I’m a Director of PM at VMware and thinking about interviewing to find my market rate. Golden handcuffs from an acquisition are off and VMware RSUs aren’t tier 1. What level should I be targeting at Google for a PM role? I’m managing a team of 6 quite senior PMs. TC: 430
What's the best interview prep book these days (particularly for a mid-level dev)? Is cracking the coding interview still the golden standard? Are there better books? I conduct interviews 1-2 times a week, so no stranger to interviewing, but it's been a while since I've been on the other side of th...Read more
Is the interview the last hurdle? I'm not talking about a specific task or project. Generally speaking, how would you rate your job in terms of mental gymnastics? EDIT: Thanks to everyone who participated. I posted this thread to get a sense of whether it's all sunshines and rainbows at FAANG. It's...Read more
I’ve interviewed countless and hired ~15 people across 2 FAANG companies. This is my prescribed golden resume to maximize your career growth. I’m well aware that levels are murky between (and sometimes within) companies, don’t take this overly literally and apply some common sense. Golden Diagonal ...Read more
I am in a situation where I really would love to move, but have some serious golden handcuffs. There is no way I would get a matching salary without at least L+1 I have been 6 for 4 years and at some point I was in a position I could become 7 but I was burned out and switched teams. Last time I int...Read more
I had a virtual onsite on 12/22/2021 for a non-tech manager role for a Adtech/Martech/SaaS company based out of SFO. The company shut down for holidays and I get a message from recruiter on 1/4/2022 to speak with another team member who returned from vacation. Spoke to that person on Friday noon (1...Read more
After 2 months of multiple round of interviews , I was about to get offer letter from PANW this week . But I got confirmation from recruiter as they have reviewed the position and decided to close the position for now . Recruiter final comments on call. 1)They might open the position in future (a...Read more
A lot of people asked for my preparation notes. Here they are: Total preparation time: ~ 3 months Resources used: 1) LC 2) Grokking the system design Coding: 1. There are two things here. One, how well do you know a data structure and how quickly you can implement it. For example, implementing a ...Read more
I am currently working as Support Manager/L6 Actually thinking of internal transfer in the next 1-2 months as got bored with working in the same team since joining Amazon. And also no scope for next level in the current team. Then thought rather than internal transfer, why can’t I move out of Ama...Read more
After 2 months of multiple round of interviews , I was about to get offer letter from PANW this week . But I got confirmation from recruiter as they have reviewed the position and decided to close the position for now . Recruiter final comments on call. 1)They might open the position in future (a...Read more
Hi folks, Wanted to share something positive. I just put out my papers here. And have decided to quit. I have saved up 3cr (30M Inr) in cash and investments. Own a house. Have 1 kid to take care of. With 3cr invested properly - generating 15% returns so far. I have been living in bangalore as a pi...Read more
I feel the whole interview process is unfair on the candidate especially with big companies like Google, Facebook who think that given they have the demand, they can do whatever. The following are the issues I’ve experienced: 1. Why don’t companies train their employees on how to take interviews. ...Read more
I’m not a developer. I’m in business analytics (not DS either). As many of you did, I wanted to work at Google and I had applied for numerous postions in the past with no response. I wasn’t even disappointed because i knew it was a long shot. I guess 2020 is my lucky year because I applied for ano...Read more
I'm interviewing for SWE, I think L4 Google / 61 Microsoft but not 100% sure. I'm already onsite at Microsoft (late October), and I have a remote scheduled with Google (mid October). This is my first time interviewing with Microsoft. This is my second attempt at Google. First attempt I interviewed...Read more
It feels impossible to “lose” for top management or for that matter even middle management at some companies. You make 5 decisions a day at most and even if you screw up all of those decisions you have a huge golden parachute as final backup plan. It feels like bullshit when someone who works 1 ho...Read more
I didn’t come up with this but a surprising amount of people don’t know about it, so I’m sharing again. Have a gap in your resume? Want a gap for personal reasons? Make a startup! 1. Start an LLC (very cheap) 2. Come up with some BS mission statement, spend a week throwing together a website with ...Read more
L64, $250k TC, PhD+4 yoe looking to get into tier 1 FAANG. Been very frustrated grinding LC lately as I can't still reliably clear tier 1 coding bar. To keep morale up, I compare to how much better it is to when I was back in science (have a hard sciences background in chemistry and physics, not CS...Read more
Had a case interview a week ago on a tier2/3 consulting firm. (not MBB) The case was about our client is a Director Of Quality of a Pharm Company , and they had an incident that one of their drugs had some minor allergy effect as an irritation. So should he recall all products or not? This product ...Read more
Questions at the bottom. Thanking you in advance for reading this. I used to be very hardworking, high achieving, resilient, positive. However, now looking back, things already started to fall apart 1-2 years ago: - sleeping at 3am & getting <;=6 hours of sleep while having to cram - switching ma
Product manager of 8 years here. Over the past few months, I've fallen hopelessly out of love with my current PM role at my workplace. It something in hindsight I should have seen coming, but was blinded by the allure of 100% remote workplace and (what I thought was high, but apparently is average)...Read more