What would sway you to hire a SWE with zero YOE?

Wayfair
DwCJ86

Go to company page Wayfair

DwCJ86
Dec 16, 2020 8 Comments

I recently convinced a friend to take an interest in SWE, despite zero prior relevant experience. (My own experience: non-CS major at a small school, busted my ass off and am now in my second FAANG company)

Since it's been a while since I've been on the open market, and I've noticed an increasing number of bootcamp babies on the market struggling to get roles, my question is:

What would sway you to take a flyer on hiring someone fresh to the field, with essentially zero professional experience? (In this scenario, I'm excluding any unsubstantial "portfolio applications" that don't do anything more than perform CRUD or render TODO lists)

- Would attendance in a program like Flatiron, AppAcademy, General Assembly, make a difference for you?
- Would a referral & mentorship from a senior FAANG engineer make a difference?
- Would being open to working for peanuts make a difference?
- Would unusually proficient interview performance make a difference? etc.

TC: 260k
YOE: 6

8

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 TOP 8 Comments
  • Amazon
    cachednuts

    Go to company page Amazon

    cachednuts
    The only question that matters: can they LC
    Dec 16, 2020 5
    • Amazon
      cachednuts

      Go to company page Amazon

      cachednuts
      Your friend would need to pass through recruiter’s filter fodder, so I would work on a resume with interesting projects (and relevant tech stack), optimizing key words for AST, creating GitHub/etc
      Dec 16, 2020
    • Google
      iSpj48

      Go to company page Google

      iSpj48
      A very tough barrier for candidates that have zero experience is even getting an interview.
      Dec 16, 2020
  • New
    OUzv75

    New

    OUzv75
    as an interviewer, I only care about interview performance
    Dec 16, 2020 0
  • Family member was able to transition from being a fine arts major to graphic designer to swe by taking a big pay cut/risk and going to a very early stage but decently funded startup. Salary was 90k bare bones health care and no other benefits but they liked that they could wear multiple hats and were flexible with her gradually moving over to do more swe work and less design work. After a year they started pairing more with other engineers doing back end stuff. Now after 2 yrs has full stack skills and can interview anywhere - constantly gets reached out to by FAANG recruiters
    Feb 24, 2021 0