How to get into SWE as a new grad · Chai<br>How to get into SWE as a new grad<br>Written 1 day ago<br>This is how I got into the Software Engineering (SWE) industry in 2026 as a newly-grad: and no, I can't do LeetCode to save my life. I am writing this for new graduates or college students who are considering going into SWE: I hope if this is you, it helps you. This is not written by AI.

TLDR:

Do things that don't scale (Cold email, ask for jobs, don't be shy)

Keep trying (be OK with getting experience for lower-than-optimal pay)

Immerse yourself in the world of whatever you're interested in

I will back up why I think these points are important with my own personal experience: in more detail than I think other people cover it.

You can find my resume here for reference. Keep in mind that I am just one datapoint, you should consult many other datapoints. I currently work in a startup in San Francisco with $230k TC. Obviously, this is not a flex but just an overabundance of data: I will share more data in excessive detail.

Do things that don't scale

Paul Graham, a co-founder of Y Combinator, a prestigious startup venture capital firm, said that to be successful, you need to do things that do not scale. In my own words, I take this to mean "do unconventional things." In my summer of junior year, I was unable to secure an internship: I applied to 96 positions. My GPA was 3.6. I heard from a SWE professional that people often apply to 400 positions for their real jobs. A friend who is very successful of mine applied to 4,000. I received only three OAs, and only one interview with a real life person who proceeded to not even show up to the interview at all (Ampure Charging Systems!). This is a 4.2% interview rate. Out of all of those, I did not get to the second round. I was ghosted by 62.5% and rejected by the rest. One summer camp did accept me though: but it was clearly not a SWE job.

During June, when most of my friends already had internships, I started cold emailing out to YC startups via the YC startup directory page. I got a surprising 10-20% reply rate: it is a numbers game so I sent out a lot of emails. You just have to go into their website and, nine times out of ten, their names or Calendly link will be on the website. One company interviewed me twice and rejected me within a week. Another interviewed me for four rounds and I was in San Francisco. The next year, my other cold email was picked up by a Claude Code agent -- the CEO asked Claudius Codus to sift through his emails and find good recruits -- and I was interviewed and given a position at another YC startup.

Competition is often fierce at these startups. A company I worked at had over 400 applicants and just one opening. Some vibe-coded programs which were similar to the company's product just to show during the interviews. Unfortunately none of them were hired: they did not fully understand the interview questions given to them by the company. I'll talk more about interview questions in the next section.

The logic behind this is that startups are very volatile companies: go from initial contact to hire/no-hire decision within two weeks on average (from my experience). I never had a startup ghost me after an interview. Founders are taught to be extremely proactive, responsive and risk-prone as that's what is required to succeed in the startup field. This is why I believe so much in cold emailing, especially to startup founders. Cold emails are trending down, as I've been told by a founder in SF, as more AI agents flood inboxes with spam.

Learn the importance of a killer cold email: personalize the first sentence, and end it with a Calendly link and a call-to-action. The easier it is for a hiring person to 1) find how you generate value from them and 2) proceed to get you, the higher your chances of success. The subject is created to maximize attention for them to click and open the email. The email must be incredibly short too (5 sentences max) or else people will not read it.

Here is a cold email that landed me a position:

subject: Unpaid intern?

Dear [founder names]

Hi, I love your product at [company name] and wanted to learn from the greats. Do you have an unpaid internship position?

For context, I am a rising fourth year Computer Engineering student at UCLA. I've grown my own startups to attract Fortune 500 companies and generated $20k in revenue. At UCLA, I've led engineering teams of 10+ people in neurotech, cube satellite and AI labs and organizations. Please find my resume attached.

Can I schedule a call with you?

Best,

Chai

UCLA

Sometimes, sheer controversy can land you a reply. This landed me a reply (but no interview).

subject: [competitor's name] just told me to rotate my API keys

[competitor's name] just told me rotate my AI provider keys because of a security incident.

I want you guys to build something better than them. I’ve interned at two YC startups -- [name 1] [name 2]-- both in SF and have a startup of my...