Skip to main content

When to Apply

CSS Students are often confused about the best time to start applying for internships and jobs, and this causes them to miss out on many opportunities. In this section, we will answer this question, provide information on application timelines / cycles, and address common roadblocks CSS students face when starting to apply.

How early can I start applying?​

The Short Answer​

You can and should start applying as early as your first year at UWB, and we recommend doing so to begin learning / practicing the career hunting process and possibly land an internship early in your degree. There are many opportunities for all different class standings that have different expectations for what they expect you to know before applying. Also, even if you do not land an offer, applying early gives you valuable experience of polishing your resume, completing online assessments, and doing interviews that will set you up for success in a later hiring season / cycle.

The Long Answer​

We still believe that you should be applying as early as possible, but there are some limitations specific to CSS that makes it difficult to do so. The main issue for CSS students is that data structures & algorithms, the core of passing technical interviews, is not covered entirely until you take both CSS 342 and CSS 343. So until you either take both of these classes or study DS&A on your own, you will not be competitive for interviews. Also, most students take CSS 342 in the fall followed by CSS 343 in the winter, which means you will not have solid DS&A preparation until January - March when many internship opportunities have already closed. In response to this, we recommend that all students should study for technical interviews before you start these classes in your major.

If you are a transfer student or a newly-admitted high school student with lots of college credits from AP/IB or Running Start, it is absolutely critical you start applying as soon as possible. This is because you will only have 1-2 years to find an internship depending on how many credits you already have completed, and thus puts a heavier time pressure on you before you have to start applying for full-time positions.

These reasons why it is so important to start studying and applying early are tied to the seasonal hiring cycles for internships / jobs and specific company timelines for when applications are due -- which we’ll be covering next.

Internship Hiring Cycles​

When it comes to internships, there are opportunities available at different times throughout the year. Most times, internships are offered in time frames related to the four seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Each internship season has its own general range of dates when applications are open and when you will actually be working.

The general date ranges of when you can apply for each internship season are as follows:

Application Date Ranges​

  • Summer: July - April
  • Fall: January - August
  • Winter: June - November
  • Spring: September - January

As you can see, these date ranges are very wide and overlap with each other due to the varied nature of how different companies handle their application process. This will be explained more within the Company Timelines subsection and how the type of company impacts when you can apply and work for them.

After you have gotten an internship offer, the general date ranges of when you will work per season is as follows:

Working Date Ranges

  • Summer: May - September
  • Fall: August - December
  • Winter: January - May
  • Spring: - March - June

These working date ranges also vary from company to company, but most companies have you work for a minimum of 12 weeks as an intern. Also, these date ranges are only for understanding the typical start and end months, not set ranges of how long you will work. For example, most summer internships are 10-12 weeks from May - August or June - September, not all the way from May - September.

How many internships per season?​

Summer internships are the most abundant out of all four seasonal hiring cycles. In comparison to fall, winter, and spring internships, summer internships are offered by many more companies and in turn are much easier to obtain than an internship in the other “off seasons”. Take for example the hiring cycles of Spring 2021 and Summer 2021. It is very clear to see how limited Spring internships are relative to Summer internships. Off-season internships are much more selective and require you to apply as early as possible to be considered for an interview. However, while it is more difficult to land these off season internships, it is not impossible. If you time your applications correctly and have solid qualifications, it is very possible to get an internship during these off seasons which gives you more great work experience.

Note for off-season interns: Internships in the off season are often labeled as “co-ops” instead of “internships”, so make sure you also look for this keyword when searching for opportunities.

Company Timelines​

As we discussed earlier in this section, the date ranges of when you can apply for internships and when you will actually be working varies quite a bit from company to company. In this section we will preview the types of companies that offer internships and how their application timelines differ from each other.

Big Tech Companies (FAANG, Unicorns, etc.)​

Big tech companies include big names like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Uber, and other highly successful companies that have a focus on technology as their main product / service. If you are applying for these companies, you will have to be very early as they often start applications two or three quarters before the internship starts (6+ months prior) and are very competitive. These companies also tend to have lengthy interview processes over several weeks / months.

Non-Tech Companies​

Non-tech companies include virtually every other company that doesn't have tech as their main product. These companies can range from small to large, and their application process is less strict and competitive than big tech companies. These companies tend to send out applications one to two quarters before the internship starts (3-5 months prior).

Startups​

Startups are companies that are typically much smaller than other companies and can be spread across many different domains. However, startups differ in their timelines as often they will post applications very close to the actual start date of the position (typically less than 3 months). These companies are great to fall back on if you cannot land an internship in a larger, more established company.

Quants / Trading Firms​

Quant firms are a special domain within CS careers that focus on quantitative / computational analysis of financial and stock trading markets. These companies are arguably some of the most difficult to get into and start very early even relative to big tech companies. You may see quant firms post applications for interns a whole year prior to the start date. If you want to get into these firms, you must be extremely well prepared and apply very early.