Director of Engineering at Google. Slow first week at work and too much caffeine. Happy to answer any questions. TC > $1.5M To all those asking for career related tips, Blind converted this AMA into a nice summary: https://www.teamblind.com/blog/index.php/2022/01/11/google-director-engineering-1-5-million-career-advice/
What level did you start at?
as a start
Was it worth it?
Yes. I enjoy most aspects of what I do.
What's the biggest cultural differences between Google, Amazon, Apple, and PayPal?
Great question. Amazon: Project Management and Delivery Machine. Average engineers, amazing processes and mechanisms. Hard to coast here. Google: Research heavy. Average project management, great at giving freedom and space to techies to innovate. Easier to coast here but those who want to here, can change the world. These two companies have completely different approaches. Apple - difficult to say. Itβs quirky, secretive, but values engineering talent. PayPal - Right domain at the right time (early leader). Chaotic.
Apple's culture is based around cross functional collaboration iirc. Their internal storytelling is "we're the best in the world at combining disparate disciplines." Take that as you may.
What has been your favourite team/product to work on and why?
How do you honestly compare cultures across the companies you worked at
Answered above.
How long did you stay at each company?
Between 2 to 5.
Do you do leetcode and if so, how many problems have you done?
Advice to someone looking to grow from l3/l4 level?
YOE if you are comfortable? Just for my knowledge not for blind tax.
Aha I should add that. Not a frequent Blind user. 16.
That's impressive. Congratulations