Rebecca Li

Rebecca Li

GenAI Transformation Leader

Interviewing and Networking Tips for MLE New Grads

6 minute read

Published:

As a Ph.D. candidate with three internship experiences and closely related research experience, job hunting still took more than my expected time especially under the impact of the Pandemic.

The pandemic has brought us tremendous difficulties in job-seeking and I have got so much help from friends and strangers. So I would like to do something in return for the community. Here I summarized some tips from my personal experience over the past few months. If you are still struggling with job-seeking, it might provide you some inspirations!

Coding Practice

Although MLE jobs have a lower expectation of coding than general SDE, most IT companies still need it. If you only have limited time to go through a limited number of problems, here are my personal suggestions— do it three times for each problem:

  1. Do it your own way; check the hint (not complete code) if you feel it is not optimal. For those ones would like a systematic way of learning the typical patterns on Codeing interviews, recommend to take the source of “Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions” in Educative.io
  2. Compare your own code to the answers to find out what can be improved. Recommend to do this time in LeetCode Because it has more test case and run-time performance evaluations
  3. Summarize the code ideas and write the complete pseudo-code in comments.

To tackle the coding interview, practicing mock interviews is also very important.

  1. Practice with your friend
  2. Practice with strangers, e.g. Online Mock Interview platform: Pramp

Although MLE roles have lower coding expectations than SDE roles, most IT companies still require it. If you have limited time, focus on problem-solving patterns rather than brute-force solving random problems.

Three-Step Coding Strategy

  1. Solve it your way first. If stuck, check hints (not full code).
  2. Compare your code to optimal solutions.
    • Use LeetCode to analyze test cases & performance bottlenecks.
  3. Summarize & write pseudo-code in comments to reinforce key patterns.

Mock Interviews

Practicing mock interviews is just as important as coding itself!

  • 👥 Practice with friends.
  • 🌐 Use online mock interview platforms like Pramp.

ML Concepts& algorithms

Basic Concepts:

  1. Cover key areas: statistics, linear algebra, ML, deep learning, CV/NLP. Those are more important than code practice. Although these concepts are fundamental, they are very complex and require a certain amount of time to summarized and understand.
  2. If time allows, read through lecture notes or online courses.
  3. If time is tight, read summaries from blogs (e.g., NoML – No Machine Learning).
  4. Before the interview, prepare a personal cheat sheet and remove what you already know.

Basic Algorithm Coding for classic ML algorithms

  1. If possible, implement ML algorithms from scratch.
  2. If time is limited, focus on small-scale, interview-relevant algorithms:
    • Decision Trees, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, K-Means, Perceptron, MLP.
  3. Deep Learning: Be familiar with PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, Caffe.
    • Be comfortable building simple models like MNIST classification from scratch.

CV/Resume

Keep in mind there always two purposes for CV/Resume

  1. Attract HR’s attention to get you to interview opportunities
  2. Lets the interviewer know your strengths and ask questions during the initial interview.

For the contents, follows the STAR rules (STAR Rules)

  1. Use the classic formats.
  2. Consider adding the summary part to attract attention.
  3. The electronic version of the resume should attach the links of the code/report/article link of the project so that the interviewers can easily access the details.
  4. Upload your resume to the evaluation website to analyze whether there could be any improvement (Online Assessment Website )
  5. Prepare different versions of CV/Cover Letter for different types of companies and different positions.

LinkedIn Optimization

  1. Pick a professional profile photo. Show them your professional potential with a smile!
  2. Design a good personal “Headline” indicating your working experience and positions so that HR can search it by keywords, and others can know how to help you when you were replying or liking others’ posts.
  3. The importance of the “About” section is as important as the “summary” section in the CV
  4. Using the “Media” option of each experience, similar to project links in CV

Portfolio

  1. Choose a good template
  2. Ask your friends about the suggestions
  3. Make sure every link is correct
  4. Add the fun part to your website

Networking Strategies

Principles for Effective Networking

  • Be proactive: Reach out confidently.
  • Be respectful: Think about what you can offer before asking for help.

Practical Networking Tips

  • If you have specific preferences for the jobs, start with searching the interesting job posts, and try to reach out to HR/HM/employees for detailed information or referral;
  • If not, search for keywords like “We are hiring” or “Open Positions” on Linkedin. In general, people with those titles are more open to connecting.
  • Short-term follow-up: After meetings, send a quick “Glad to meet you at [event]” message.
  • Long-term follow-up: Keep track of contacts, feedback, and next steps.

Job Applications

  1. Online application: 2-3% of the acceptance rate. The main reason that the passing rate is so low it that the people viewing your CV may not be very familiar with your field or your application likely get rejected because of different uncontrollable reasons, e.g., late graduation time, sponsor, typo, lack of keywords, candidates from the same school, etc.
  2. The order of importance is the company official website > LinkedIn > glassdoor/indeed.
  3. Do NOT go for an online application by yourself if you can get referrals from friends.
  4. Summarize your online application updates and reject results. It will help prevent repeating online applications.
  5. Keep in mind the application freezing period (generally, the freezing period of resumes rejection is much shorter than interview rejections)

# Be Optimistic Job seeking is definitely a long-term journey that requires tremendous time and effort. Even the most talented candidates seldom get the offer right after their first interview. Every rejection is a step closer to success—keep improving, keep applying, and your time will come!

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