UPDATE: Hey people! I am going to take some rest. I will try to get back to you people later tonight. Chill Just finalized my offer with one of the FAMGS. Current: 3 YOE TC: 140k in some LCOL cities New: 3 YOE TC: 230k in same city but going to relocate after COVID to a same LCOL city. Started prepping to switch job when quarantine started and was asked to WFH (late March). Started contacting recruiters or getting referrals from friends in May. Interviewed with FB, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Snapchat. All for L4 or equivalent. All SWE position except FB since SWE E4 is currently on hiring freeze. Mid June - Late June: Online Assessment, Phone interviews Mid July - Virtual Onsite with all of them in the same week. It was f**king exhausting but also really rewarding. Virtual Onsite Order: Microsoft -> FB -> Snap -> Amazon -> Google Offers: FB -> Amazon -> Snap -> Google -> Microsoft Google: Even though Google was the latest to interview but for some reason they were super fast on the process (Google process is typically really really slow). Got feedback from Google recruiter 2 day after VO saying moving to HC. Passed HC in 1 day. The next day 2 HM were interested in me and there was mutual interest. Next day negotiation + official offer. Google recruiter was the most professional of all of companies. Constantly followed up, was really transparent about the hiring slow down. Facebook: Facebook was super fast but the recruiter seemed really swamp and this was not a SWE position. The recruiter was super brief on everything even the offer was like: Hey! You did really great and FB would like to extend an offer to you. Here are the numbers: XXX, please let me know if you have any questions. Only talked to the recruiter on the phone 3 times. Microsoft: Microsoft was kind of disorganized. They have a talent sourcer whose job is to get candidates into the hiring event pipeline, after that if you do get an offer you get move to the org's recruiter. Microsoft was the first VO I had but the last to give me an offer and lowballed big time even when I gave all the numbers that other companies offered me lol. Amazon: JUST F**KED UP...the recruiter was super unprofessional. Sent me a email saying that he thought that my resume was a great fit. When I replied saying I was interested the recruiter asked for my resume to see if I was a fit...excuse me??? Even called me without scheduling with me first. Afterwards he said that I was still in cool down and I was like I interviewed like 18 month ago, Amazon cool down is 2 years?? He replied back saying that he made a mistake and we moved on with the process. By this time I was dead sure I was not going to join Amazon even if I had an offer...so disorganized. Snap: Overall was nice. Recruiter was nice and the process was nice but they couldn't beat one of my offers which I was shocked after seeing so many insane offers given out on Blind by Snap. I had to give them up. Didn't do well in the interview for this one despite getting an offer.
Congratulations buddy!
Any tips?
Practice? Brush up your fundamentals and have a few projects you are genuinely proud of. I have a few side projects with few hundred stars, just small funny side projects, and was able to talk through them in my behavior round. The HMs were all really interested in my side projects.
Can you give couple examples from your side projects? Trying to see how complicated it needs to be.
Dying at the Amazon recruiter story
Amazon recruiters never fail to entertain me.
If one fail to entertain, you still have 100% chance someone else call to entertain!
Congratulations and insightful post, thanks for sharing.
Don't bother with Amazon
Haha.. I hear ya..
Congratulations!
How difficult was Google? Any special strategy for cracking Google?
It was the most difficult one. I wouldn't say it was unreasonable hard but you do need fundamentals. You can't just blindly memorize all LC problems and expect to get an offer from Google.
@OP only LC was asked in the interview? No discussion on system design or your projects?
Any books or any resources u recommend for a new grad starting to interview?
Leetcode?
What company are you decided to take? Does the interview experience and the recruiter experience influenced your decision?
Google. Yes, a lot. Amazon recruiter was t***h. Interview experience wise, Google was the best because the interviewer knew their stuffs. Amazon focuses too much on LP and the interviewer were like robots. FB was just like com'on!!!!!!! Let's finish 2 problems and you'll get the offer. Microsoft was pretty good also.
Lmaooo dying at the FB comment.
Congrats! #somegoodnews How many LeetCode did you solve? Why was it rewarding to give all the on-sites together?
Because you have a lot of leverage to negotiate and you will be in the "ZONE" for that whole week. VO made this possible, can't imagine flying around or moving to different hotels everyday for the week. Solved 400 during interview prep this time but I had done some prep before also so it was more like reviving my muscle memory.
Yeah that makes sense. Great job How much % more did you negotiate from initial offer? What was your criteria for finalizing company? TC?