Just wanted to share my story for those of you still job-hunting and need motivation: Before joining blind in 2019 I was dissatisfied with my TC and trajectory. I always felt underpaid but it wasn’t until I saw the posts here when I realized it wasn’t a 20% gap it was more like 70%. It gave me the motivation to look externally and get there as well as FAANG recruiters hmu all at once for first time. I didn’t go to a top college and felt like I had gaps in knowledge so my first step was competing masters to fill in the foundation. ( Most of my coworkers had masters and my company paid for it otherwise probably could’ve learned it on my own). That took about a year and did it full time on top of work. When I finished I was slightly burned out but Blind offers kept me going and after a few weeks I began interview prep with all the resources from blind. Recruiters again reached out but I pushed them off for months until I felt ready to start. Here was the schedule: Google: Phone screen in Oct, on-site in Nov, got back in Dec that I had mixed reviews and could try again in a few months because I was “so close” LinkedIn: phone screen in Nov but I had a horrible day and messed up interview, wasn’t hard, no on-site Facebook: Phone screen in Nov, on-site in Dec Did really well but was downleveled to e4 because slightly less 5YOE got offer in Jan because of headcount ~$300k Amazon: Phone screen in Nov and on-site in Dec, got offer 3-5 days later. Final: ~$272k Coinbase and Apple: asked to expedite interview process so I would consider it, but FB was my goal and so I canceled those loops when I got what I wanted. Current tc: $145k 4YOE Point is to keep trying and not take failures personally. Can take months to “be ready” but give yourself the time, don’t give up, and you can do it. #swe #engineering #software
Congrats OP! I had the same debate about getting a Masters. I’m close to finishing a BS CS and started a Masters, I’m happy I’m doing all that but I feel like it takes time away from leetcode which I need. How did you manage to do all that while working? Did you just push yourself or did you stretch to finish the Masters and then work on leetcode? I can get a decent amount of interviews right now but it’s such a push to be good enough at leetcode to do well in the interviews.
Definitely was a concern and I didn’t start leetcoding until after masters. It was very hard to do with work but my manager supported me and let me wfh before Covid to get extra studying done. I still had to do all my work though, no slacking. Key was being honest with recruiters about not being open to interviewing before masters was complete
How did you do a masters in only 1 year while working full time? What masters program has such few requirements that allows you to finish that quickly? Ultimately did you feel like the masters was really worth it? Could you have had the same outcome without it?