[gkuan]

Another tip I would give: try to be timely. Especially for college grads/early career, for some companies even when companies are hiring, they might not be hiring all year long (for college grads). The prime college hiring season (summer and fall) is coming up. Waiting until or starting in the winter and spring tends to be tougher.

[eatonphil]

This pipeline is the most competitive IMO. It's primarily megacorps, banks and consulting firms (BCG, [edit: not Mckinsey!,] Palantir) that want to hire college grads seasonally. To fit into their criteria you've graduated with a degree in CS, math or physics (or otherwise proved exceptional technical skill) at a top 40 public/private school and you've been doing official internships at large companies every summer during college.

Anyone who doesn't fit that mold fairly closely isn't going to get anywhere with the kind of companies that have a seasonal pipeline for new grads. (My point corroborated by a sibling: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31508438).

There may always be exceptions of course. And there's no harm in trying.

But if you have an unconventional education your best bet IMO is small local companies who are in general desperate for anyone with any skill, some dedication and intelligence.

[eastbayjake]

Not true for McKinsey. Not only are we hiring entry-level engineers, we are (1) also recruiting from several coding bootcamps and (2) very proud of the engineering path we've created to help early-career developers rapidly build a world-class engineering toolkit and level-up to tech lead and architecture roles.

This listing is representative of the entry-level software engineering roles we're hiring for: https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/search-jobs/jobs/softwareen...

[duped]

Honestly the summer is the worst time to hire seniors and mid level, so it's only "prime" in the sense that recruiters can't get in touch with anyone except fresh grads. That may change with all the layoffs this year.