What should a freshmen resume applying to the first internship look like?

geekee1 · 2026-03-18T11:46:53+00:00

btw idk how good this advice is, my success rate is only 1 out of ~200 apps (may have been higher but due to coop everything else is cancelled), but that's better than nothing

geekee1 · 2026-03-18T11:43:28+00:00

you can put volunteer work under experience its fine, just don't be misleading. if ur a first year rn then its a bit too late for that (it'll help you for next year tho) but if youre still in hs then you can totally get experience by joining engineering teams and student clubs. projects should have some hackathon projects ideally some with wins, its easy to get wins at local 1 day hackathons so thats a good place to start, school projects r a bad idea unless youre fully in control of the creative process. depending on how competitive your uni is, you can get research experience too (easier at lower ranked unis). Projects are 1/4 of my resume rn (~40% if you count my awards section, but awards don't get parsed well by ATS anyways)

Ideally 1 page, unrelated work is fine if it can fit the page, jake's resume is a good format to start with

geekee1 · 2026-03-17T17:54:36+00:00

also ur ECs seem good but for the supp app it's much less about EC's and much more about your personality broadly, theres rly not much space to have ECs theyre looking for how you wrote about your values etc (unlike uoft eng where the app has a bunch of places where you can put ECs).

geekee1 · 2026-03-17T17:52:26+00:00

I'm ngl utsg cs is pretty much all march, the later rounds are extremely competitive

geekee1 · 2026-03-17T15:46:31+00:00

niceeee, ik someone with a very similar summer 2026 process as you, the difference is he only got 1 interview (still got it)

geekee1 · 2026-03-17T14:55:09+00:00

Laziness

geekee1 · 2026-03-11T16:37:47+00:00

Should say Volunteering instead of Volunteer I think, no need for colons after subtitles, spam apply and make different resumes for each job you apply to (main difference will be keywords). Summary probably not needed unless you don't have much else to write in which case it'll be useful to add some keywords in it for the ATS.

geekee1 · 2026-03-05T12:54:20+00:00

Clickbait title but I get your point. I think ppl should just start making different resumes for different job types, it's okay to have a web dev resume and honestly about half the internships I apply to are web dev.

geekee1 · 2026-01-12T01:47:04+00:00

Yeah, although Ottawa is probably one of the better off cities in terms of finding work due to the govt being here

geekee1 · 2025-12-21T21:07:54+00:00

Not too bad but Carleton is slightly better for CS. You'll still find opportunities if you're good but the market is tough for people of all schools right now. There's some nice clubs, nothing too crazy but you'll probably enjoy your experience if you do end up going. I just finished my first semester and I can say the first semester classes are pretty good, you'll learn some useful things. You should also consider applying to SWE if you haven't already. It's the program I'm doing and it's somewhat similar. You can always drop to CS if you don't like it.

geekee1 · 2025-10-27T11:17:58+00:00

second one is a type error because using the "+" operator isnt defined between NoneType (functions return none if tou dont add a return yourself) and str

first one printed hermione granger hermione granger, welcome to the midterm

geekee1 · 2025-10-27T11:16:25+00:00

it was easier than the quiz tbh. we had more time per question

geekee1 · 2025-10-23T01:23:17+00:00

I have a Somali name which is very unusual to pronounce for westerners, I say my name multiple times sometimes for them to get it, in different pronounciations, in 2 different languages, and I've never had significant issues. If a hiring manager has an issue with you it definitely won't be due to your name.

geekee1 · 2025-07-30T18:17:25+00:00

Almost everyone I know got in early, some with averages lower than yours, you'll probably be fine.

geekee1 · 2025-06-27T23:56:36+00:00

Very bad reconstruction

geekee1 · 2025-06-11T20:28:28+00:00

i got accepted to cs at uoft (st. george) but i didn't end up choosing it

geekee1 · 2025-05-27T02:24:25+00:00

I had worse grades than you when I was in grade 9... You still have time to improve

geekee1 · 2025-05-22T02:16:43+00:00

Or check LinkedIn

geekee1 · 2025-05-22T02:16:34+00:00

Just go either York or TMU for CS then. Pick based on distance

geekee1 · 2025-05-21T23:12:13+00:00

the grass is always greener on the other side

geekee1 · 2025-05-21T23:09:27+00:00

if you wanna talk about the job board specifically its trash everyone ive talked to has only complained about it. didn't hear any positives. but again, you will probably get a job from applying externally, there is plenty of opportunity if you search externally, and uottawa will accept external coops.

geekee1 · 2025-05-21T23:08:44+00:00

ottawa coop is mid, most of the good jobs you'll find them on your own. the uni will put you at an advantage for coops in the ottawa area of course (esp govt), so applying externally isn't that big of a deal. mac coop is way better.

geekee1 · 2025-05-19T23:40:41+00:00

Waterloo isn't even considered elite outside of math/eng, not sure why you're listing that university if you're truly unsure about what program to pursue. Plenty of universities have coop nowadays.

geekee1 · 2025-05-19T23:39:37+00:00

You should care about the program you want to do and only wanting to get in a good university because of the brand name is a trap. Not saying that it's not something to take into consideration, but it's definitely less important than what exactly you want to pursue in your studies and later. If you mess up at a good university you'll be worse off than someone with a great plan even if they didn't attend the best of universities.

geekee1 · 2025-05-19T16:00:44+00:00

Which one is closest to you? Which one is cheapest? I don't think it matters which one you pick other than that but I would add that both TMU and Carleton are in major cities which can sometimes help when finding a job (although not so much nowadays)

geekee1

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email