I am looking to make a move from Charles schwab to a more reputable company in the tech space. Key thing I am looking for would be something that would advance my career and give me the opportunity to learn from highly skilled engineers. I have interviewed at Amazon 3x, Google 2x, and FB once. I usually get past phone screens but haven't gotten an offer yet. If I am being honest about my abilities I dont think I am a FAANG level engineer. Just dont quite have the head for it. I am known in my group for being the person who gets shit done, and I know I perform very well on the job (and my bonuses and performance awards support that), but i really struggle with technical interviews. I am looking for suggestions of other companies to apply for that may be a good next step. I dont want to keep trying for FAANG and hoping one day it works out. I would also welcome interview advice beyond just "do leetcode everyday". Maybe a good course that teaches you how to interview but doesn't cost 5k? I majored in CIT, not CS, so a lot of my fundamentals are self taught. I have an interview with indeed coming up and dont know what to expect. About me: 3.5 yoe .Net developer TC is 100K. I am based in Austin but willing to move for the right gig. My most impressive experience all centers around breaking down monolithic / legacy applications and implementing more modern and sustainable solutions, but I would prefer to work with less legacy spaghetti (wouldn't we all!) #careermove #faang #interview #interviewprep #advice
Are you an SDE-3 at Schwab?
Yes.
> I am known in my group for being the person who gets shit done, and I know I perform very well on the job Let me stop you right there first. If that's true, you're a FAANG level engineer. Period. So remove that assumption from your head. As for advice for something beyond "do leetcode everyday", there really isn't anything for cracking algo interviews. The point of leetcode everyday isn't to get a certain number under your belt. I would rather do the same 100 problems 5 times each than do 500 different problems once. The former helps solidify the techniques and principles of algo problems whereas the latter is just checking shit of the list. Imo, there's diminishing returns beyond 100 problems. But I'm sure some people will disagree with me. FWIW, I've cracked Google, Uber, Amazon etc. among others. Now let's talk about good stepping stone companies. I'll talk about Austin: Bazaarvoice, RetailMeNot, Rigup, Optimizely, Dosh, Procore, H.E.B., Atlassian would all be great options. Apply away and good luck!
This was all great advice, thank you!!! I plan to look into all of these companies. Not giving up my quest for FAANG but don't want to sit around at schwab until I can make that happen.
Great post. Anybody got a good stepping stone company list for NorCal for a C++ embedded middleware SWE?
Interview Cake is an amazing pre-leetcode course to do to strengthen your fundamental grasp on common base algorithms and data structures. It is also affordable (particularly if you still have an accessible .edu email still). I always run through all there problems before starting interview prep. Has helped me pass Amazon, FB, Microsoft, Twitter, and Apple interviews. It isn’t a golden bullet, but a solid fundamental practice course.
Thank you! I will check it out because I think fundamentals is where I can be lacking a bit
You could try for Mastercard Data & Services in either Arlington or NYC. The company I’m currently at used to be a small, private company that has engineers that regularly get offers from FAANG companies (but chose to work here for culture, I was one of them) but this company got acquired by Mastercard. However, the people are amazing, you’ll learn so much, and we do develop in C#. Compensation used to be competitive with FAANG companies, but since Mastercard started putting in changes, it’s been lowered a bit. But compensation is still a lot better than what you’re making now and our new grads make around $140k. Other than Mastercard, you can try other financial services companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.
Mind me asking what small company that was?
I did consider that. I think schwab has me a little unhappy with finTech at the moment but thats likely just schwab. Have you heard anything about working at VISA? That was on my list to check out since its local to me