Hi for the past 2 and a half years I have been working on a startup, self funded as the sole engineer to build a product which is on a par with a new mobile operating system, or a programming language, or a IDE, or a machine learning framework like Tensorflow. Sorry for reasons of anonymity I cannot disclose the exact product or what it does. It's about 700,000 lines of code if that helps. I've successfully launched the product with a lot of positive feedback and am just starting to get media coverage and initial clients. But it's taking a long time and the bills won't pay themselves (it's open source). I'm really passionate about the product and areas related to it and would be interested in pursuing a career in related areas in tech companies. Not just to pay the bills but to carry on doing something related. I have interviews lined up at Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. What sort of level and package should I be asking for from the likes of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon? Should I push for an acquihire? I am in the UK, are there decent engineering roles here (should I relocate to america)? Before doing my current startup I used to run a 25 person trading team in Citigroup, I originally pitched the product grew it to have global scope and over 2,000 clients, I was a Director (equivalent to L6 in Google?). YOE: 13 (26 non professionally, I started coding at 8) Current Comp: $0 (living off savings whilst I built my startup), previous TC in banking was $520k. Location: UK #compensation #acquihire #google #facebook #microsoft #startup #advice #whatdoido
You were the sole engineer and wrote 700000 lines of code. That's like 1000 lines per day over 2.5 years. Hard to believe.
To be fair half the code is tests so one could consider it to be 350,000 lines. But what I am telling you is the truth. Plus there is a 450 page reference manual, a small set of youtube videos (with like 300 fews lol) and a conference speaking at a conference of 1,200 people
If you have public talks and YouTube videos, why don't you reference them here. So we understand you better here.
Google only cares about your interview feedback and experience. 90% on the former. They don’t care about your title or whatever you say you did. Prove it during the interview that you know your shit and they’ll give you a good offer. Get competing offers from big name companies to get an even better offer. Good luck!
Unfortunately this^
To be fair, we should have done more hiring like this in banking. A lot of the time it was based on who-you-know/relationships from school etc. Competence (technical, architectural or social) were often ignored over previous experience/relationships. It lead to a lot of inconsistency in the quality of teams
The current product lead of Google photos followed similar path. Look him up
Cool thanks
So are you looking for a PM role? If so, you should have been able by now to get traction on your startup and would be a huge red flag to a hm and possibly interviewer. If looking for a tech role, and with 350k base you prolly should be, the failure to reach product market fit is not an issue at all.
What you are doing is unclear. Are you talking with recruiters or with bus dev folks? If recruiters, then an acquihire is extremely unlikely, especially outside the valley.
Hey thanks for replying. I'm speaking with recruiters at the moment. How can I get in touch with the business development people?
Usually they get in touch with you, homeboy. You don't want to talk too much about the startup if you want a job, especially if it's starting to take off. they'll know you'll leave as soon as you can