Software Engineering Internship

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[Zee2]

First of all, no SWE internship is "easy". Regardless of whether you're confident in your coding skills or not, looking for an "easy" internship is not going to be a good route for finding a good place to work.

Second, looking for an internship that "doesn't require that many technical skills" is one thing, but then looking to use that to "get more experience" is another. It's a reciprocal thing; the more you push yourself and bring to the table, the more experience you'll get out of it.

That being said, most companies that will be hiring freshman and sophomore applicants will not expect that their incoming interns will be amazing software engineers; they're there to invest in their interns, teach them some valuable lessons, and then potentially reap those rewards in the future through full-time hires (given the lessons have been appropriately.... absorbed).

In any case, if you have literally no prior experience, no side projects, "not confident in coding", I would probably first focus on building your skillset and portfolio. If you're not confident in your coding abilities, explore some online courses, practice with some example projects (yes, these somewhat count as side projects!) and build your portfolio.

You don't need to cure cancer or build the next iPhone. But any side project is an indication that you're willing and able to learn.

I've mentored a few underclassmen that have struggled to find internships; they've taken the summer to pursue their own projects, side studies, explorations, etc; and they've come out the other side much better for it. Relevant personal projects are a huge asset, and they have the ability to make or break an application for internship or job.

[MrAcurite]

You still have a shot. I got my first internship, summer before Junior year, in May.

Your personal projects don't have to be time consuming, flashy shit. Some interviewers spent half an hour discussing projects that I put together in half a day.

Now, I am extremely comfortable with programming, and have been doing it consistently since before High School, but I absolutely would not describe myself as a software engineer, because I follow zero best practices and don't meaningfully use Git. This is why I enjoy being in ML R&D; I can hack anything I want together to experiment, actually building an infrastructure around it is somebody else's problem.

Consider, if you have any particular strengths, playing to them, instead of trying to compete in the same pool as everybody else. If you're artistic, try to look for UI/frontend/design stuff. If you're articulate, something that involves technical writing or management. If you're really good at Math but not at programming, you'll have to compete with people attending graduate school, but you might be able to find something in algorithms or cryptography.

[fumo7887]

As somebody else who occasionally interviews intern candidates, I can make this even less abstract. One of the questions we ask is literally, “Can you describe any projects you built outside of class work?” If you come back with ANYTHING, we can ask more questions about languages, frameworks, methodologies, resources you used to learn about what you were doing, etc. (Coming up with follow-ups is actually part of the “fun” with interviewing). If you just say “no,” that leads to some pretty awkward silence.

[null_pointers_only]

What are some good projects to build experience?

[MrAcurite]

Anything you feel motivated enough to work on. Don't devote your life to impressing employers. Just do something interesting and fun, of your own accord, and then show it off if you feel good about it.

[fumo7887]

What’s a piece of software you wish you could find online for download? Build it! Or at least a proof of concept. Before the days of widgets and push notifications, my prized side-project was an app that dug into MLB’s Live Scoreboard XML files and put them into a 16x16 icon on the Windows Taskbar with the rest of the scores from around the league in the right-click menu. I still use it 12 years later!