Joined Meta 6 years ago as E4. Made it to E5 in one year, but stuck at that level. No sight at E6. Past all cliffs, no extra equity. Here is my problem: I keep failing interviews. I failed 3 interviews this year: Roblox, Databricks and even Disney. Last year I failed Netflix, Stripe, Uber, Google, Jane Street. Apple straight up ghosted me after phone screen. I do ok on algorithms and data structures. Some companies ask me language internals which I don’t know since I hardly work in python, only use it for interviews. Design interviews are hit or miss. It is always one interview of the 4-5 that goes really bad. I’m so worked up now that I know I’m going to fail something that I just get stressed out. I am afraid to apply to Amazon in case I don’t cut it and have to interview for life when pipped. What do I do? 10 yoe, TC 360k
What are you failing? You mentioned system design hit or miss. How about coming? And behavioral? Could it be that you are applying for staff roles but you actually cannot justify staff impact/scope during the interview?
I interview for E5 equivalent. Sometimes I mess up a coding interview. For example Uber asked me to write a fair-use rate limiter which went really bad since I don’t do concurrency at all. I do ok with system design as long as I get systems I studied before (like newsfeed, uber, youtube) but I can really struggle with systems I never thought about. My teams hardly do systems design in daily work, so I don’t get to practice on the job. Behavioral is sometimes a problem. I have heard that I lack senior scope, but that is more of an exception.
Seems like you just need more practice in that case. Maybe stop interviewing for a while and spend some time grinding.
If you can coast at one of the FAANGs what else do you really need in life I would focus on personality development, learn yoga, meditation, travel across the World and just chill, may be if I can target E6 in the next few years, good, otherwise I’m still ok, as long as I’m not comparing myself with new grad offers
I keep getting the questions why I’m not E7. It stings seeing kids with 3-4 years being same level and sometimes higher already. Makes me feel inadequate.
Maybe even more reason to work on developing your mental fortitude and investing in your personality development. I know it's easier said than done, but you really shouldn't compare yourself to others in such an unhealthy way. Actually, solving these kinds of issues might do wonders for you long term and even help you advance faster once that burden is gone.
How do you prep for these interviews?
leetcode and practice various standard designs. I have read all the relevant books for design, but it shows during interviews I don’t do things on a daily basis if the interviewer ask a bit deeper.
If you dont mind me asking, which e6 criteria you didnt meet op?
most of them. I’m good at keeping things going, stomping out tickets. But my communication skills are bad, I never see the right path forward, never quite say the right thing at the right time. People are happy with me on the team. But winning wars is not what I do/
Sounds like your communication skills need work and you know it. This might’ve shown during interviews as well. How can you improve this?
The places you interview at are not easy. Prep and reinterview. Have you interviewed at all other than this year and last year? At any given day you’ll find a lot of people failing these interviews
Do you think you're getting pipd at meta or something. Not a bad place to be stuck honestly
agree. I still feel hurt when I see so many at Meta pass me. See so many come in at my level with much higher TC.
Ahh yeah that's just always going to happen take it this way there's a lot of ppl that would want to be in ur shoes right now and be at meta
Just relax and try again later
WLB? how many hours do you work per month?
How did you get hired at meta ?
solved some leetcodes and did ok at sysdesign. I was hired as E4
Why don’t you switch teams to go somewhere that gives you E6 scope?
Done that twice already. Even if the scope is there, I don’t seem to reach that level and tend to always get a Meets All. Some times the half goes bad and I have a Meets Most, sometimes I get lucky and have an Exceeds.