Hello,<p>I'm finishing my PhD in CS in a couple of months and I'm applying for software engineering jobs with no luck.<p>I get rejected from entry level jobs for being overqualified, and from more senior jobs for lacking industrial experience.<p>I know C++, C, Python, a lot of algorithms and some ML, some data mining.<p>I pass most of the hackerrank style interviews, but then I get rejections for not having enough experience.<p>I have two months of writing and some other boring stuff. I can dedicate 10 hours a week for improving myself for job applications.<p>Any ideas?
Should I do a programming project?
Any suggestions? I have interested in Algorithms, security, storage systems, ML, and DM.<p>I appreciate your help.
Where are you located?<p>You can apply to R&D roles (search for R&D engineer, research software engineer, R&D software specialist and similar titles) which are essentially software engineering roles that require grad school.<p>A good idea may also be to pick a subfield that traditionally hires more educated people (science or engineering or chemistry software hires from that pool because the clients tend to be in academia).<p>In a given city most of the PhD-friendly industry jobs are staffed by people who still regularly see your professors at happy hour. Have you talked to your professors and alumni of your program if they know anybody's who's in industry now? Look up on LinkedIn where the people from your lab ended up. You can probably get some of these people to give you an interview that's not biased against your specific experience.