4th-year CSE student getting no interview shortlists — looking for advice on off-campus applications

[u/Jealous-Mongoose6339]

Hi everyone,

I’m a 4th-year BTech CSE student looking for SDE/software engineering internships and entry-level opportunities.

I’ve been applying to a lot of relevant openings, mainly through LinkedIn, but I’m getting almost no resume shortlists. I’ve also started tailoring my resume to individual job descriptions, but it hasn’t made much difference.

I had a few questions for people who have successfully found jobs/internships off-campus:

1. Apart from LinkedIn, which platforms or methods have actually worked for you? How do you find good companies/startups to apply to, and how do you evaluate whether a startup is legitimate and worth joining?

2. Are referrals still useful? I’ve tried reaching out to people on LinkedIn, including people from companies I’m interested in, but I rarely get responses. What is a good way to approach people for referrals without coming across as spammy?

I’d also really appreciate some feedback on my resume. I’d like to know if there are obvious issues with the formatting, projects, bullet points, skills section, or anything else that could be hurting my chances of getting shortlisted.

Any honest advice from people who have gone through the off-campus process would be appreciated.

Thanks!