| I've went through the same thing as OP. I'm a student located out of the US that applied for internships at all major companies in the US (Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple, Palantir, etc) for summer last year. I really have to disagree with people mentioning cover letters or costs to bring international students. I didn't submit any cover letter and got accepted for two of those companies for an internship in the US and accepted an internship with one of them. Google for example really doesn't care about cover letters. This used to be at Google's Job FAQ:
"Cover letters are optional, and applications with them are not preferred over those without. We recommend using a cover letter only to bring up anything that would not be evident from the rest of your application. It can also be an opportunity to let Google know about you as an individual, in addition to why you're a good fit for the organization. We strongly recommend using your resume to represent your candidacy."
http://www.google.com/intl/cn/jobs/students/sga/mba/internsh... By a Google Screener:
"As a heavy interviewer and occasional resume screener at Google, I rarely look at the cover letter. Your resume should give me enough context for whether you have the key experience for the role."
http://www.quora.com/How-should-a-cover-letter-for-Google-lo... I've noticed you've probably studied a lot already on how a resume look like, I can see you're using Gayle's template for CVs and I did the same thing. Your CV is pretty good and better than mine, it should definitely be attractive to recruiters because of your awards (ACM ICPC 2015 World Finalist) and your previous experience (multiple internships). Here's the thing, the hard part is getting a recruiter to actually read your CV. Coincidentally or not, only the companies to which I was referred by full timers actually bothered to interview me. I have the impression the strength of the referral also makes a huge difference. For one of the companies my referral was from another intern and I didn't get an interview. Was your referral from an FTE or another intern? The one difference I can pinpoint between us is that you're applying from the middle east and I applied from Europe. I'm really not sure how much of a difference this makes, but I can tell you that I did not see many foreigners from that region during my internship last year. I'm not sure this should actually make a difference, because my visa situation wasn't quite simple either and the company didn't seem to have any issue with the fact I'm from south america and applied for a J1 visa while living abroad in Europe. My guess would be your CV isn't getting read and to try to get stronger referrals. |