This might only work for some companies, but it worked out well for me: Take one of a company's flagship products and remake it using open source technology. Y

This might only work for some companies, but it worked out well for me: Take one of a company's flagship products and remake it using open source technology. You don't even have to do the entire thing: just enough to show that you understand the subject material and are a potential threat if left to your own devices over the summer with nothing to do. Put it up on github or your own website depending on the product, and include all the url's in the application or email that you send to the company. It will make you stand out and show that you are interested in working on the types of things they work on. All it takes is one open source project gaining momentum to completely change a product space. It's less troublesome/expensive for the company to hire you than it is to try and fight a grassroots opensource movement later on. If you can make a company engineer think that they are getting a deal by hiring you early on, then you are pretty much set. Bonus points: get the sales department to email the engineers for you.