Build stuff
We have a nearby state university with a so-so computer science program. 2-3 graduates every year go to FAANG, a handful go to the local fortune 1000 companies, and we (a &lt; 500 employee company) get to pick through the rest.<p>They all list C, C++, .NET, HTML, CSS, and Java on their resumes but haven&#x27;t done anything except a simple group project in any of them, half the time not even writing any code for the project. Which means a role in documentation, testing, etc.<p>They come with a chip on their shoulder, flaunt their degree, and demand a salary close to what they think they should be getting, according to their advisers or statistics or whatever.<p>To make it worse, they don&#x27;t have any personal projects to show. I tell every single person that I interview to create something, even if it&#x27;s a failure. At least you can come back and discuss your experience <i>trying</i> to create something, and you&#x27;ll learn more about development working on that project than you did the whole semester you <i>learned</i> Java.