7 months of unemployment to FAANG

Intel / Eng
IntelTME19

Go to company page Intel Eng

IntelTME19
Nov 13, 2020 310 Comments

Hi Blind Community,

I wanted to share my long and brutal road from layoff to FAANG company. I hope to give some inspiration to others who are unemployed or getting rejected. When it seems all hope seems lost, remember someone has been there as well. If they can do it, so can you!

I have 15 YEO, 5 as developer and 10 as technical marketing role. I have a BS and MS in computer science from a top 10 USA university. My resume is solid and recruiters have told me.

I worked for Intel for 10 years and I technical program manager in my last role. I was very good at my job and I loved it! I would have been totally happy if I retired in that Intel job. I loved my team and my manager. The pay was low but I was very happy. See my Intel TC below.

Unfortunately, a vengeful senior VP within Intel IAGS cut my entire group in March 2020 and then hired one of his good old boys to do the same job. We got on his shit list because we started reporting some of his unethical spending to finance and it got back to him. This is actually illegal and some encouraged me to sue. But it's not worth my time and the return would be minimal. Also, that evil VP would still be there. We were even given roles on others teams but the VP blacklisted everyone on my team and blocked all transfers. I was forced to take the separation package, which was about 40K after tax. I'm still bitter about this VP, I wish nothing but failure in his life. I left in March 2020, when covid19 was extreme. We even begged to get extended but was rejected!!

From March 2020 - August 2020, I applied to near 150 jobs online. I applied to any tech company, big and small. I failed big companies like Amazon, Spacex, Autodesk, Google, Facebook and even Intel again. Rejection was extremely brutal and demoralizing. Covid19 has made competition extreme. I remember applying to a Microsoft job and saw that LinkedIn alone had 2000 applicants. How in the world can I set myself apart when there are thousand of qualified people!?? But I forced myself to apply to a new job every day. Getting excited and then sad from rejection was an exhausting emotional roller coaster. I assumed I would eventually land some low end job.

Then one day in August 2020, a random recruiter from FAANG emailed on LinkedIn. It was one of my dream companies and I never truly considered I was good enough. At this point, I thought it was fake. I had been scammed before from fake jobs. But this time, it was real!

After going through 5 rounds and interviewing with 10 people, I got a job offer!! I was over the moon. I'm now working on a project that will literally change the world in the coming years.

For all those looking for jobs, I send you all the luck and best wishes. No matter how much you fail, please keep trying. Sometimes life test you and you must endure. If you can get through it, you shall be rewarded.

Lean on your family for support and be thankful for their good health.

Intel base: 115K
Intel Bonus: 25K
Intel RSU: 10K
Intel TC: 150K

New FAANG Base: 190K
New FAANG RSU: 160K over 4 years
New FAANG Sign On: 75K
New FAANG TC: 305K
#covid #laidoff #intel #faang #covid19 #layoff

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TOP 310 Comments
  • Uber
    wpaoa

    Go to company page Uber

    wpaoa
    Congrats, that's great to hear! However, you should specify which FAANG you are joining, without this the numbers make little sense.
    Nov 13, 2020 11
  • How much leetcode you grinded?
    Nov 13, 2020 13
  • Mary's Gone Crackers / Ops
    panda1971

    Mary's Gone Crackers Ops

    PRE
    Infineon Technologies
    panda1971
    Sounds exactly like my story! Except I went through 12 months of pure hell and I didn’t end up in FAANG but instead with a semiconductor company which is still ok for me.

    I also just finished an MBA from a top 10 university in the US. It was really horrible bc I was so underpaid in my last job (base salary of 85k despite having close to 18 YOE) and was getting rejected from 700 job applications that I submitted over the course of the year. Meanwhile, I had to endure the pain of having to see nothing but constant LinkedIn updates from my fellow classmates, almost all of them who are 15+ years younger than me, way less experienced than me, and have absolutely zero tech background, reporting they secured a new position as a Sr. Technical Product Manager or a Sr. Marketing role @ FAANG companies. It really pissed me off that these kids who were so less qualified than me could just waltz right in and get these jobs so easily while I have struggled for the past decade to pivot from my former engineering role into a business-facing role.

    At first I was angry - really pissed off that everyone around me is able to get the job of their dreams but I cannot. I blamed it on my age and thought it was so unfair (it still actually is - I will tell you truthfully that Discrimination on the basis of age is PERFECTLY LEGAL AND CONDONED OR EVEN ENCOURAGED in this country.).

    Eventually, this anger turned into frustration. Then this frustration turned into severe depression to where I almost had suicidal thoughts of wanting to just curl up and die inside a life of solitude. I borrowed a ton of money to finance my education and am facing an enormous student loan debt. With such a shitty salary, how could I ever pay off my loans? Having such a huge student loan debt when you are in your late 40’s is embarrassing enough. The depression affected both my mental and physical well-being to the point where I developed an ulcer and was coughing up blood.

    However, after an entire year of absolutely brutal job searching work, taking on side projects voluntarily, enrolling in bootcamps, upskiling myself by enrolling in courses covering SQL, python, Pytorch, AI/ML, sensors, spending twenty hours a week extra trying to do mock interviews, preparing for case questions, and working literally 100 hours/week, I finally, I received the offer I mention above. It was like a dream come true for me and I literally cried tears of joy.

    This was over 10000 hours of blood sweat and tears for the past year. I slept on an average of 5 hours/night. I had no social life for the past year and my weekends were spent working/studying 18 hours a day. I am a huge outdoors person and all of the hobbies (ocean canoeing, hiking, cycling) that I used to do were non-existent for the past year. In fact, even if COVID did not happen, I don’t think my miserable life in 2020 would have been any different.

    It’s really interesting but I’m willing to bet that many other Blinders, who are in their early 20’s, would look at the offer I receive and probably laugh or think it is below them. In fact, I recall hearing these privileged entitled little millennial shits from my MBA class mention that they actually received an offer from company I will join but they rejected it because the location was in the Bay Area or in TX, and they would consider only those companies that would allow them to live in sunny Southern CA next to the beach and palm trees or remotely. Many of them just straight up admitted that they would never work for a company that isn’t as sexy, famous and hip as Google, Amazon, McKinsey or Facebook. They said they applied there only as a backup in much the same way kids apply to “safety schools” for university.

    I can only imagine how it must feel to have the power to be able to dictate such petty and superficial criteria such as “I will consider only jobs that will allow me to have work next to a sunny beach” when looking for work. I can’t believe these people can’t realize that 99% of the world would kill to have the jobs that these people reject based on such asinine and petty criteria. They simply seem like entitled spoiled but very qualified children.

    Some even laughed when I told them i applied here as one of my top choices and that I would literally give up my left arm to be able to get an offer from this same company that they ridicule and look on with disdain.

    However, for me, it is my dream come true and it represents not only a year but over a decade’s worth of painstaking brutal work. I have been trying to obtain a product marketing/manager role for the past 10 years but was always met with rejection. However , now I finally did it and I can say with pride that my hard work paid off.

    Although I think this offer and job position might seem completely stupid and petty to many others who enjoy the luxury of being able to have things happen so easily for them, to me, it is a dream come true and the value is worth a million. I am thankful for finally being able to get the job of my dreams, even if it is not a FAANG company and have the wonderful support of my gf who stuck by me through anf thin and encouraged me when I felt like giving up and throwing in the towel.

    Happiness is all relative.

    TC: 240K
    Nov 15, 2020 11
  • Redfin
    LcWm14

    Go to company page Redfin

    LcWm14
    Congratulations! I was laid off in April and have been dealing with rejections since. It’s not the getting laid off that bothers me, I hated where I was, but the constant rejection takes a mental toll.

    Reading experiences like yours helps a lot more than people may realize. It’s a nice burst of optimism in the midst of all the rejection and ghosting, so thank you!
    Nov 13, 2020 7
  • Flagged by the community.

    • Walmart
      Mikel-Scot

      Go to company page Walmart

      Mikel-Scot
      You are doing no good to yourself by being racist here, especially when you are of the same race yourself (yes, I know Indian refers to the country, not a race but hopefully you get the point).
      If Indians' reputation is damaged by some stupid folks like yourself, it will be hard for you too.
      And if they are really so bad, first you severe all ties to Indian folks - relatives, friends, spouse, kids and your parents. Then see how well you get accepted into any other culture and how praiseworthy other culture/races really are.
      You being stupid and an Indian does not mean everyone from your country is also stupid.
      Do not damage it for lot of good folks just because of some bad folks.
      I have worked with several Indians in my life and they were all great chaps. Pains me to see their country's reputation being thrown away like this. Sure, there were AHs too but then every country has those. No one has found a ratio where they are more.
      Nov 15, 2020
    • Hey, just trying to make $10 easy
      Nov 15, 2020