Ask HN: How difficult is it to get an internship if I have zero experience?
I'm just a guy who is finishing his community college classes and wants some work experience before transferring to a 4 year college. I've taken various math, C++, Java, and UNIX classes but I don't have much experience outside of that. I'm currently teaching myself data structures/algorithms and try to code little programs implementing them. There's a few other languages I'm playing around with, but its nothing serious. Aside from that, my programming ability is a bit weak, and I'm worried I won't be able to compete with the other applicants.
My main strength is that I'm a fairly quick learner. Given a language or technology, I can probably learn it pretty well in 1-2 weeks with lots of studying. When it comes to actually implementing that knowledge, I'll need a bit of guidance. I'm still a newbie after all.
So what kind of qualities in an intern are companies looking for? Do they expect the intern to be a "rockstar coding ninja" or are they willing to take in a complete newbie and let him try to stay afloat? Also, would I be expected to do whiteboard coding during an interview to one of the smaller companies? I'm obviously not applying to Google or Facebook, but smaller companies. For instance, I'm interested in: Ooyala, Evernote Corporation, Terravide, and a few others like that.
I'd appreciate if someone could give me any insight, and perhaps even suggest any places to apply to that are willing to take in people like me. Thanks.