For UMass CS Students

Before Diving In This document was written in August 2026. Tech changes fast, I can’t promise any of this will be accurate or useful in even just one year. Additionally, all opinions in this document are mine and mine alone and do not reflect those of my employer. I have no affiliation with any of the tools I recommend using. Let’s Begin Hey, my name is Zach Ferretti. I went to UMass from 2016 - 2020 (graduating during Covid). During my time there I got my bachelors in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics. While pursuing that degree I interned at a small startup in my Junior year and then graduated during Covid with a job lined up working on Amazon Alexa. I worked on Alexa for ~4 years, learning a lot and getting promoted along the way. Eventually I wanted to branch out from Massachusetts (and largely Boston) and did an internal transfer to AWS API Gateway in Colorado. I worked there for ~2 years before being one of the 16,000 roles cut in the round Amazon announced in January 2026. When I first entered the market, I had some severance payment and savings. This bought me time and I took ~3 months to prepare, then began aggressively pursuing the job search in mid-May and signed an offer letter with Reddit at the end of June. That’s the context I think is relevant to you in terms of where I was at going into my job search. With that in mind, I want to walk you through what I noticed on the search as well as what worked for me. Note: Not all of this applies directly to you. I have roughly 6 years of experience and was going after more senior roles than you likely would. But I think a lot of this applies to anyone in Tech right now. If you want the highlights look for !!! Note II: Whenever I mention using Claude to tailor your resume or LinkedIn, I specifically mean to rewrite what you have done. If you will not be able to back it up in an interview and talk about it at length, don’t include it. Especially do not make something up. First Month My plan once I was laid off was to take some time - and warm up before I began really applying. I had a lot of LeetCode to freshen up on as well as System 1Design practice to do. I used three main sites during my time preparing:

1. LeetCode - Tried and true for a reason, it works.
2. HackerRank - Similar to LeetCode but with the added bonus of having mock interviews you can take with AI, helped me to get a feel for what it would be like talking to someone and explaining my code as I interviewed.
3. HelloInterview - An incredible resource for practicing System Design problems (I’d say the top resource). It gave me a ton of different problems that I could practice and think about and really helped me get ready for problems beyond DSA. It’s worth noting I paid for the premium tier for all of these (to access the AI interview features, and see editorials explaining the solutions for different problems). If only one is in the budget, I’d get LeetCode Premium. If you can afford one more I think HelloInterview is incredibly worthwhile. I feel like I learned a lot. (That said if you’re a fresh college grad I would imagine you’re not expected to do a system design round though maybe that’s changing). Then I took the first three-ish months to really practice. Any interviews that came my way I would take with the rationale that it’s great to get the reps in - and it would help me when I was more seriously looking to feel confident and familiar in that environment. Other than that, I made flashcards of the common problem types, their applications, pseudocode about tricks to some of the more complex but common mediums and committed those to memory. Interim As an aside, one thing that I noticed the importance of was updating my LinkedIn. I had truthfully let it get fairly stagnant. My resume was kept up-todate, however the LinkedIn profile was old. It didn’t reflect what I had learned while on the job (apart from noting that I’d been promoted and switched teams) and my summary / skills were out of date. I worked with Claude to find out-of-date sections on my LinkedIn profile which did not represent the skills I had gathered which were outlined in my resume, and update them accordingly. I noticed a dramatic uptick in the frequency of invitations to connect / interview I was receiving and the quality of those invitations (not scams - but genuine roles and openings). The Search Takes Off (Mid May) Around mid May I was finally feeling up to hitting the ground running. I created a spreadsheet and began tracking all of the different roles I’d applied to, I tracked when I reached out, time of most recent engagement, points of contact, etc. 2This helped me keep things in order and also keep the different chains of communication running (I didn’t want to let one stagnate because I forgot about it). This proved invaluable as at one point I was juggling 20+ companies’ correspondence and interview processes. (!!!) Apply a lot and stay organized. My general flow for applying was:
4. Either: a. Hear from the recruiter and apply when they reached out from the link they sent. b. Search LinkedIn for NEW job listings - and apply within 12 - 24 hours (sooner is better).
5. When applying I’d send my resume (which I keep in LaTeX) to Claude, feed it the job description and ask it to update my resume (reorganize it) to better showcase my skills in the order and with the priority which the given job placed on different parts of my skillset.
6. I also had a cover letter template which was in LaTeX which I’d fill out for any role which had one (not sure how much this helped but figured it couldn’t hurt). From there I’d then proceed through the different companies’ interview processes. My Philosophy On. . . This next section goes into my outlook on the job search (and largely your career) on the whole. I think it’s worth sharing as the job market has changed a lot (and is rapidly changing) but some of these are constants. Resumes (!!!) Your resume should be simple. It should be black and white with a standard easily machine parsable font. For Computer Science roles especially you shouldn’t have an image on it, and the most important part of it is your impact. This can be hard to do when what you’re working on is not a business venture (i.e. your coursework) however it’s still possible! If you worked on a collaborative project in your later years at UMass (which I know was a requirement when I went there, though maybe that’s changed) include it! Call out your direct contributions, bonus points if you can include a direct bolded snippet of your work with a quantitative number. For example, a bullet may read: - Delivered the rework for my CS589 project which refactored the way our models processed images to be multi-threaded reducing processing time by 58%. Also, ensure you include what languages your work is done in in addition to having a skills section which includes your different proficiencies. Knowing Your Worth Entering the job market for the first time is different, you’re getting a lot of experience that you cannot get without getting your first 3job. With that in mind, it’s not a bad idea to consider taking the first offer you get to begin getting experience under your belt. You can always keep searching after starting a job. Something that happened to me on the job search was that a few companies got me far into the interview process, and then tried to substantially down-level me. This isn’t always a bad thing (level inflation is real) however it’s important to know what you are worth and what you’ll bring to the team. If the down-level is accompanied by a substantial pay cut ask yourself if that cut would put you below what you’re worth. If it would, not a bad idea to end the process there. Be polite (keep the door open for the future) but keep moving. If I hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have continued my job search which is what led to me finding Reddit. Referrals (!!!) Important and useful but not the end-all be-all. I think back in the day (our parents’ generation) referrals mattered a lot more, and I think they’re still useful however they’re not the one-stop shop to guaranteeing an interview that they used to be. Tech is a (shockingly) small field and because of that odds are someone is always referring someone else. That’s not to say that it’s not worth pursuing! My current role was the result of my foot getting in the door from a referral. However it’s also worth noting that I had several referrals which ended up with companies not even reaching back out to me. All that’s to say, your mileage may vary. Networking (!!!) Never be afraid to reach out to someone! Worst thing is they ignore you - best thing is they give you an inside perspective on if a company is one that’s worth working for. I oftentimes would go to Company pages, filter for second level connections, and ask the mutual to put us in touch. This also applies for UMass Alum! Brian (Krusell) was kind enough to put me in touch with a few UMass alum who helped me understand a few of the companies I was looking at more, that knowledge was invaluable in the job search. Interviewing Is A Skill - Practice It Whenever You Can (!!!) A job is a job. And at the very least (and perhaps equally important) an interview is an interview. They’re incredibly psychological things and getting your bearings in interviews where you’re less certain the company is your dream job will help you feel more confident when you go into an interview with a company that you feel is a dream job. That’s what is going to serve you well in the long term. Personal Projects These are great and are something I have on my Resume and came up more than once in my interview processes! People like hearing about what you’re working on in your spare time. Even if it’s not the most 4technically challenging project, showing that you’re passionate about tech and what you’re working on is incredibly valuable. Early Career Specific Advice
7. Go to career fairs as often as possible. • I went to a career fair in Fall 2018 and met a Hiring Manager for a startup in the Metro Boston area. He told me that they’d just filled their last slot but wanted to bring me aboard the following summer. I added him on LinkedIn and sure enough the following year he reached out for the internship. I wouldn’t have started my career off right if I hadn’t got that internship.
8. Behavioral Rounds are Critical • Just as important as the technical rounds are nailing the behavioral ones. Be ready to talk about your work (even if it’s course work) in the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result). This also feeds into your resume, start each bullet with an action verb, and end with the quantifiable impact your work had. Rejections They happen, a lot. It’s part of the job search and it is demoralizing but at the end of the day each of the prospects is just a job, and you’re getting experience from the process (even if it doesn’t feel like it). You just need to stay motivated and keep at it - because if you let up it’s hard to find that momentum again. Closing If you made it down here well done! I feel like this was a long document (maybe it’s not) but I hope you enjoyed it, I really enjoyed writing it. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have (I’m on LinkedIn). If you made it into UMass you will make it into a job. It’s just a matter of staying committed.