Oct 08, 2025
Want to launch a career in tech? Whether you’re a college student, recent grad, or early-career job seeker, you’ve probably heard the usual advice: apply early, prepare for your interviews, and “network, network, network.” But what does that actually look like behind the scenes—and what are recruiters really looking for?
This summer, BGC’s College and Career team hosted a three-part Lunch & Learn series for our 2025 Tech Prep Fellows (TPF), featuring speakers from top tech companies like Glassdoor, Duolingo, and NextEra Energy (NEE). These sessions gave Fellows a chance to hear directly from recruiters, engineers, and interns about what it takes to land and thrive in a competitive internship.
Here’s what we learned:
“Be open-minded. You have an opportunity to explore through different rotations, different business units. Take advantage of that because you want to grow in different areas. That's important to get your feet wet into different things. And also…no one expects you to know everything, especially early on in your career. Just having that mindset of being curious and learning how to adapt quickly is very important.”
~Shreya Chennath, Ignite IT Rotational Associate, Digital Workspace Experience @ NEE
“You're the CEO of your career. You make the decisions. You figure out what you want to do, what's best for you, and what aligns with your passions and your goals…Make sure you get out of your comfort zone. It's hard, especially when you're early on and you're just graduating, and I understand what that feels like. But we have those fresh eyes—we are the ones coming to this industry to change it, make it better, and innovate.”
~Zipporah Thomas, Ignite IT Rotational Associate, IT Vendor Management Analyst @ NEE
“The best way to stand out is by…not only adding people on LinkedIn, but showing up to workshops, events, networking series where you can get face time with actual recruiters and managers.
~Danny Cao, Internship Program Manager @ Glassdoor
“BGC was the biggest thing that helped me, because the Tech Prep Fellowship forces you to go through the CodePath course, and I was doing that at the time of my application last year. That CodePath course whips you into shape, and I highly recommend it because it forces you to repeatedly do the type of OA assessment style questions that you're going to see in your interview.”
~Faith Matthew, TPF Alumna + SWE Thrive Intern @ Duolingo
“Have regular conversations. Just talk to people…I think sometimes people think they need to be like some different version of themselves. It's about bringing your best self to a space and being able to just talk and have conversations about the things that you know that you do well, and having some of that confidence is so important.”
~Jaylyn Jones, University Recruiter @Duolingo
Besides the CodePath course, if it's an option to you, I highly recommend being a teaching assistant at university. To me, the most effective tool of preparation is being able to explain things. That's how you know if you know something or not. So being a TA also helps me get into the habit of thinking through what I need to express and what I want to do to solve a problem.
~Faith Matthew, TPF Alumna + SWE Thrive Intern @ Duolingo
“Interviewing is a two way street. You're not just trying to get hired. You're deciding if the team and the company are right for you. Do they support your growth? Do they align with your values? And for myself, I always [ask] is this a company that I believe in? Is the product something I believe in?”
~Shane O’Grady, VP of Engineering @ Glassdoor
“In terms of languages, we often don't really care too much about what you're writing in, as long as you're familiar and comfortable in it. Know the fundamentals. If you know the basics of your language, whether it be Python or JavaScript, it doesn't matter. You can solve problems in any language. Over my career, I started off with one or two languages, and I suspect I could write code fairly fluently today in six or seven. If you learn one language, everything else becomes easy. That's true for the languages that we speak and also the ones that we use to write code.”
~Shane O’Grady, VP of Engineering @ Glassdoor
“Learn from failure. I've made mistakes. We all have. We're human. Everything's a learning lesson whether you're doing everything perfectly or you're making mistakes. Take it all in stride and move forward from there.”
~Natasha St. Hilaire, Ignite IT Rotational Associate, AWS Full Stack Developer @ NEE
“You don't need to be perfect. You just need to be prepared and persistent. Tech needs your perspective. So stay curious, ask questions, and remember we're lucky to have you coming in.
~Shane O’Grady, VP of Engineering @ Glassdoor
