This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lambert Liu, a software engineer. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his employment and academic history.
For most computer science graduates, it’s a no-brainer to work for Big Tech.
Most of my classmates were drawn to Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon because they promised prestige, stability, and a structured career path.
But I found myself falling into a second group of college students, one that actively seeks job opportunities at startups for the steep learning opportunities and potential equity upside if the startup goes public.
I reached that decision after doing internships in both Big Tech and startups.
I did two internships at Google during my sophomore and junior years in college.
When I interned at Google for the first time, I really liked it. But when I went back for a second round, I thought my growth there was plateauing. I didn’t see myself working there in the long term.
At the end of my junior year, I did an internship at Replit, an AI software development startup. That experience was refreshing because I got to lead impactful projects. I realized I wanted to work at a startup, and that led me to my first job at Graphite, an AI code review platform.
Here are the top tips I have if you want to land a job at an AI startup.
Big Tech experience helps
If you are like me and want to give startups a shot after interning only at Big Tech, don’t worry. You don’t need past internship experiences at startups to work at one.
Interning at a Big Tech company helps demonstrate to employers that you have a strong overall technical foundation. You will know how to do great technical design and great testing. Your stint with Big Tech tells recruiters that you are capable of writing clean code and shipping reliably.
It’s good to have startup experience because you will be more used to dealing with ambiguity and thinking quickly on your feet. But that can be easily solved by working on your own personal projects, which takes me to my next point.
Build more projects
I personally worked on a lot of passion projects in my downtime when I was not working. Working on those projects not only developed my skills, but it also helped strengthen my approach toward solving problems.
In fact, those projects do not have to be AI-related. You can use AI tools to amplify your productivity as an engineer, but you should not limit yourself to just working on AI projects.
Building AI projects also isn’t a prerequisite to working in an AI startup. They generally look for great engineers, and whether you build projects with AI or not, there are many ways to demonstrate your thinking and technical skills.
LeetCode still matters, but not as much
Solving algorithmic and coding problems on LeetCode, an online learning platform, still matters when you are preparing for technical interviews at startups.
That said, there’s a lot more emphasis on one’s ability to deal with ambiguity and tackle non-technical areas like product thinking. This is especially the case since every engineer can use AI to write code.
Working on your own projects will help you strengthen your problem-solving skills. Having to build something new forces you to develop your perspective and taste for approaching problems, which will help you better handle the interview.
Get good at system design thinking
My job interview at Graphite was the first time I was ever asked about system design. That is not usually asked of new graduates. When it comes to system design, companies assess not only your technical skills but also your approach to problems.
I learned a lot about system design thinking when I took a course on human-computer interaction in college. I learned how to scope problems and then build a technical foundation to solve them. The course also gave me some hands-on experience when I built a project.
Foundational courses like algorithms and data science are important, but going into areas like human-computer interaction will be useful when you start interviewing.
Be a holistic engineer
If you want to excel at a startup, you must strive to be a holistic engineer above all else. You need to work at a fast pace. And on top of that, you have to show that you really care about your users.
You can start doing that now when you are interning. Show your bosses that you really care about your craft and want to make the best possible product.
Take ownership of your work as much as possible. At AI startups like Graphite, we move fast, so we are looking for hires who can cope with that velocity and produce high-quality work.
Do you have a story to share about working at an AI startup? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
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