When I was first applying for internships (as a college junior with sort-of-interesting projects on my resume but no real experience) I think I applied to 75 positions, heard back from maybe 20 and got to the first round at 5 or 6 (including code challenges).
The 6% return rate (application to interview) wasn't exactly encouraging. I made a habit of working hard on each application, sending it out and then immediately assuming that I'd been rejected, putting me right back in that stressful place I'd been before.
Being able to leverage that stress into something productive was huge, I'd wake up early and spend my mornings working on cover letters (useless) and researching companies, and eventually took myself across the city to crash another University's career fair to try and meet a recruiter from my then-dream-company (one I'd applied to online months before and never heard back from). That turned out to be one of two offers I got and where I spent my summer.
Keeping up a grind on applications and not getting discouraged is huge, getting into the mindset of "constantly apply until I'm employed, don't assume anything will work out" was probably the real reason I got the job I did.
The 6% return rate (application to interview) wasn't exactly encouraging. I made a habit of working hard on each application, sending it out and then immediately assuming that I'd been rejected, putting me right back in that stressful place I'd been before.
Being able to leverage that stress into something productive was huge, I'd wake up early and spend my mornings working on cover letters (useless) and researching companies, and eventually took myself across the city to crash another University's career fair to try and meet a recruiter from my then-dream-company (one I'd applied to online months before and never heard back from). That turned out to be one of two offers I got and where I spent my summer.
Keeping up a grind on applications and not getting discouraged is huge, getting into the mindset of "constantly apply until I'm employed, don't assume anything will work out" was probably the real reason I got the job I did.