Part of the CS Internship Guide

“… We have decided to move forward with other candidates.”

Sometimes you work really hard, perform great at an interview, and still receive an email stating that the company has decided to move forward with other candidates. In other words, you’ve been rejected. That’s alright.

Rejection is part of the internship search process. Sometimes the company wants a specific skill. Maybe you tripped up by chance during the interview. Or perhaps they had a single spot and took the whiz kid who wrote a machine learning algorithm at the age of 15.

In any case, rejection happens to everyone. At the very least, you got practice handling an interview. If the interviewer doesn’t mention their reason for rejecting you, you can always ask them via email. The recruiter won’t think badly of you, but they won’t necessarily respond.

But as long as you have time, keep looking for interviews and eventually you’ll hit a success. Many freshmen and sophomores don’t get internships, but many others do. Don’t blow off your classes. Knowing the the basics will help in all interviews and jobs. And outside of class, continue to learn more about computer science, get experience with personal projects, and practice interview questions.

If May rolls around and you still don’t have an internship, that’s okay. You can still take summer classes, do research at your university, or work on a cool personal programming project. Or maybe there’s something else equally as awesome.

Whatever your plans may be, I wish you good luck!