JobHunt also has an Analytics page, where you can see some data on your job search.

Sign up for free today at JobHunt.fyi! We hope you’ll find JobHunt makes your job search much easier and helps you land your dream job. If you encounter any bugs, or have ideas for new features or functionality, we’d be happy to hear them! You can send us an email at hi@jobhunt.fyi or send us a message on social media.

Competition for internship placements can be pretty fierce. Top companies like Google and Facebook attract thousands more applicants than they have positions for. It’s easy to see why; having a name like that on your resume provides a big leg up in job searching. Unpaid internships may seem like an easy way to get your foot in the door, and on a path to a career in technology, but there are many reasons why this may not be the case. Fields like computer science and engineering are much richer in opportunity than other fields, like journalism, or fashion, where the competition is incredibly high and the demand for interns is very low. For this reason, unpaid internships are much less common in technology fields than in journalism, for example, but they still exist.

Benefits of doing an unpaid internship

It might be easier to land a position

If the internship is unpaid, there will probably be less applicants to the job, since some people can’t afford to accept it, and others who might be able to afford it probably wouldn’t want to work for free. If there’s less competition to fight off, it can dramatically increase your odds of landing the position. Because of this, you might have more choices in which employer you want to work for.

Unlike college, it’s a free learning experience

The average college student pays thousands of dollars a year in tuition and textbooks. With an unpaid internship, you don’t have to pay tuition in order to learn skills that will likely be more relevant to the real world than college. Also, you’ll have some work experience to put on your resume that may help you get a paid internship in the future, or a full time job. Obviously, you may have living expenses as well to worry about, and maybe even relocation expenses if you don’t live in the area where your internship is.

You might get college credit

Sometimes your college will allow you to receive academic credit in exchange for doing an internship. This could reduce the number of courses you have to take to complete your degree program, and could even help reduce your tuition expenses if your institution doesn’t require you to pay extra for these credits. However, if you do have to pay for the credits, then you’re basically paying to do your internship. Make sure to check with your school to see what the requirements are for receiving credits, and whether your employer is willing to participate.

Drawbacks of doing an unpaid internship

You don’t get paid

Bet you never expected this one, did you? But even though it doesn’t cost you anything for the privilege of working, you may still have living expenses to pay for. Rent, food, entertainment, and transportation are all expenses you may incur, so you’ll need to make a budget before accepting an unpaid position to make sure you understand the full cost over your internship term.

Prestigious companies tend not do unpaid internships

Don’t expect to be able to get an internship at Google by offering to work for free. Unpaid internships are far more common among smaller startups than established companies. There are a few reasons for this. First, although a prestigious company could probably still get tons of applicants even for an unpaid position, they would almost certainly receive massive public backlash for doing this. Second, paying interns leads to more competition for the positions, and allows these companies to recruit better talent. Pay for interns can actually be pretty spectacular at top companies, who are looking for the best of the best. Third, startups are usually strapped for resources, and may not have the money to hire paid interns (or hire more employees in general). Established companies don’t have to do this, since they either generate enough revenue to pay employees, or have enough funding to continue operating. Fourth, companies tend to use internship programs as an extended recruiting pipeline, to get access to top candidates before they have more experience, so they view this as a long term investment. For startups, it isn’t always possible to expend their limited resources on long-term bets like untested candidates. Thus, any company offering an unpaid internship will not give you an advantage through name recognition alone.

The company might be in trouble

Many cash-strapped companies offer unpaid internships as a way of getting access to employees they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. Unpaid internships could be a sign that the company is on unstable financial footing. Do you want to take the risk that your employer could go bust before or during your internship? Also, if finances are a problem, they likely won’t be able to afford to bring you on full time either.

Might not be doing as interesting work

If an employer isn’t willing to pay you for your time, they probably don’t expect to get enough value from you to make a return on their investment. Companies that pay their interns have an incentive to give you more important tasks that will help them in a meaningful way. Companies that don’t may be more willing to give menial tasks or even busywork because they don’t have to use your talents as efficiently. Conversely, because they don’t have to pay you for your time, some companies might be happy to exploit you into working longer hours. If you’ve valued your time as worth nothing, they might see it the same way.

It’s kind of a legal gray area

Unpaid internships are legal in most jurisdictions, provided they meet certain conditions. In the US, the Department of Labor specifies a series of factors that determine whether you are considered an “employee” for the purposes of labor standards. If you are not considered an “employee” you won't have access to the same legal protections as regular employees, with regards to harassment, discrimination, or employee benefits. If you are unsure whether an unpaid internship is legal, consult a legal professional. If you are currently enrolled in a post-secondary institution, the career services department will likely be able to assist you here too.

It hurts other prospective interns

Working for free undercuts the rest of the labor market. When enough people are willing to work for nothing, it incentivizes employers to continue offering unpaid positions. Also, since some people may not be able to afford taking unpaid internships, it can limit the opportunities available to the poorest prospective interns.

The verdict

The only time it might be worthwhile to consider an unpaid internship is if you’re really desperate for some relevant work experience, and money won’t be an issue. So perhaps if you’re a freshman in college, and it would be your first internship, it might be beneficial to you, in certain fields. In a hot field like computer science, it really isn’t worth doing an unpaid internship, since there are plenty of work opportunities out there, and worst comes to worst, you can just build your own side-project. In areas like journalism and the arts, unpaid internships are, unfortunately, often the only way to break into the industry, without having connections, and get a shot at a full time job. Still, unpaid internships can carry a lot of risk, and might not provide as good of a learning opportunity as you might expect. So before you decide to take an unpaid internship, think long and hard about whether it’s really necessary, and what it might cost you.

Working for a startup can be a very rewarding experience. Doing an internship at one can offer opportunities for greater responsibility and growth than larger, established companies. Furthermore, you may have the opportunity to work on interesting emerging technologies, and establish yourself in a fast-growing industry. A startup internship can also lead to a full time job later if you get a return offer, and with that might come some equity as well.

Identify companies you’re actually interested in

Start by thinking about what kind of company you’d be interested in working for. Are you interested in machine learning? How about VR? What about the company’s mission? Maybe you want to help humanity become an interplanetary species. Whatever it is, do some research into the different players in the field and what they’re working on. It helps to be interested in what the company does so that when you talk to startups, your passion and understanding of their business comes across to them.

To add to this, make sure you do some background research on any company you want to apply to in order to understand what they do and the state of the business. This will not only help you figure out if it’s a place you’d like to work, but when reaching out to current employees, or in an interview, you can show off your knowledge about that specific company, which always looks good on you. If you aren’t sure about a particular company, or want more information, try reaching out to current or previous interns on LinkedIn and asking them about their experience. Sometimes, you’ll even be able to get a referral by doing this.

You can find interesting startups that are hiring by browsing job listings on sites like:

• Angel.co
• Built In
• LinkedIn
• Internships.com

As well as regular job sites like Indeed and Glassdoor.

To find smaller local companies, you can also check out startup incubator programs in your area. Sometimes these are run or sponsored by a university or the city. You can also browse the websites of venture capital firms, who sometimes maintain lists of job openings at their portfolio companies.

Develop useful, applicable skills

Startups, by nature, are more strapped for resources than larger, more mature companies. Thus, they don’t have time to spend on interns that can’t produce value for the company. Make sure that you have something you can offer prospective employers. Furthermore, it’s good to have some way to show off your skills, whether that’s previous work experience, or side projects you worked on. Also, joining a related club at your school, or taking an online course, can help you differentiate yourself from other candidates. If you don’t have applicable skills for the jobs you’re applying for, you will have a much more difficult time landing a position. In this situation, your best bet is probably to rely on your network.

For aspiring software engineers, try looking at startup job postings to see what technologies companies are hiring for. Check out what the most in demand skills are in the field you’re interested in and start learning those to get an edge. You don’t have to be familiar with everything or even be a master of anything, as long as you can more or less hit the ground running and start working on tasks relatively quickly. Also, startups typically don’t do the same kind of technical interviews with leetcode questions that big companies like Google do. They usually will be more interested in projects you worked on, and are more likely to give you a take home project to judge your aptitude.

Apply

Oftentimes, smaller startups won’t be hiring interns at all (officially anyways). If they are hiring, submit an application online to their job posting. If you know someone who works for the company, reach out and let them know. They may be able to bring your application to the top of the pile. If the company hasn’t posted any intern jobs, don’t despair. There will often be a way specified on their careers page to apply generally, even if there’s no position available for you. If there isn’t an obvious way to do this, then try reaching out directly to a current employee, or the founders themselves.

Look on LinkedIn for employees, and find someone who works in the kind of role you’re hoping to have, preferably a manager. If the company is under 10 people, it’s usually worth contacting the founders directly. Let them know that you’re very interested in their company, and summarize how you and your skills fit their company and will help them achieve their mission. Hopefully, this will lead to an interview, but if it doesn’t, don’t sweat it. There are plenty of interesting startups in the world.

A note on unpaid internships

There’s no shortage of unpaid internship opportunities being offered by startups trying to get some temporary free labour. While this seems like an easy way to get your foot in the door and gain real world experience, there are hidden dangers to this strategy.

Firstly, if you have living expenses to take care of, and/or relocation expenses to move to another city for the job, it could end up costing you thousands of dollars out of pocket. Second, if a company cannot afford to pay you for a few months as an intern, their finances might be in very poor shape. Do you want to take the risk of accepting an internship at a startup that might go bust before or during your internship? Third, if they aren’t paying you for your time, they likely don’t expect to get enough value from you to make a return on their investment. Companies that pay their interns have an incentive to give you more important tasks that will help them in a meaningful way. Companies that don’t may be more willing to give menial tasks or even busywork because they don’t have to use your talents efficiently. Conversely, because they don’t have to pay you for your time, some companies might be happy to exploit you, because if you’ve valued your time as zero, they might see it the same way. Also, they won’t have to pay you overtime.

In most jurisdictions, unpaid internships are legal as long as they meet certain conditions, although this is not always true. Make sure you do the research for your area to make sure you and your employer are following the law. Generally, it is not advisable to take an unpaid internship. There are a lot of risks involved and it undercuts the rest of the labor market. The only time it might be a good option for you is if you’re extremely desperate to get some work experience, and money isn’t a problem for you.

So, you’ve managed to land an internship at a company you like, and now you want to keep the good times rolling. The good news is, most companies actually want to give return offers to their interns; it’s a lot cheaper and carries less risk for them to hire someone that’s already proven themselves than search for a new candidate. With this in mind, all you have to do is show them that they didn’t make a mistake in hiring you, and that you’re someone your coworkers would want to work with.

Take it seriously

It’s a job, like any other. This one seems like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to get caught up in the incredible perks that a lot of tech companies offer, and forget that it’s not a summer camp. So if you’re coming in at noon everyday, taking a 2 hour lunch with other interns, and showing up late to meetings, you’re almost certainly not getting a return offer. Be mature and responsible, and put in the level of effort that would be expected of a full time employee.

Be a solution, not a problem

This one is a bit tricky because there’s a fine line between being too stubborn to ask for help, and pestering your manager and teammates for every problem. Obviously, if there’s something you need access to or a major decision needs to be made, communicate that with your manager. Asking questions is a good thing, unless it can be answered by a quick search on Google.

Don’t be afraid to volunteer for more responsibility, as long as it won’t prevent you from meeting your current obligations. Exceeding expectations will only help you, and make you a more valuable member of the team. Don’t try to get your coworkers to do your work for you; you want to be known as someone who gets things done, not someone who needs their hand held for everything.

When your teammates need help with something, unless you have a more urgent problem to tackle, take some time to help them out. Unblocking your teammates helps improve the overall productivity of the team, and shows that you’re a team player. Your manager will notice you doing this, whether they see it happen, or hear about it later, and it will reflect well on you.

Keep your friends close, but your manager closer

The single most important relationship you have at your job is with your direct manager. Although developing relationships with other coworkers can also be important in developing your network, at the end of the day, your manager is the person who decides whether you get to come back or not.

One mistake a lot of interns make is that they’re almost afraid of talking to their manager, and are a lot more comfortable communicating with fellow interns or team members. This is understandable, but communication is key in relationships, and you need to make sure your manager always knows what’s going on. Don’t be afraid to voice your opinions, or (respectfully) push back on ideas if you see a better way to do things. If you have a good manager, they’ll appreciate you letting them know, because it will help them do their job better. Additionally, small things like saying “good morning”, and getting to know them as a person, can help a lot in developing rapport.