I never in my wildest dreams thought that I will get a Google on-site and as luck would have it, had it last year. Needless to say, read through everything, knew about hash tables, queue, stack, and what not. I couldn’t solve any of the coding problems, had a good design interview, just explained the overall system design I was currently working on and added couple of constraint related questions. What would I be thinking. Got a feedback few days later that there were some positives but lacked on coding. (Haven’t been actively doing prod code since 2014). Next came Amazon and I was like, u gotta be kidding me. No way, I could get an Amazon interview. Went through online coding and flew to Seattle. Couldn’t flatten a linked list and that was it. Didn’t know how to. Next day feedback, moving on. Next in-line was FB albeit not for a role I would have envisioned but recruiter somehow convinced me. Alright, set up an online session and flunked it. Must say, FB adds unnecessary complexity in the problem statement that you figure out later it was a simple sorting problem (not in my case though). Done deal. Who was next in line? Microsoft. Had a discussion with recruiter, with a team member of the prospective team, flew to Seattle and cab took a right turn. You guessed it, to Redmond. Thought I had a decent interview, show caused my “improved” coding, needless to say I am very good soft skill wise, exhibited personable traits. Feedback after few days that I missed the boat by not much. I was 2nd best. Gave some solace to me. Last was Apple. Spoke to hiring manager, went through a little coding exercise and off came the on-site interview. Btw, this was the shortest turnaround period among all. Everything done within 4 weeks, from the first call to the last phone from the recruiter. Well, didn’t make it either albeit I was told, I lacked the technical depth that was required. Not sure what they were looking for. I bet a 3 year experienced engineer would know that. (JD was for 3 yoe). How did I fair? Loser? 10+yoe, non-CS background, self learnt embedded systems.
Leetcode
So you haven't written any meaningful amount of code for 5 years and expect those companies to give you a job as software engineer because of… yeah, why exactly would you think that?
Definitely wouldn’t blame them for not giving me a job for sure. Honestly want to know if there are people who have experienced the same being in Silicon Valley for longer than I have, only an Year now !!
Did your resume clearly reflect that you have not been an active prod swe, especially w.r.t the role you were applying? If so then the joke is on them. They couldn't even parse a resume.
Been there and sailing in the same boat. Keep going at it again and again and don’t loose hope. You will crack it. And Hey you are self learnt embedded engineer ! That’s an achievement in itself.
Thanks buddy. That gives some solace. May be not have any of the FAANGs on your be all and end all list will help in relaxing!!
All you need is practice with DS&A. Really devote yourself and practice (leetcode, CTCI, EPI, whatever works for you) and you can definitely get offers.
Your problem starts with “Never thought Id get an interview”. You should believe, then the interviewer will.
My premise started with a) non CS back ground, b) no Masters, c) didn’t set world on fire (the awards I got were part n parcel of my job) and biggest of all, getting filtered by these FAANG companies, the odds are 1 in a million, read some blogs about it!!
Been there, worked at Amazon, joining G soon. Was an average CS undergrad. Im trying to help you, believe that you can set the world on fire.
Did you actually practice on leetcode or or other similar platforms? You need interview style coding practice, esp if you're not coming from an active swe role. Just reading about coding won't help much.
Yeah, did try that. Not actively though but I will target to solve at least 100+
@elgoooogle Really :)
I would definitely invest some money to get trained by those mock interview companies. Say 0.5% of your salary. Sometimes others can be mirrors to see us better.
Hey OP, have you considered a non software engineering role at one of these companies? Since you have a non-CS background, it may help to do that instead to get your foot in the door, if working at one of these companies is what you're after. Google, Microsoft and Amazon have a lot of decent paying customer facing pre-sales, consultant, sales and post-sales support roles especially in cloud computing (not as highly paid as software engineers at the same level, but pretty solid pay with good equity nevertheless). Once you do that and get in, if you still want to be a coder, it may be easier to transfer internally to a job of your choice.
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Leetcode. Something in yoir background is attracting the right companies..develop the needed skills and you are king
Agreed. You’re not a loser by any means, OP. The fact that you were able to attract attention from some of the best tech companies shows that. With some leetcode practice, you’ll be an extremely strong candidate.