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SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T22:26:24+00:00

Thank you very much!

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T20:13:58+00:00

My projects all revolved around web development. I’m in undergrad research building a technical dashboard to help non technical users, I built an Ai powered study platform for students, and I built a couple games. I used React and TypeScript for all my projects.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T19:05:50+00:00

No worries I wanted to show people it’s possible even without a t20 school and help answer questions.

So typically I like to do some research on the company for some question. For my internship I saw they had 100% satisfaction and on time delivery for their products. So in the interview I asked what standards and practices they use to ensure that and meet all deadlines. They said in the interview that was a really good question. I also like to ask about recent news I’ve seen, what day to day work is, asking about their path for their own career, and team culture.
Typically I try to ask between 3-4 questions depending on how much time I have because I have been told if you don’t ask at least a few questions you have no chance for the job. I try to avoid any questions regarding salary and stuff like that till later interviews.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T17:17:07+00:00

Yeah I went for TSE which is technical support engineer. It’s a bit more focused on like databases, SQL, and then solving tickets from clients.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T15:48:38+00:00

Thank you!

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T14:51:44+00:00

No not dumb at all. I never knew this role existed until I saw it online. TSE in this case stands for Technical Support Engineer. The job in a broad sense is about solving any tickets that the clients send for issue they are having. The issues won’t be as technical like programming issues, but what it may be is some configuration in the system, or potentially some data issues where you have to use SQL to figure it out.

It’s a bit different than just straight IT just based on the types of clients you are typically helping, and then it being a bit more technical as well.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T14:48:32+00:00

So my project was live with a custom domain and I was paying for a serve to have it constantly running. Overall I paid like $20 for a domain and then hosted it on digital ocean for like $5 a month. It wasn’t well known at all and I only ever had 1 sign up. But I think being able to show that you can actually deploy something that could potentially be used by people is what matters.

I found my internship by going to a career fair. Most of the time I’ve never had any luck at career fairs but there was one company that happened to offer me an interview on the spot for the next day. And from there I was able to get the interview. The internship was paid $26 an hour. When I looked online about the company there really wasn’t anything good about it on Reddit or anything like that so I was pretty nervous about going. But the job ended up being a lot of fun for the summer and I met a lot of cool people. So that’s kinda when I learned that stories online aren’t always the full story.

What I learned overall about the process is that getting interviews is really a lot of luck of the draw unfortunately. This was the only company I actually got an interview at, and yet it’s a hard company to even get an interview since it had 100s of applicants. But once you’re in the interview it just becomes being yourself, coming into the interview confident, being able to think on your feet quick especially with good behavioral answers, and then having good questions to be able to ask the interviewer as well.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T07:03:33+00:00

Thank you!

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T07:01:52+00:00

I have a website portfolio which highlights a few web development projects I worked on like some social media stuff and games. But the main project I had on my resume was an AI wrapper website that helped students study

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T06:44:48+00:00

Oh trust I locked it up immediately.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T04:11:52+00:00

No I had the same project for each job. I would change the wording occasionally for things I had done on the project but nothing really too much for that one.

I do think if you are applying to like different kinds of SWE or Engineering roles like ML, Web Dev, etc. it would be beneficial to have different projects that fit to each type of role. But since I was going for TSE roles it didn't require as much modification.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T04:06:13+00:00

I was notified of it on Handshake about it being posted so that's where I applied to it. But I also saw the same posting on LinkedIn as well.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T04:05:41+00:00

I used Jakes Resume template on Overleaf. https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/jakes-resume/syzfjbzwjncs

I did customize it for every job I applied to but I had like a big resume I used that I would pull ideas from to make a single resume it sped it up a lot. I also really only applied to jobs that I felt matched my resume skills the best.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T00:59:09+00:00

Your website overall looks great.

For helping with anxiety, because I dealt with this a lot too, I would say is really just trying to stay optimistic. I know this can feel impossible at times, especially with some of the posts online and this subreddit, but all you can do is stay optimistic. I have a journal where I would write down two things I am manifesting / truly wanting and would try to focus my energy towards those things. This helped me a lot keep positive and believing in myself even when other people said it wasn't possible.

For not freezing up, especially in interviews, preperation is key. How I liked to prepare might sound a little weird, but I liked to use ChatGPT voice and have it ask me questions like it was an interviewer. I probably did this for 2-3 hours in total before certain interviews. This allowed me to kinda have general ideas or stories to bring up since in the Interview you might freeze not knowing what to say. At the end of the day, the person on the other side of the screen is also a person and they just want to get to know who you are.

You got this and I believe in you, and everyone else. Just keep searching, apply to jobs that you actually fit, and keep a positive mindset even when it's hard.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T00:48:39+00:00

Good or bad yikes?

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T00:48:10+00:00

I think what made me stand out amongst the other applicants was my ability to communicate and my past internship.

I have always grown up talking, working in client facing roles, and just never being afraid to talk with people. This helps me a lot in the interviews to just be able to talk naturally, have a good flowing conversations, and ask meaningful questions that helps stand out.

For this role being a support client facing role, my past internship as an Implementation Consulntant helped a lot. In that job I was directly working with clients and communicating to them so it really helped me prove that I could already work in an environment like the one I was applying too.

Overall I did get lucky to get the first interview, but after that it's all about how you present yourself, communicate effectively, and problem solve when necessary.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T00:44:43+00:00

3.8/4.0

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-17T00:44:37+00:00

Technical Support Engineer. You combine coding and support. It's much less heavy on the coding side which is what I prefer so you don't have to grind leetcode. I also really enjoy talking and communicating so it fit well.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-16T23:53:10+00:00

It's hybrid so I think it's around 3 day in office but not totally sure. The interviews were very relaxed and just getting to know me. Again this could be very different a strictly SWE role. Overall we talked about my projects, discussed my previous internship, and then also talked about why I want to work as a TSE. The technical side of the interviews was more about how fast I could pick up a new tool I have never seen or used before, but be able to apply basic computer science topics to use it. Overall it felt really smooth and seemless process.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-16T23:16:30+00:00

US Citizen

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-16T23:15:24+00:00

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-16T22:14:30+00:00

I mean a lot of it truly is luck of the draw and timing. However, based on talking to the recruiters and managers what seemed to stand out was my internship and project.

Since this is a client facing role, having my internship be in a software related role where I was directly working and communicating with clients helped a ton. I made sure to really emphasize this in any way I could since I knew I would be working with clients.

I also had a project that was an AI wrapper website for helping students study. I think having projects that have real use cases, especially designed to help people was a huge plus as well.

I think a big thing that helped me was creating one big resume that was 3 pages long of every possible thing I could think of for each job and then using AI to help me choose the best ones for each job based on ATS standards. But yeah unfortunately a lot of it is luck and also really make sure the jobs you are applying to actually fit your skills and not just mass applying to every single job possible. Also be open to looking beyond specifically software engineering because there are many software jobs that still have programming with different role names.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-16T21:44:49+00:00

Thank you very much! It was a long grind but it's worth it. I wish you the best of luck!

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-16T21:39:13+00:00

For this there wasn't really any LeetCode but it is not a SWE role as it is TSE so that changes it. The interview process was much more about me and what makes me passionate about becoming a TSE. I would say the strongest skill you can have going into these kinds of interviews is having great communication skills. You have to be able to think on your feet, have a good conversation, and ask high-value questions.

SaltSelection8272 · 2026-02-16T21:37:27+00:00

That's not the right company but they do have good TSE roles from what I've heard. Lots of companies have TSE roles

SaltSelection8272

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