In my first year of MCA, I was relaxed about placements.
"It will happen someday. Don't worry."
Then second year started. Teachers began talking about preparation, eligibility and competition, and my calm disappeared.
This is the honest story of what I did after that, including the parts that didn't work.
What I Noticed About Getting Hired
I'm not claiming I found a formula. A lot of it is luck, and a lot depends on whether your college brings companies at all.
But I noticed one thing about the part I could control.
Companies look at what you can show them:
- Are you actively building things?
- Are you learning something new out of curiosity, not just for marks?
- Do your projects have features nobody asked you to add?
- Is there a place online where your work is visible?
You don't need to do a huge amount. But you do have to show up somewhere.
The Teacher Who Said "Something More"
One of my teachers told me my GitHub and LinkedIn were going well, but there should be something more to my personality.
I'm not into sports, and starting one just for a resume line didn't feel right. So I asked myself what I could do that fit my career path and was also mine.
That's how I started writing here on DEV.to in May.
I never planned for the blog to be the main thing on my resume. I just wanted whoever looked at my profile to see more than a list of technologies. I had also met students who were great speakers but weaker in technical skills, and I didn't want to be the opposite. I wanted the full picture to be visible.
What My Preparation Actually Looked Like
Blogging. Every time I learned or noticed something, I wrote it in my notes. Some of those notes became posts.
GitHub. I planned projects on purpose. One in React. One in Spring Boot. One that connects the two. Then a PHP one. I also wanted to leave projects with decent UIs on GitHub, because as a student I had cloned projects that worked but looked terrible, and fixing the UI took longer than learning from the code.
LinkedIn. I added certificates I had actually completed and could talk about, like AWS and HackerRank. I never treated them as proof of anything on their own. They were only a record of what I'd learned.
Direction. Coding wasn't where I felt strongest. Automation pulled me more, so I spent more time learning that side.
Resumes. I made a new version for each application, tailored to the role. I used AI tools to plan project ideas and to find the keywords a role asked for. Then I checked that every line on the resume was something I could explain in an interview.
The Part Nobody Posts: Four Things Fell Through
Four opportunities didn't work out.
- A big company's later rounds. I got further, then the hiring for that position stopped.
- A youth internship program. I was moving ahead, then the program didn't run that year.
- A government internship. I applied every month for months. When they finally called, I was in a lecture, my phone vibrated and cut the call, and when I called back the person who wanted to talk to me wasn't available. They never called again.
- A campus drive. I cleared the final round and thought it was done. Then the agreement between the company and my college didn't go through, and the selection ended there.
Each time I thought my life was on track, and each time it wasn't.
I'm sharing this because LinkedIn only shows the wins. Almost everyone who got an offer has a list like this behind it.
The Fifth Opportunity
In July, my department head said a company was coming to campus, and that companies arriving later usually offer smaller packages. That sentence made me nervous.
I went home and read everything I could about the company: what it builds, which clients it works with, what role it was hiring for. I tailored my resume to the role without exaggerating anything, because the company had said it wanted genuine students.
One application form said not to use AI to answer it. I followed that. I gave honest answers, even though I noticed a spelling mistake later.
Then came the interviews, and then a week of silence. I didn't sleep well that week. Every notification made me think I'd been rejected.
Then I was told I had made the final interview.
The Final Interview
Their first real question was what I knew about their company.
I had read about it that same day, so I explained it in detail, including their clients. The interviewer wanted to check that I wasn't reading from somewhere, so they asked me to share my screen and explain again. I did.
Then came a few high-level technical questions about live projects. I had never worked on one, and I told them so. I could answer about half of what they asked. I walked out disappointed.
The next interviewer was someone else from the company, and that was the best interview of my life. It felt like a conversation, not a test. He wasn't trying to catch me out. He wanted to understand how I think.
That night I waited. I couldn't eat or sleep properly.
My mother had told me before the interview, "Even if you don't get it, we won't blame you. Many companies will come." I told her I had worked hard for this one.
The next night the message came. I had been selected.
I woke my brother and told him. I called my father. Teachers I hadn't expected to hear from sent congratulations.
What I'd Tell Someone Starting Now
- Don't wait for placement season to start building. Do something small and visible early.
- Pick two or three places to show your work, and keep them honest.
- Add only certificates and skills you can talk about.
- Research the company properly before every application.
- If a form says not to use AI, don't.
- If you're asked something you don't know, say so. My best interview came right after my weakest answer.
- Expect rejections. They don't mean you're not good.
Final Thought
It took four setbacks and a lot of sleepless nights, and the fifth opportunity worked.
I'm still a student and I'm still learning. But if you're in the middle of your own rejections right now, keep showing up and keep building. Be honest about what you know and what you don't.
Something will come. 😊
What was your hardest rejection, and what did you do next?
Drop it below 👇
Top comments (10)
The list of four that fell through is the most useful part of this whole post, because almost none of them were about you — a hiring freeze, a program that did not run, a phone cutting out mid-lecture, a college-company agreement falling apart. I have a list like that too, and the lesson I took from mine matches yours: the rejections that were not verdicts still felt exactly like verdicts at the time. The part I would underline is your rule about only claiming what you can explain in an interview — I have watched a tailored resume fall apart in the first five minutes when a line on it turned out to be borrowed rather than lived. Which of the four still stings most when you think back, and which lesson from it do you now give first to someone starting out?
Thanks, Robert. The government internship still stings the most. I applied every month for months, and when they finally called, my phone cut out in a lecture and they never called back.
The lesson I'd give first is to start showing your work before you need it. Something small and visible, long before placement season.
Which of yours still stings the most?
That phone cutting out at the exact moment is brutal, and showing the work early is the part that would actually travel.
The list of four that fell through is the most useful part of this whole post. Notice that almost none of them were about you. Hiring stopped, a program didn't run, a phone cut out in a lecture, an agreement between the company and the college fell apart. Your brain still files every one of those as "I failed," because that's what the alarm does when something you wanted doesn't happen. But the actual data says you kept getting further each time. And the thing that made the fifth one different wasn't a new personality. It was you letting more of who you already are show, through the blog, the projects, the tailored resume you could explain line by line. Congrats on landing it, and thanks for posting the part nobody posts.
Thank you, Christopher. Seeing "I kept getting further each time" written out helped. At the time it only felt like four failures.
That's totally normal. In the moment your brain only shows you the miss, because that's its job. Looking back is when the real pattern shows up. Next time something falls through, try writing down how far you got that time before you let yourself call it a failure. It makes the progress way easier to see while it's happening.
That's a good habit, Christopher. I'll try writing down how far I got each time. Thanks.
That list of four is the part most people never post, and it is the most useful part. A hiring freeze, a program that did not run, a call cut off mid-lecture, an agreement falling apart. None of those were a verdict on your ability, but they all feel like one at the time.
The rule you landed on is the one I would steal for anyone job hunting: only claim what you can explain line by line. That is what made the fifth one different, not a new personality. You researched the company the same day, tailored without exaggerating, and said plainly that you had never worked on a live project. Honesty like that reads as competence in an interview, not weakness.
I see the same thing on the IT and security side. No IT certification is needed to start; what moves someone forward is proof they can handle real work, graded the way a real team would grade it, with a verifiable work record behind it. That is exactly what the simulated shifts at getonthejob.com are built around: real tickets and incidents, graded like a real team, so your work speaks for itself when you apply.
Congrats on landing it, and thanks for posting the part nobody posts. If IT is ever a direction you explore, the free shifts are a good way to feel what graded work looks like.
Thanks for reading and for the kind words.
You are welcome, and good luck in the role. The lesson you gave in your other replies is the one I will remember: start showing your work before you need it, so placement season is not the first time anyone sees what you can do. That is a habit that keeps paying, whatever direction you go next.