Top tech talent knows that industry recruiters often bring a stack of
pre-negotiated offers to university infosessions, so that they can snag
programmers and UX designers who really stand out. Instead of spending valuable
time validating a particularly promising candidate’s skillset through a
protracted series of interviews, it’s often more efficient to simply give the
individual an offer right then and there. Internal studies at Google have shown
that experienced recruiters can usually tell if a programmer has ‘what it takes’
just from how they act at infosessions: the insightful questions they ask, the
stickers on their laptop, and how they comport themselves in general.

Top tech talent knows that industry recruiters often bring a stack of
pre-negotiated offers to university infosessions, so that they can snag
programmers and UX designers who really stand out. Instead of spending valuable
time validating a particularly promising candidate’s skillset through a
protracted series of interviews, it’s often more efficient to simply give the
individual an offer right then and there. Internal studies at Google have shown
that experienced recruiters can usually tell if a programmer has ‘what it takes’
just from how they act at infosessions: the insightful questions they ask, the
stickers on their laptop, and how they comport themselves in general.

Here are some of tips for optimizing your infosession performance:

• Ask questions to get a feel for the company’s culture. For example, I always
  start off by asking “do you have a mandatory drug test?”.

• Make sure that the recruiters know you’re passionate about the company by
  crying.

• Don’t be that awkward guy who goes up for more pizza while the presenter is
  providing valuable information about the company’s agile development cycle.
  Instead, demonstrate your ability to amortize I/O costs via bulk loading:
  bring a whole box of pizza back to your seat. Protip: “free swag” t-shirts
  make great face rags, so grab a handful.

• Stay focused by minimizing distractions. I typically wear my Bose
  QuietComfort noise cancelling headphones during the presentation. This way I
  retain more information from the PowerPoint, which really impresses the
  recruiters during the networking session. Follow me on Spotify to check out
  my special “Let’s Do This Infosession” playlist.

• Getting invited to the ‘after-infosession’ is critical. During the networking
  session, ask the recruiters what hotel they’re staying at, and make sure that
  they know that you ‘know a guy’. Without fail, someone will slip a wax-sealed
  envelope under your door at midnight, the coveted invitation to an another, more
  exclusive networking event.

If you follow these simple tips and brush up on your data structures, you’ll
soon be literally drowning in offers, like everyone else. If these tips don’t
work out for you, you probably need to get your MEng.