[niij]

You're the best boss in this thread.

On a side note, what are higher ups looking for in a young applicant? I'm graduating in the fall with a CS Undergrad and don't have any startup contacts (I live in a smaller town in Missouri) and am trying to get my foot in the door somewhere that is doing interesting work.

[elliotec]

Projects. Contribute to open source as much as possible and build as much stuff as possible that you can show off. Then you should have no issue finding something interesting. Might have a better chance searching outside your hometown though.

[niij]

Thanks! I've been meaning to carve time out of my school schedule to make some contributions to a few projects on Github.

[brey]

Passion. Engagement. Curiosity. Being the absolute best possible at something - I don't really care what, but being mediocre at lots of things is a turnoff. Ability to learn new stuff, more so than any specific skill (although YMMV with this one).

Any interview I walk out of thinking I've had a 2-way meeting of minds, a genuinely engaged conversation as if we're already peers, rather than an attempt to simply answer a list of questions is going to do well.

[niij]

I appreciate the response. Specialization is something I definitely need to work towards.