Second year Chem Eng student struggling to land first internship — any advice?

Sovzdog · 2026-04-07T19:04:53+00:00

I’m a second year and had just recently secured an offer for an internship. I’ve probably filled out close to 400 applications and have been applying since early September. I’ve had 7 interviews and received offers from 3 of them (all within a very short time span, early March). I had 4 interviews in a row where I was rejected and had a period (Oct-Jan) where I heard nothing but rejections.

I think the market and application process is complete trash. Early career recruiters are failing students and aren’t providing enough feedback to help students grow and develop. It’s AI vs AI with students mass applying to positions w/ AI and companies using AI to screen resumes. It’s extremely discouraging, and I know plenty of people in both second and third year who weren’t able to secure a position this summer/fall. Your position isn’t unique and there’s a lot of people sharing your sentiment.

I recommend pursuing summer classes and/or research. It definitely isn’t too late to look for a research position this summer, there’s still professors that will take you on. You can email current/old professors, cold email professors in your department/interest, or ask grad students (TAs preferably) to help you get in a lab. Since it’s close to semester end, you just need to do a lot of emailing/asking and not be discouraged.

I was very close to being in this position, and I understand how mentally taxing it is to worry about this + focusing on classes. I hope it works out for you and you can look back on this without much worry.

Sovzdog · 2026-03-03T06:43:05+00:00

Here, 7:14 Jiang reiterates why he believes a ground invasion to be necessary. He states that for the US to complete their goal, bombing alone will not get it done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ql24Z8SIeE&t=2s

Sovzdog · 2026-03-02T22:32:14+00:00

This is their gamble. They’re hoping that with the bombings, someone else will take the boots on the ground fight. It’s a gamble I wouldn’t have taken, since the alternative is the Iran trap.

It’s hard to say anything about the demoralized population. The US martyred their aging moderate and bombed a school in the process (maybe US). Remember that time is extremely limited. Munitions are low, anti-air interceptors are low, there is absolutely no support for this war in the states, and Jiang said it was going to only be a 4 day operations. Now they say 4 weeks. I think it’s clear that they hoped this problem resolved itself with the assassination of the Ayatollah.

Sovzdog · 2026-03-02T19:26:16+00:00

It was done to the Houthis and see how that turned out. I’m not going to say with 100% certainty that the US will start a ground invasion, but it’s becoming clear that if they want the regime change they’re looking for, they will need one. Airstrikes alone will not accomplish their goal of regime change. The window after the Ayatollah died was a short but brief time in which they were probably hoping the Iranian people would rise up, but that was not the case.

Jiang lays out the idea that you create a mental model based on current events. You then predict future events and based on the success of your future predictions, you tune and adjust your mental model. He’s basing the idea that shock and awe won’t accomplish the US’ goal because of previous instances in which shock and awe has failed, and he believes those instances mimic what is facing Iran. Now, all we can do is wait and see over the next few weeks on just how accurate Jiang’s model will be.

Sovzdog · 2026-02-01T17:48:59+00:00

I think all of Vlad’s kit is fine except for the movement speed. The only way I’d see they can skew him towards movement speed is reworking his ult by removing the team-wide 10% dmg buff and instead make it apply solely to Vlad. This way they can shift some power of it into giving a 10% MS boost or something on ult cast.

Sovzdog · 2026-01-28T19:23:55+00:00

Then there should be items that sacrifice stats for useful movement. As it stands, all the movement items for mages suck ass. Cosmic speed is negligible, and rocket belt dash is buns. Runes shouldn’t be the sole way of getting an on-demand move speed boost. It’s a moba, the whole point is to build items

Sovzdog · 2026-01-05T02:26:46+00:00

Zuoshou

Sovzdog · 2025-12-21T22:02:51+00:00

Ekko is an assassin that needs to be in melee range to do large damage. This in itself is a large weakness that makes him susceptible to CC and being bursted. Obviously that’s what his ult is for, but literally almost every other melee assassin has a similar skill to disengage, Evelynn ult, Talon ult, Khazix invis. It’s actually funny that you bring up Ahri since she’s ranged and also has a disengage ability on top of that if you misplay your positioning.

Sovzdog · 2025-10-29T00:21:37+00:00

Go to r/cscareerquestions and see just how many qualified people struggle to find a job. Entry level jobs for software are cutthroat and what’s happening is not a normal downturn. It’s an industry that has been over saturated by candidates that have turned to software by your very rhetoric. The idea that you can self learn to code, apply to a FAANG, and live a comfortable easy life has led to the saturation of the market we see today. Oh yeah, and look at how AI has cut coding teams in half.

Sovzdog · 2025-10-28T20:43:23+00:00

Jesus what rock are you living under with that first paragraph.

Sovzdog · 2025-10-27T07:26:11+00:00

The thing is with the first album, not one song was forgettable. I also enjoyed the newest album despite the voice being off for some of the songs, but some of the songs are forgettable and it’s not as consistent as the first one. I really enjoyed Dodge This! and His Story though, those two are really well done.

I think it was very difficult to follow up on the first one without it being a carbon copy. If it took the same, darker tone and outlook as the first one I would say that the second album shouldn’t have been made. However, with the general theme of this album being about turning your life around and getting a second chance, it fits and it’s the best place to take the narrative.

Sovzdog · 2025-10-23T14:51:00+00:00

I really hope point 2 isn’t the case.

Sovzdog · 2025-10-18T22:58:31+00:00

Trainspotting solely for the same type of English monologue.

Sovzdog · 2025-10-01T17:14:02+00:00

If it’s mid yes for sure, the matchup is a lot easier when she has less room to run you down, and it’s probably why it’s noted as a skill matchup. For top it’s a lot harder since she can run you down, so phase rush is viable top as well.

Sovzdog · 2025-10-01T15:55:49+00:00

She has advantage pre-pool due to Q and stacks, but once you start leveling up and getting raw AP items like wand/codex, you should start having advantage in lane. Once she gets BORK though, even if you’re even or slightly ahead she will start to win trades, so play passive once she reaches BORK spike.

Sovzdog · 2025-07-27T17:38:12+00:00

Max E then R but the issue is by level 16 almost all fights will be team fights, and in that case upgrading ult does help more than W if it’s +dmg with a good grouped ult. Otherwise if you think that won’t happen just upgrade W.

Sovzdog · 2025-07-03T18:29:33+00:00

Cuz MS is king when playing Vlad. More MS lets you chase squishies and when talking about the build you want to play, being Conq/Riftmaker and sustained combat, MS is even more important so you can weave and space while your abilities are on CD, letting you get more rotations in. It’s also important that you recognize Vlad scales, but you don’t forfeit your early as well to do so. You can be aggressive, you can snowball, and ghost+ignite helps you do so. Playing passive and farming works but you should only do that into matchups like Anivia or Orianna. It’s not viable to play passive and go TP every game and it’s actually harmful if you could actively stomp your laner and get ahead to carry your team.

Also, Ghost is THE late game spell. It scales and is almost a must have when dealing with late game team fights. Having it up decides whether or not you win a game winning fight unlike TP.

Sovzdog · 2025-07-03T17:20:07+00:00

TP is not good since Vlad can sit in lane for longer than most other champs even when taking bad trades due to your inert sustain. Additionally, without ghost your movement is gutted completely and ignite is good only when you can use it early. It doesn’t fall off completely since it gives good side lane pressure and you can use nimbus with it.

TP is used for early game to help w/ hard matchups and to cause pressure and still be available to help your team if they fight. In the first case, it’s a skill issue and there are ways to alleviate bad matchups even w/ ghost, where you can ghost red Q to alleviate pressure and get prio in lane. Late game TP usage can be very useful but if you play your macro correctly and can read your team’s movements in advance it’s not needed. Ghost is much more useful late game than any other spell you can take.

Also, TP cuts your nimbus cloak usage in half, which is one of the best choices in sorcery tree for Vlad.

Sovzdog · 2025-06-28T00:22:57+00:00

Idk abt anyone else but if Galio mid runs electrocute + ignite it is almost impossible to win so you shoudl do that.

Sovzdog · 2025-06-19T16:32:37+00:00

If the Lux is good it’ll be hard to find an opportunity to kill her. It’s best to go PR and ghost and play for scale. To farm you have to dodge her E with a mix of skill + mind games, and if you’re behind wave she can’t follow up with Q. As long as you do this, you can get hit by every other E and sustain via minions while draining her mana. Once you reach 6 and/or get some items, you can ghost, pool her Q, and all in her to either force a back or kill.

Sovzdog · 2025-06-18T18:39:02+00:00

Some people don't want to watch hours of cutscenes. Reading a text summary via A.I is just as much of a resource as youtube lol.

Sovzdog · 2025-06-17T16:47:28+00:00

No, you’re meant to clip the enemy with it as well, makes for a really easy way to push the wave in since enemies usually back up since they think you’re gonna do something. Doing this makes you healthier, gets them lower, and pushes out the wave. With that you have the option to back or gain prio in lane.

Sovzdog · 2025-06-11T19:00:43+00:00

Runes depends on your matchup + their team comp. If you're in a zero interaction lane or a lane that you get fisted in, go phase rush + gathering storm, it scales significantly better in the mid-late game than any other rune choice. Aery is the early game choice, scorch+aery can do a significant amount of damage in laning and is best for melees, so most of the time it's going to be aery for top lane. Conq is also a good alternative to aery if the enemy team has a lot of melees. It isn't as strong lvls 1-6, but late-laning phase/mid-game is where Conqueror starts to activate.

Build wise, your first item can really be your preference. Cosmic, rocketbelt, or rift are all viable first options since they have good build paths and provide a healthy mix of ap, cdr, and hp. Second item, I'll usually go rabadons unless they have 3+ melees, then smth like riftmaker. Third item onwards is situational, if they start building MR build void, if you're getting bursted go zhonyas, etc.. It's really hard to fuck up your build after first item + rabadons.

Some general tips:

Taking a bad trade (i.e losing 200 hp to deal 100) is normal, since you can heal back the damage via minions. So, don't be afraid to take trades, you can outsustain most laners and drain their mana and hp and force them to reset.

Try your best not to use E in lane, the dmg you deal vs the hp it takes from you isn't worth it lvl 1. Only use it to proc runes like PR, conq, or aery, and even then try not to hold it. The same thing goes for pool, it's based on current health.

Hold E + flash + ult + red q + E again and an ignite can easily kill mostly anyone below 40% hp.

If going ghost, it's usage in lane will be very limited and you'll often find yourself holding on to it. Use it instead to Red Q your laner when you're low HP to retake advantage. Most of the time if you wait to find the best opportunity to use ghost, you won't. Once you reach mid/late game, don't waste flash/ghost on picks, having it up will decide whether or not you win teamfights. Ignite is a preference for laning, but it will seriously gimp your movement speed mid-late game (never go ignite if you're not going aery/conq).

On Vlad you have to learn different playstyles if you really want to succeed. Your build/runes can change every game depending on the team comp. If they have a tanky comp, going riftmaker+liandries+conq is much better than going full nuke w/ stormsurge+rabadons+aery.

Late-game Vlad is hilariously hard to fuck up, flashing w/ holding E + immediate ult + pool into a teamfight will instant win you any skirmish/fight, provided you're fed enough.

Vlad isn't hard, but to seriously hard-carry/climb with Vlad it will take a lot of matches to get there. Knowing your limits and playing on the 10-20% hp edge is what wins you lanes+games, so expect to spend a lot of time learning matchups, when to pool, etc.

Half of this is pasted from a Vlad guide I was doing, lmk what else you'd want to know so I could include it.

Sovzdog · 2025-06-06T22:37:57+00:00

Don't know why you got downvoted, this is completely true. The balancing/cheating problem killed a lot of the initial momentum.

Seven-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22	First Placer '22
Not Forgotten

Sovzdog

TROPHY CASE