Overview

This is just a portion from this post, How I cracked my SDE Interview at Amazon and how you can too.

This piece only focusses on ways aspirants can get an opportunity to get job opportunities in their dream companies.

Here goes the list,

1. Campus placements
This is specifically for college students. One of the easiest ways to get into Amazon or any other company is through campus placements. If any company visits your college, value the opportunity, work hard for it. The good thing about this, the competition is limited to your batch.

2. Pool campus for freshers
If the company you are aiming for does not visit your college then look out for pool campus placements which occur for final year students specifically. For this you need to be aware of any contests which are going on for large scale hiring for freshers. One such event is AmazonWow, also some are conducted by universities.So watch out for these events as well.

3. Apply through official careers portal
One of the best ways to begin with your job search is to look for all the openings, present in the company's official website. For instance, for Amazon it is amazon.jobs, for Google it is careers.google.com and so on. This gives you transparency over the job openings and you can apply, if you think you meet the job criteria. The only downside of this transparency is that for each job, there will be hundreds of applicants and it becomes difficult for the recruiters to go through each of the resumes, so chances become quite less.

4. Register on Job websites
Another way is to register on websites like LinkedInjobs, Instahyre, MonsterIndia, CareerBuilder, AngeList and so on. There are lots of sites dedicated to connect aspirants with company.Register on these websites, apply for relevant jobs. They look over your resume before passing it to the respective company, so that gives you good chances to get a shot for interviews. Moreover, if you do not get opportunity for the job you applied do not get disheartened, generally these sites, match to other companies based on your resume.

5. Sign up for courses which help you with job opportunities
There are many other websites, which help you with preparation and provide referrals along the way or at the completion of the course. Some of these websites include scalar academy, coding ninjas, and obviously prepbytes. This option comprises of both preparation and applying for jobs, preparing through a course has its own pros, you get a structured syllabus, you get mentors who help you with any problems, instead of searching on the internet and so on.However, this depends on your preference whether you want to prepare on your own or not.

6. Emails recruiters
It's worth mentioning that if you can get emails of recruiters, you can email them directly, always mention the job post you want to apply for. Though it is difficult to email, and has less chances of getting noticed, since mostly its not a formal channel for applying.But I have seen it work for some people.

7. Ask for referrals
Well, one of the surest ways to get opportunity for a role, is by asking someone to apply your referral. I have mentioned it in last, since you depend on someone else to recommend you for a job, however that pretty much guarantees that you will get a chance to give coding test or interview for that matter. For this, build your linkedIn connections, explain your skills and preparation to person you are asking resume.

Don't go for messages like,

Hi, I am final year student at XYZ college and want to be part of XYZ company, Can you give referral.

Such messages are very vague and mostly people ignore them. The reason being, every student (even I) wants to work in a good company. Does this message show what skills I have that I deserve to be part of the company. And not just that, not mentioning the job post in which you want to apply for shows that you are not serious and not have done your research.
So be cautious while writing messages while asking for referral, it all depends on your communication and tech skills whether the person will refer you or not, and either way respect that decision.

Keep coding!
All the best!!