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China CYBERATTACK on UK ? WTF
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How can my idiot brother who does real estate afford this
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How long has your job search been?
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I hate my f***** life
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Brother beaten severely as a kid. Doesn’t speak to dad at all now.
Have been reading a lot of complains about FAANG being overrated. It has got this ELITE status. It is a club that everybody on the planet wants a membership of. No matter people saying that FAANG bar is super low these days. But still, the competition is with every smart, talented, skilled and badass engineers in the entire WORLD!! When I started my tech career, I never ever even dream inside a dream inside a dream (Get that inception reference) of ever being in these super Big Tech companies that rule every aspects of our lives. I struggled to get a job out of school. I almost felt like an outcast. I felt like the Tech world is not my place. I am simply not good enough. But by stroke of luck, one company took a chance on me. I knew this was my step in the door moment. I stood firm and built enough strength to pull my self safely in. I studied.. I researched.. I took on challenging work intentionally. I identified gaps in my knowledge. I understood my strengths and weaknesses. I eventually got really good at AWS. Ever since, I set a dream. I set a goal. I dreamed of getting into Amazon one day, whatever it takes. I interviewed with AWS. I got through to the final rounds. I was flown over to Dallas, provided stay in one of the best hotels, paid for my uber rides and meals. Never ever had I imagined anyone treating me with such royalty and speciality. This incident just strengthened my resolve. Now I had to crack Amazon. I had no other goal. However, as fate would have it, I got rejected. This was the 2nd time I was rejected from the AWS final loop. A couple years before that, I had actually made it to the NewGrad final loop... again in Dallas TX. When I was rejected then, I did not feel so bad as the 2nd time. I knew I was still learning. I did not have any practical experience or any history or body of work that I was super proud of. The 2nd rejection broke my ego. I had delivered some super critical and impactful work in my current job. I had gained a reputation and immense respect of all my colleagues and managers. I had my skin in the game. I thought this time, I am fully armed and prepared. No one can stop me from joining AWS this time. However, when I was rejected, it broke that value system. It broke my own perception of how great I had become. Believe me, this realization is one of the greatest truths you will ever experience. It will change you for good. I did not sulk under this defeat. I did not lose confidence in myself. I knew I was good. Just need to fill in the gaps. I replayed the interview in my head. Tried to remember every moment of it. Analyzing for any place where I might have given a clear red flag. And I found it! I realized exactly where I had fucked up. I instantly got my answers for why and how the fuck did I get rejected! Having found this peace, I retrained. Changed up my strategy a bit. Took my time to fight an enemy I had just realized is an invincible force. I realized that instead of looking at it as an enemy or someone you need to defeat, look at it with the respect it deserves. It defeated your own delusions. You cannot beat a power like that. I made sure I am good. I worked on filling out these gaps I just mentioned. Then one day, I was at Barnes and Nobles just casually browsing LinkedIn, I specifically searched for Cloud Engineers at AWS and was just browsing through their profiles to see how many years of experience they had, which college did they graduate from. Then, I randomly messaged someone... made some small talk and then asked for a referral. He agreed and referred me. A few days later, I get an email from the recruiter that they'd like to move forward with the next steps! This was most unexpected. I wasn't looking for this at that time. Nevertheless, I wanted to give it a shot. First round was an online assessment. One of the most comprehensive and appropriate assessment in my opinion. You are tested on your prioritization skills, multitasking skills and decision making abilities. Just giving an assessment like that is an experience in itself. I cleared it! Next, a phone screen. I knew AWS for sure asked about DNS and I had prepared it well. I had tried to cover all bases. Interview starts. I am at my confident best but also trying to just hang in there! There was one place I messed up. But the rest was not bad at all. Before I proceed further, let me clarify, this interview was for an L5 position. A few days later, I got an email saying that I will not be moving forward in the interview process. I was dejected, but also had lost any will to fight anymore. I had started to make peace with it that I am not good enough for AWS. But.. I don't know how I can describe it.. a miracle? divine intervention? Alien intervention? ... I get an email from Amazon (the email id reads "hire-the-best@amazon.com") .. the emails says "Congratulations on progressing for the final virtual interview loop! Please share your availability at the earliest." I was surprised.. thought it was a joke.. spam.. however, it looked too real to be any of those. So I thought this might be for another position maybe?! Or, maybe the system messed up! So I replied back saying I was just rejected on the phone screen. I think you had the wrong information. They replied saying that sorry for the miscommunication.. The position you were rejected for was L5. We beleive you are still a good fit for the L4 position. Please let us know if you would still like to interview. How often has something like this happened to anyone of you? Could you please describe in the comments, what this was.. why it had to happen.. Why are they giving me another chance?! Who reaches out for a final interview after you were rejected?! So, I knew this was special. I knew that I cannot mess this up. I cannot let this opportunity go.. I recouped. By now, I was fully aware about what they exactly look for in the interviews. I hogged on the LPs. I wrote down one unique example for each LP. I revised it over and over again. I knew this was my moment. Final interview day.. I met with five people. My manager was one of them. Each interview 45 mins long.. no breaks in between. You are grilled. You are counter-questioned. You are tested. You are put under pressure. Facing this kind a fight, you cannot go in half assed. You have to be prepared. You need to know this is coming. Finally, after about 5 days, I got a call from the recruiter. He asked me how I thought my interviews went. I said they were OK .. Good.. I did not think I did not give my best. He replied.. Well Congratulations! Your interviewers think so too! You got the job! Let me know when you have some time to discuss compensation! I did not know what to do.. I thought I was in another world... nothing felt real. Slowly it started to sink in. Once it did to some extent, I went to my roommate's room and exalted.. celebrated.. like I had won the battle. I had scored the last minute goal.. It was pure joy!! Moral of the story.. what did I learn from this experience? I understand where some people are coming from who say FAANG bar has been lowered pretty bad. However, these people who say so, are/were already very good at what they were doing. Probably they never had to struggle to get their foot in the door with Tech. However, there are so many of us who don't have that luxury or previlege. For anyone who resonates with my story and understands the kind of struggles I am talking about, I'd say, chase a FAANG. Set it as a goal and plan how you will acheive it. Once you get heart and soul into it, you will start getting better and better at everything. The preparation you will do for this FAANG job will catapult your skills and knowledge in the place you already work. You will start going far and long in other interviews, even though you got rejected for any reasons. You will start to understand from your own interview experience, that there isn't something wrong with your skills and abilities. It is just that what they are looking for is different. You will start making peace with the interview rejections. And one day, you'll get the perfect interview.. the perfect job profile and the perfect match with perfect pay. This experience makes you a better engineer. It shapes you up for greatness. And if you do finally get that FAANG job, embrace it. Don't worry about levels. This advice is more for the younger people out there.. Don't get too hung up on levels. If you have an opportunity to see the world on the other side, take it. I assure you it is not as green as it looks. It is a mess. You will suffer from massive imposter syndrome.. your mental health will take a hit. You will constantly compare yourself with others.. You will feel like you are running behind in the competition.. The competition is tough.. You have to be at your best game every single day to be relevant. However, you will likely meet some of the best minds in the tech industry. You will have access to their documentation.. video library.. internal architecture of real world things which we take for granted.. You will understand what real scale is. Your thought process will start to open up to solving really complicated and complext problems under pressure. This is my personal experience. This is why, I believe FAANG still has the same respect and reputation.
Sir this is a wholefoods
I’m glad it worked out well for you! But I wouldn’t use cracking interviews at any of these companies as a measure of success. There’s an element of luck involved with these interviews, so you need to be in the right place at the right time. What does matter is making best use of your resources while you’re at it and hopping on to the next big thing when it’s time.
Didn’t read everything. Too long. But you’re not in a real Fang.
tl;dr One mans trash is another mans gold. But jokes apart, happy for you OP I do understand the struggles and hope this experience keeps you on your mettle for future growth
"everyone in the world wants into FAANG" I stopped there
Tried just scrolling. There are multiple paragraphs after “moral of the story”. Usually the story ends after that line but not this one. The moral is twice as big as the story itself!
🤮🤮🤮🤮
ChatGPT did not write this - 📎
“I realized exactly where I had fucked up.” Where was it, what had you done, and how did you solve for this in the future interview?
Curious about this too
when I analyzed my interview, I realized that my quality of answers was not good. I lacked technical depth in some of them. Then when it came to me asking questions to the interviewers, my quality of questions was also not good.
Imagine feeling this way about amazon or any company for that matter. Anyway trading > faang nowadays