This is my recent job search story. I'm sharing it here because blind was a great resource in understanding company culture and TC potential, and I'd like to thank you all. I left meta nearly a year ago after being there for many years. Great company, smart people, good TC. They got me a green card quickly and helped me grow tremendously as an engineer. Much thanks Zuck. After a much needed break, I started searching for employment 3 months ago. Applied at 9 places, got 9 callbacks, and 6 offers. I don't believe in LC or any of that crap, and don't like the usual valley interview format. I went into all interviews with zero prep because I didn't feel the need. I don't know what is an LC easy/mid/hard so don't ask. Offers below are formatted as salary/grant/signon. Salary includes target bonus. Numbers are slightly fudged and rounded for my protection. DoorDash - first interview, and first one to expect compilable code which was unexpected for me (is this new since the pandemic? I never saw this before). The interviewer did not make this expectation clear until half way through the screener which sabotaged me. Why the hell didn't he speak up as soon as he saw psaudocode?? Rejected, obviously. Tesla - Rejected on screener, because I answered the question too quickly. Snap - Rejected after onsite. Not clear why. Google - By far the worst interview experience I've ever had. Timelines are outrageous, recruiters are not responsive, and I had my behavioral interviewers no-show TWICE. After onsite they tried to downlevel me to E4, which I immediately rejected. Didn't even get to the numbers because I didn't care what they were. Meta - Boomerang offer was 215/500/0, which I immediately rejected. I was told it was non-negotiable due to boomerang, which I expected. Told them to contact me if they decide they're willing to negotiate. Never happened. Startup A - Only applied because a previous colleague and friend was in a leadership position. Series A with ~150M valuation. Offer was hot garbage though: ?/120/0. Only discussed equity as that was what I was most interested in, but it was so low it derailed the convo. I would have been one of the first 20 employees, and I was offered 0.07%. I countered with 0.5% and they recinded the offer. Good riddance. Startup B - 175/1M/0. TC 425. This was the only interview format which was a departure from the usual, which I appreciated. Cool company, believable product and business model. However, I have a feeling the founder will not IPO under terms that are good for employees, because he's done it in the past. It also had a hostage vest schedule which is frankly disrespectful. Valuation was double digit billions which I had a really hard time understanding... TikTok - Offer for 2-2, but I could have shot for 3-1 with more risk attached. Offer is on a sliding scale, from 375/375/0 to 300/650/0. TC 475. I didn't actually want to work here due to wlb, culture and valuation (lol 400B, get the fuck out of here). Planned to use this offer as leverage in negotiations elsewhere. Recruiter was lying through his teeth, saying dumb shit like the TikTok side of the business was not being reflected in the valuation. Offers being cash heavy says the company knows the valuation has no basis in reality. Square - Offer for L6. 250/1.2M/25. Initial offer started around TC 400, but I negotiated up to 550. This is the offer I accepted, due to good wlb, fit, and TC. The market is red hot right now. Anybody on the brink of applying elsewhere should absolutely do it now. TC 550 YOE 8
Doesn’t Square ask LC Hards and stuff? How’d you pass those interviews if you didn’t do any prep? Do you have competitive programming experience?
Nope
So what kinds of questions did Square ask? I see a bunch of LC Hards tagged as having been asked by Square so I’m surprised that you passed them with no prep. Did you have a really thorough prep early on in your career and happen to remember most of what you learnt from that prep? I just find it impossible to believe you could solve LC Hards optimally in 20-30 minutes with no competitive programming background and no prep at all. It just doesn’t happen haha
First of all CONGRATS, and thank you for sharing your job searching experience. I would say 550 is a very good offer.
Yes I am very happy with the offer. It wasn't easy to get, but I'm quite satisfied. Thanks
Why didn’t you apply to amazon?
WLB?
I was kidding. No one should ever apply to amazon lmao
did you previously prep leetcode and just remember a lot of the algo fundamentals? did you interview a lot of people at meta?
Never did LC. I only performed interviews at FB early on to score promo points. As soon as the promo happened I stopped. Didn't conduct interviews for at least 3 years prior to leaving.
Great L6 offer for Square, I think that’s the highest I’ve seen. Startup B sounds like CloudKitchens
Can you say more about meta’s boomerang offer? Don’t know how that works. Is that something you apply for or is that considered a counter offer?
The recruiter reached out within 3 months of leaving. I had a Convo with him when I was ready and this is what I got. Meta does not like boomerang, and you'll need to wait at least 1 year before they'll allow you to negotiate.
Got it, thank you!
Congrats!!! Appreciate the interview process reviews.
Smart guy. You were probably that guy in undergrad who passed all courses with flying colors. Congrats!
Right?! The rest of us needing a ton of prep. Good job OP.
Congratulations! I was on the same page, didn’t practice any leetcode problems and still got many offers. I used to practice leetcode a lot 5 years ago though.
Oh so you happen to remember some of it or the techniques and that helped you to get the offers?
I usually treat it like a task at work, break it down and explain step by step to the interviewer. Then code review by the end, analyze tradeoff, think about real world use cases … just acting like a real engineer instead of memorizing 1000 leetcode problems
You got all those offers with no prep?? Not even prep for system design?
Correct