15 onsites, 3 offers

YOE 5 Old TC ~125k base only New company PayPal Fully remote New TC ~ 220TC 164k base 10% annual bonus 15k signing bonus 115k RSU vested over 3 years ———— Background———— I started the process in April and started my new job in September. In April, I couldn’t even reverse a linked list. I was okay at system design. I basically applied to every company possible on LinkedIn. My goal was to do as many interviews as possible for practice. I was a full stack engineer but wanted to be just backend java dev for next role. Goal: 200k TC remote with good wlb ————Overall results———— Onsites - 15 Tech screen passed - 17 Tech screen attempted - 27 Recruiter screen - 40 Companies applied - 100+ I rejected some tech screens since the company didn’t meet what I was looking for 5 Onsites passed (indeed lvl 1 counts as failure) 2 offers letters 3 companies willing to hiring me 1 ghosting by recruiter during team match 1 offers lost due to hiring freeze/budget changes ————Prep———— neetcode.io leetcode.com paid for premium https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer Alex Wu for system design ———— Onsites———— I got a lot of details about the interview process checking leetcode tagged, Glassdoor, and blind. I asked for feedback after every onsite but only a few companies gave it to me. Vistaprint Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: Recruiter messaged on LinkedIn Result: Reject Notes: I did bad. One of the interviewers didn’t even let me answer the system design question which was annoying. Was a practice interview. Capital One Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: Recruiter messaged on LinkedIn Result. Downlevel and offer for software engineer II. Notes: I did bad so I was expecting a reject. TC was like 165k with 20k signing bonus. Declined offer. Probably best recruiting process of any company I interviewed at. Stripe: Role: Software Engineer Applied: I applied Result: Reject Notes: I messed up one round very badly which ended my chances. Found the bug in bug bash so I was happy. Thought I did well on other rounds. Github Role: Software Engineer III Applied: I applied Result: Reject. Notes: I was expecting an offer since I thought I did well. GrubHub Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: I applied Result: Downlevel and offer for software engineer II Notes: I did bad so I was expecting a reject. I was going to accept this offer and then they had a hiring freeze. TC was 220k. 165k base and like 55k in RSU first year. Attentive Role: Software Engineer II Applied: Got referral from blind Result. Passed onsite. Had a few team match calls and then recruiter ghosted me. Notes: This onsite was for practice and planned to use company for negotiation so ghosting wasn’t a big deal. Microsoft Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: Got referral from blind Result: Reject Notes: Weird interview questions. Didn’t do well Hubspot Role: Senior Software Engineer 1 or 2 Applied: Got referral from blind Result: Reject Notes: They gave me detailed feedback which was nice. Helped me improve. Paypal Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: I applied Result: Passed and Accepted :) Notes: Process took a while. Team is important to PayPal and work seems interesting. Manager was friendly Indeed Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: I applied Result: Downlevel and offer for software engineer 1 (??????) Notes: Don’t understanding them offering me lvl 1 role. Rather get reject. I messed up a leetcode round so I wasn’t expecting an offer even though other rounds went fine Amazon Role: SDE L5 Applied: Recruiter messaged on LinkedIn Result: Reject Notes: Got different type of questions than most other peoples experiences. Didn’t do well Audible Role: SDE L5 Applied: Recruiter messaged on LinkedIn Result: Reject Notes: Did okay. Was expecting reject Zillow Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: Manager found resume from previous application Result: Reject Notes: Messed up a leetcode round. Was expecting reject or downlevel Samsara Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: Recruiter messaged on LinkedIn Result: Downlevel to Software Engineer 4. Budget changes right before I was going to get offer letter Notes: Was expecting offer for senior. SE4 TC for nyc col was 145k-167k base, 10% bonus, at least 200k in rsu vested over 4 years. They came back a few weeks later saying they have opening but I already accepted PayPal at this point. Uber Role: Software Engineer L4 Applied: I applied Result: Reject Notes: Did bad. Was expecting reject. Got feedback Pagerduty Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: I applied Notes: Not sure if they ghosted me or I forgot to submit my availability. Onsite wasn’t scheduled Optum Labs Role: Senior Software Engineer Applied: Recruiter messaged on LinkedIn Notes: 220k TC was too high for senior so they asked me to do onsite for Lead Software Engineer so I said no ————Q&A———— Q: How did you get so many interviews? A: Nothing special about my background. Java spring and AWS experience Q: How did you do so many onsites? A: I took vacation early summer and late summer. I did most of my onsites during my vacation. My company had random days off too so I did a few onsites during those. I did some after work hours too. Q: Why did you rush through the interviews if you weren’t ready? A: Economy was getting worse and layoffs started to happen so I just wanted to get an offer ASAP Q: 220TC is low A: Its a lot more than I made before but its kinda disappointing since I got onsites for a bunch of companies that pay 250k+ and even 300k+ Q: What’s next? A: Relax. Enjoy the new TC. ill probably finish up neetcode.io and Alex Wu system design over the next few months. Leetcode is dumb so I don’t want to waste too much time on it Q: LC stats? A: 55 easy, 50 medium, 3 hard Q: what would you different next time? A: Apply with referrals. Maybe contact recruiters directly on LinkedIn. Be interview ready before I start applying. Q: how much did blind help? A: so much. I wouldn't have this job without blind. They motivated me to make more money and helped me with any company specific interview questions Thanks for reading!

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