No LeetCode but managed to get three offers. Help me decide.

Found Blind, figured I was underpaid, tried to LC realized I'm not good at it and felt demoralized. Then COVID came and companies started to allow remote so more places I can apply which I did.

I knew I couldn't crack FAANG without 6 month prep so decided to fish 🎣 where I'll have the best chances to catch. Recent tech IPOs that offer decent comp and less emphasis on LC. Glazed through Blind top 75 questions for few hours before every interview.

All positions are remote and comp are shown yearly.

Affirm: Very promising position & would have been a great fit but I failed the take home. 24 hour limit ruined it for me. I'm not good with timed tests. ⏲ Offer: $0 Equity would have 2x if I had joined 2 months ago in the $50s?

Noom: Failed tech zoom screen.

Wish: Failed tech zoom screen.

Blend: IC3, 180k base, 100k equity, 10 sign on. Total TC: ~280k not sure about manager, didn't connect well 🤷‍♂️

Upstart: senior (L4/L5?? not sure), 170k base, 100k equity, 25k sign on). Total TC: ~ 276k (adding sign on 6k/yearly for 4 years). May be some room to negotiate? I don't know. levelsfyi says 430k in CA for L5.

Carta: L4, 195k base, 90 equity, no sign on. Total TC: 285k (firm no negotiation). Take home was fun. Best interview experience. Even though I spent 8 hours on take home. No LC.

Many other auto rejection and failed phone screens for over 3 months. Spend 1 hour every day applying online to companies. 200 online application total. Crafting resume to align with job description every time. Tried to find an hour each day to solve Blind top 75 questions but had rough time. I could only solve 2 or 4 a week on average and often had to read discussion.

I was asked LC type questions in two of the interviews that resulted in an offer. I couldn't solve half of them but I explained my thought process and tried to approach the problems in multiple ways. The ones I could solve were LC easy type or I recognized the pattern from Blind top 75. System design is natural to me as I've lead initiative to build scalable system in a distributed environment for many years.

If you are getting demoralized with LC, don't be and pick your battles carefully where the odds are in your favor. The more you interview the better the odds are. Think of interviewing as volunteering for the tech community that you enjoy doing on your free time, don't expect anything in return and always look for the next one. This was my way of persevering without any expectations.

If you are a senior engineer (L4/L5) stuck at your low TC job at a no name company. Don't wait to solve 100s of LCs. It's not necessary just start interviewing at non FAANG, your seniority and experience will compensate for your mediocre coding performance. Market is hot so keep on interviewing.

I also told recruiters to not reach out to me if they have no offer for me after the final rounds from the beginning so it doesn't hurt my confidence and I felt it worked out well.

Current TC: 🥜
New TC Range: between 1.5x - 2.5x of current TC
YOE: between 7 and 18

#affirm #carta #upstart #wish #noom #leetcode #blend #google #facebook #amazon