He got an Amazon internship before he even took data structures. Here's how.
Sajjaad Khader — Georgia Tech BS + MS by age 20, former Amazon and Splunk engineer, and the guy who interviewed Satya Nadella — breaks down exactly how to break into top tech in 2026. From freshman internships to LinkedIn referrals to the future of software engineering interviews, this one is packed.
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I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.
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⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:55 Getting Amazon Before Taking DSA
03:29 Can Freshmen Get Internships Today?
04:45 How To Position Yourself To Get Hired
05:58 Find Problems, Solve Them, Post Online
07:50 The Degree Equals Job Lie Is Dead
09:25 The Reapplying Hack That Actually Works
10:05 How Amazon Set Everything Else Up
12:08 Finishing A BS And MS By Age 20
14:25 Should You Delay Graduation For Experience?
18:50 Masters vs Grinding LeetCode Full Time
21:00 The TA Strategy That Pays For Your Masters
25:50 Leading MSA And PSA At Georgia Tech
26:34 Software Engineering Accelerator
27:27 How To Actually Crush Your Internship
29:10 How To Ask Smart Questions Without Annoying People
31:55 The Playbook For Getting A Return Offer
33:58 The LinkedIn Networking Strategy That Gets Referrals
37:30 Why LinkedIn Is Non-Negotiable For CS Students
40:22 What Projects Actually Get You Hired
42:47 Hackathons vs Startups vs Generic Projects
44:30 Software Engineers Are Becoming Software Managers
49:05 Free Resource for Software Engineers
49:35 Should You Build AI Or Just Use It?
50:40 How Sajjad Interviewed Satya Nadella
54:20 What Reid Hoffman Said About Young Engineers
56:03 Is San Francisco Actually Worth It?
59:17 Are CS Students Cooked In 2026?
1:01:10 Is Computer Science Still Worth It?
1:03:57 How To Learn To Code From Scratch
1:06:11 How To Actually Learn DSA
1:07:30 Is LeetCode Dead? What Comes Next?
1:09:18 Why Companies Still Use LeetCode
1:10:27 The Future Of Software Engineering Interviews