Tech IndustryMay 21, 2018
Newmooncalf

Old dude/career change/G/FB/Interviews

I'm a career changer, was a lawyer for the first dozen years of my professional life, been doing tech support for the past 3 (never planned on being at my company so long, but got complacent). To begin, I took a few classes at the local community college and that was about it, started sending out resumes and took the first job offered. I've improved my coding skills quite a bit over the past few years just by practicing by myself and doing the occasional contest. I'm in the top 1% on HackerRank, which got me a Google phone screen. I passed it and have an onsite in a little less than a month. Also have a FB screen onsite the week before that (I'm local), which will be my first real whiteboarding experience. So, I have a couple questions. First, and most relevant to the situation I'm in now, what exactly should I be doing to prepare? I'm working through Cracking the Code with pen and paper, and it's going pretty well. Able to answer most of the questions decently well in a reasonable amount of time. I'm also doing a little Leetcode when I'm too lazy to solve problems on paper. Anything else I'm missing? Now the bigger picture question: I'm relatively new to tech, though at 40 years old I feel pretty ancient. I've had an interesting life, majored in math at an Ivy, was hardcore addicted to drugs and alcohol all through my 20s, finally got sober 7 years ago and realized I needed to start a career. I hated lawyering and wasn't particularly good at it either. Programming I like though. That said, all I ever do is solve old contest problems. I've never actually built anything. Is this terrible? Strangely, G and FB don't seem particularly concerned that I have basically no experience on my resume. But, assuming I miss on them, I'd imagine that the slightly lower-tier companies put a whole lot more emphasis on what you have done. If you were an old dude who likes contest problems, what technologies or projects would you concentrate on to build your expertise?

Add a comment
Qualcomm sdca1 May 21, 2018

not sarcastic?

New
mooncalf OP May 21, 2018

No, not at all

Qualcomm sdca1 May 21, 2018

you are smart man

Amazon hanumaan May 21, 2018

This is inspirational

Facebook TAKu77 May 21, 2018

The world needs more courageous people like you. Don’t worry about experience building things, given your bent of mind, you will pick it up in no time. Make sure you spend some time doing algorithms (like leetcode easy, medium and some hard) and system design questions. If you want to focus on an actual app, write an android or iOS app and be honest about your experience there. Also think of interesting behavioral instances in your life which bring out your strengths. Will see you on the front lines soon. Good luck 👍🏽

New
mooncalf OP May 21, 2018

Thanks friend, I appreciate the advice :)

New
zhJx38 May 22, 2018

Served 2 years in military. 3 combat zone trips. F..g six months of my life living death... Then MS degree in Math/CS Then some 8 years working as a software engineer. Went on an interview loop recently (FB, G, +5 more) Passed almost all phone screens except Amazon's (too dumb) All on-sites behind - no offers yet ( Was close in FB(and some others) but could not bluff my interviewer enough about stat vs fstat syscalls and > ls internals like getdents, etc (im not doing a lot of this on current job though). Do you think I should have mentioned to my interviewer I have real combat experience? Could that have increased my chances to get in if I did? )

RaaWee Inc. Aka365 May 21, 2018

Your a inspiration for me. Given that you already landed interviews with G and FB shows that your already ahead in your game. Keep up the good work.

Amazon odVN70 May 21, 2018

Maybe front end (web, app) for breadth, but that would just to be a little more appealing for job hunting. It might be better to revisit this later, though, and just focus on interviews for now. That is if you do actually fail your interviews. If you do get in, your chance to build experience is right there

New
mooncalf OP May 21, 2018

Thanks for the advice! Yeah, I think you're exactly right about focusing on front end stuff if I don't pass the interviews. In the FB recruiter's initial email to me, she said that they were looking for full stack engineers. I was very upfront with her that although I can use c++ to solve silly problems, I've never designed anything with a UI in my life. She didn't seem too concerned though :) It would be nice to have some little app that I've created from front to back; both for the experience I would gain making it and for the discussion point

New
Luffy, M.D May 21, 2018

They're going to love you if you can pass the interview bar. They can pay you a junior salary, train you to do things their way rather than having bad habits from the rest of industry, and you'll be a great token to demonstrate that there's "no age discrimination"

Amazon hanumaan May 21, 2018

are you in HR? you talk seems BS

New
Luffy, M.D May 22, 2018

Nope, just a cynical old guy who's been in industry a long time

Intel Mandalf May 21, 2018

Super inspirational story. Just remember you're only out of the game if you quit, so keep plugging along and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You can try to code up some side-projects to have some stories to tell in the interviews. Put everything up on GitHub to show you're a collaborative member of the software community. But just remember, in the end it will be mostly about Leetcode. Now and forever. In a world without end. Amen. 🙏

New
mooncalf OP May 21, 2018

Thanks, lol :)

Honeywell that1guy May 22, 2018

Please come back and update us on what happens. Otherwise I’ll write this post off as a bot :) jk. But seriously.

New
mooncalf OP May 22, 2018

Sure thing :) If I somehow manage to pass, I'll have to ask for salary negotiation advice (which I've already managed to bungle a bit with G before even having the onsite).

New
baQn60 May 22, 2018

Tc? Married/single? Indian? Just getting it all out. Luckily g and fb both give people a chance to start fresh...

Glooko localgrown May 22, 2018

I think you'll be fine. If a company can't see the value you bring they're not a good fit for you anyway. Safer to leave out that bit about the addiction during the interview, though.