First role · tier list
Landing your first engineering role
Ranked by how much each one actually changes the outcome, based on what gets people hired rather than what gets repeated on careers pages.
What is on it
- One finished thing with real users
- A referral from someone who has seen you work
- Being able to explain a decision you got wrong
- Reading the codebase before the interview
- Writing clearly in the take-home README
- A public record of you learning in the open
- Knowing the company's actual product
- Answering the question asked, not the one rehearsed
- A tidy, boring, scannable CV
- Applying early in the posting's life
- A portfolio of eleven unfinished side projects
- Certificates from courses you did not apply
- A cover letter written by a model, unedited
- Leetcode grinding past the level the job needs
- Waiting until you feel ready
Take it with you
Free, no sign-up. Print it, or send it to whoever is about to make the decision.
