I have seen people (colleagues) literally walk into FAANG and other companies after barely passing (or not passing interviews) because they had someone who would “vouch” for them. I have had mediocre (and less than mediocre) engineers hired into my team because I referred them/agreed to “vouch” for them. Whatever “vouch” means :) OTOH, I have seen people struggle day and night with Leetcode/System Design practice and interview multiple times at FAANG (and other companies) only to fail once more. Many times the interview goes perfectly, but they fall through the cracks in the administrative processes. Even though you spend 6 months Leetcoding day&night for FAANG, you’re just another candidate - one of several hundred/thousand. It lead me to the hypothesis that your best path to career advancement, higher TC, FAANG, etc is to be a friend and maintain a good network. Have people who will “vouch” for you. It’s a lot better than brute forcing your interview process (aka leetcoding hard). #engineering #software #swe #leetcode #leetcodehard
You probably need a little bit of both
Straight up avoid HC? No way. But definitely a very senior set of people saying “this person is awesome” would probably get you more likely to uplevel your hiring level you’re applying for/help away any HC that looks at your packet. Still have to pass interview though and have a legit resume.
Yep. If you have Zuck writing you a ref you'll probably have an easier time getting past the equivalent hiring committee but they probably won't write you a ref if you are singularly unqualified (not to mention the chances of someone randomly knowing an exec at that level without being director+ is low) . Given that the committee tends to be drawn from across the company, it would have to be like a VP or SVP for people to recognize the name. I'd also expect HR to explicitly have an HC composed of people not from that VPs org
A few things: 1. Not every company has a hiring committee made up of individuals from across the company. Hiring usually (almost always) tends to be team specific - the hiring manager makes the final decision and can override everyone else’s. 2. In the “very few” companies like FB/Google that do have a diverse hiring committee, having someone to “vouch” for you increases your overall interview performance score. That’s how it works at Meta, at least. 3. To add to point 2 above, many times a Facebook/Meta recruiter will chuck a borderline candidate’s application because they’re unsure the candidate will make it past Hiring Committee. It’s much less likely to happen if there’s someone to vouch for the candidate.
Yes. This is true
To grow you need both. Someone vouching can you can 1. Help you pass through borderline cases in interview 2. Help you get promoted and grow quickly by getting you the right projects and right opportunities Someone vouching for you, cannot get you accepted in companies like google, fb, LinkedIn etc with one or more strong negative interview feedback. Someone vouching for you also cannot get you promoted beyond Sr without you executing on the projects
“Borderline” is a very relative/subjective term.
Also, there are ways around poor interviews performance - such as doing a follow up interview.
This is mostly true for higher leadership levels but may not be that true for lower levels.
No. True for all levels. Please read the other threads in this post
What kind cap is this. Networking only gets you to the interview stage. After that it’s all leetcode
These days any software engineer can get an interview very easily. No need a referral. FANG (not including Amazon) recruiters contact me every month. Other recruiters contact me daily. 20 emails/LinkedIn messages per day on average for me. But referrals/recommendations get you a lot further! A loooot further. PS. I don’t count Amazon coz it’s a bot, not a real recruiter 😂
Regardless of what you get, you’ll have to through the interview stages and study leetcode. Just cause the recruiter contacts you, doesn’t mean you automatically get the job
This is only at the highest levels like director/ principal engineer +. By that time you would have built your reputation
No. At all levels. Several managers at my company ask me regularly if I can recommend a friend or colleague that they could hire. Ofcourse they will need to interview (but it’s more as a formality). And unless the candidate totally screws up, it’s very likely they will be hired.
You still have to leetcode and pass. Don’t get it twisted
No you don’t. Please read the other threads in this post.
Go network then if you think that’s the case lol
Network + Leetcode > Leetcode >>> Network
That’s probably why you got PIP’d
Network + leetcode > network > gym workouts 🏋🏿♂️ >>> leetcode alone
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I am starting to think Chinese interviewers currently fail non-Chinese candidates on purpose.
Of course! I walked in and get a job all the time. But I am freakin awesome, though.