Since the start of the semester, Bahar Charyyeva ’27 has woken up to an internship rejection email 25 out of 30 days in a month, she said. “I apply to anything even remotely related to my resume,” she said, estimating that she has submitted more than 200 applications this fall.
Charyyeva is not alone. The Herald spoke to multiple Brunonians pursuing careers in tech, who all said internship and job recruiting has become a daily test of endurance. This pressure reflects a broader shift in the industry’s hiring landscape, according to Viktor Gavrielov ’15, the assistant dean of the College for careers in technology and tech ventures.
The field is in a “cautious recovery phase” after a hiring boom from 2021 to 2022 and “a historic wave of layoffs in 2023,” he wrote in an email to The Herald.
“For years, extremely low interest rates allowed companies to invest heavily in growth,” he wrote. But as rates have risen, “expectations shifted dramatically,” leading investors to emphasize profitability and disciplined spending. The result was a slowdown in hiring.
Gavrielov added that “companies are receiving more applications per posting than before, which means they can be more selective.” Applicants are also entering a recruiting landscape that has become increasingly concentrated, with “more roles clustered in major tech hubs” and “more emphasis” on candidates who already have prior experience.
For Lizzy Bazldjoo ’28, a current Herald copy editor, the process of recruiting for computer science internships has been “pretty demoralizing.” In the past month alone, she estimates that she has applied to roughly 50 positions. “I apply every day that I can,” she said.
But Bazldjoo has yet to reach the interview stage for any of her applications — often, she never even receives a response. “It makes me sad and a little bit jealous when I find out that friends have their plans already,” she said. “But the majority of people are pretty stuck as well.”
Bazldjoo believes that securing a computer science internship has become more difficult because of market saturation and the artificial-intelligence boom. “AI makes certain CS jobs that are more entry-level less necessary,” she said.
Charyyeva said that automated resume-screening tools, such as online assessments and AI-based filters, shape early rounds of the hiring process and keep many applications from reaching human reviewers. Of the hundreds of applications she has submitted, Charyyeva ultimately secured technical virtual interviews with nine companies and received three offers.
Charyyeva described the hiring process as a “gambling game,” with application timing often determining whether an applicant is seen at all. She has heard of companies receiving thousands of applications within hours of a position opening.
Kazuya Erdos ’26 said he submits the majority of his applications “within 24 hours of their release.” Like Charyyeva, Erdos believes what separates those who succeed and those who do not is the “timing and volume of applications they put out.”
For those who feel “overwhelmed,” Erdos noted that many students still secure internships late into the spring. “The most important thing I tell people, and I needed to tell myself, is that you are never late,” he said. The recruitment process “is more of a game than it is a skill assessment of the students.”
Alyssa Feinberg ’27, co-president of Women in Computer Science, said she sees frustration and uncertainty among many of the students with whom she works. “There’s definitely a lot of stress and not knowing how to start or how to even get to the next step,” she said. “A lot of people are going in blind.”
Through resume workshops, mock interviews and opportunities to meet industry professionals, WiCS tries to “give an overview of what the recruitment process even looks like,” Feinberg said. The club also emphasizes the importance of alternatives to summer internships, such as research or pursuing personal projects.
Vincent Xu ’27, president of Full Stack at Brown, said that “the most important thing nowadays is building connections.” The club has hosted multiple professional events to help students gain “exposure to different companies” and meet recruiters and alums directly. In the midst of his recruiting process, Xu has submitted roughly 250 applications and has secured about 10 interviews.
The recruiting pressure also casts a shadow over students’ course selection, said Paula Romero ’28, a Meiklejohn peer advisor and teaching assistant for CSCI 0150: “Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Computer Science.” Romero said many younger students feel a pressure to skip over introductory courses “to be able to put (more difficult) stuff on their resume.”
Recruitment also impacted Feinberg’s academic decisions. “I intentionally took a pretty light course load this semester to prioritize recruiting,” she said.
Despite the competition, many Brown students still secure roles each year, Gavrielov wrote. The difference is that, now, internship paths require “more relationship-building” and referrals, which have become “especially important as a filtering mechanism,” he explained.
Still, the difficulty of the recruiting process has prompted students to reflect on their motivations. Bazldjoo said she has temporarily paused her search and is focusing more on literary arts, which she is studying alongside CS.
“The best thing I’ve been doing for myself has been turning my attention elsewhere,” she said. “If nothing is hireable, I might as well do what I love.”
Romero, who is interested in product design, said the competitiveness of software engineering roles has influenced her choices. “I don’t really feel passionate enough about it to go through the whole recruiting process,” she said.
Charyyeva tries to remember that her value “is not dependent on those rejection emails.” Instead, she focuses on progress: “I try not to compare myself with others and instead compare myself with yesterday’s me,” she said.
“Early careers in tech unfold over many steps, not one decisive moment,” Gavrielov wrote. He encourages students to “think more intentionally about relationships” and to “explore a wider set of organizations where they can thrive.”
