How many times did you fail before getting into big tech?
I have 2 years experience at small tech companies. This year I started applying to big tech in the valley. So far I failed 1 onsite and 2 phone interviews:( it's discouraging but at the same time I didn't imagine even getting an interview a year ago. Wondering what others journeys were like. TC 80k Yoe 2
I failed like first 15 interviews in college. Failed even for no name companies. Keep at it. Interviewing is a skill you can get better at with practice.
Still failing. Many years in.
How are you adjusting your approach after each failure?
I lower my expectations and buying more alcohol. To be fair, that was never the goal.
6 tries and then got an offer from MS.
1
I worked as a hardware test engineer for ~5-6 years before breaking into MS. Very hard to get any attention from a niche field (high speed photonics), so I consider myself very fortunate.
What did you do to break in after spending so much time in a niche field
^yes, interested as well.
It's kind of a scatter-shot process. Never stop trying.
No degree, started by applying to Google and never hearing back. Took a job at smaller company for 2y. Scored interview at Google, passed on first attempt. My advice: 1. If someone is failing to get a recruiter’s attention with their resume (apply to Google and never hear back), go on LinkedIn, type “*** technical recruiter” (“google technical recruiter”) and add a few. Message them a few days later and introduce yourself. I saw this on a CS Dojo YouTube video and it is how I landed my interviews. 2. If failing phone/onsites, study Cracking the Coding Interview book. This worked for me. I didn’t LeetCode or anything prior, but I was a confident programmer already. I read most of this before my Google interviews and was hired on first attempt. 3. If your YOE starts going up, you’ll also probably get system design interview rounds, so study Grokking the System Design Interview at educative.io and Designing Data Intensive Applications book. I studied Grokking... before my recent interview series and it was enough to land the E5 offer at FB I just took. So far I’ve interviewed at FB, Google, and Amazon once each and received offers from all 3. Rejected by Netflix phone screen (maybe asked too many questions about firing culture?), and never interviewed with Apple.
2YOE. 100+ failed interviews in general including phonescreens. Got in at 2nd onsite at Amz.
3 rejections? Those are rookie numbers 😀 Failing never ends, what matters is that you adapt/learn where your weak points are and study. Also 95% of interviewing is random and out of your control, so don't beat yourself up.
Thanks for the kind words :) I'm not overly upset just wanted to see how others got where they are.
I didnt get in until I have 4 yoe