I got laid off, so I decided to cast a wide net to 10+ companies of different "tiers". They include so-called "top tiers" as well as "lower tiers". The results are astonishing to me. I received offers "surprisingly easily" from "top tiers". Amazon L5 - offer 375k Uber senior - offer 440k Square L5 - offer 390k Microsoft 63 - offer 280k I received mixed results from "mid tiers": Salesforce SMTS - offer 290k Atlassian senior - offer 355k MongoDB senior - offer 385k Dropbox senior - offer 390k Qualtrics senior - phone interview reject Expedia senior - ghosted after phone interview I received straight rejects from "lower tiers": Cisco senior: phone interview reject IBM: onsite reject Oracle: ghosted after onsite SAP senior: ghosted after onsite Capitol One: ghosted after phone interview My preparation consists of solving 800 leetcodes and 20 system designs over the span of 6 months. During the coding interviews, I was never stuck on any problems because I have seen them or similar problems. I at least coded a working solution, verbally stated the optimizations, and/or coded the 1 or 2 follow-ups. In the case of "lower tiers", the problems are mostly "easy" and I coded multiple of them. I remember in an SAP round I solved 8 leetcode in an hour, and even the interviewer ran out of questions to ask. However, I was ghosted after onsite despite following up. I also got humiliated by a Oracle interviewer about the currently company I am working at, which is a small bank. The most difficult interview was with Cisco. The interviewer drilled into every keyword on my resume for a good 2 hours, and I ended up feeling like a liar because I turned out to be "used" instead of "mastered" some technologies on my resume. Huge respect for them though. This experience got me think. Are so called "top tier" companies just wall street bubbles? They have so much VC money to throw around and would give any code monkey a chance. The real engineers are in so-called "lower tier" companies. They have real-world experience contributing to a stable and profitable business and choose not to chase the bubbles. However, this world does not reward down-to-earth people. It only rewards people who learn how to play the game the right way. In my case (in terms of compensation only), 5 YOE at a small bank + 6 months of leetcode/design >> a hardworking career to senior/principal/manager at Cisco/IBM/SAP/Oracle/Capitol One. Don't you think so? 6 YOE TC: 130k #faang #cisco #ibm #sap #oracle #capitalone
Congrats guy, welcome to the bigger leagues. Of your offers id probably take square
Hooray! I like Square's interviews, but I am leaning towards Amazon/Uber to have a big name on my resume.
I just say square because it’s super laid back and you’re not gonna get fired, unlike Amazon where apparently everyone gets pipped. Not sure about Uber.
Interview difficulty don’t correlate with a company tier. There are too many variations. Economy, company situation, the hiring team, interviewers, and etc
I'd expect someone with numerous offers to know this. But here we are.
It was my 1st real interview experience. I interned and worked at a bank for 5 years after graduation. There was not a real interview back then. They just looked at my transcript and asked a few questions about my schoolwork.
Don't think Atlassian/Dropbox/Salesforce are "lower tier" compared to Amazon/Uber/Square/MS though. Saw many polls with Salesforce and Atlassian beating Amazon
I don't know too much about the big tech world. I rank them lower for smaller market cap and overall impression of their "prestige".
Congrats. Amazon L5 TC seem to have gone up significantly compared to a few year back. Oracle seem like hiring freeze since mid year. Microsoft I thought also had a hiring freeze. Is the some place to figure out where there is actual hiring happening?
Their recruiters said no hiring freeze for senior roles. Not sure if it's bs. Got ghosted by Oracle.
It's in the news amazon double pay band for L5 earlier this year.
Sorry I dont buy that about IBM ..not sure how you got rejected by IBM they might have got nervous seeing your level of knowledge. If you are from Tier 1 city it seems Oracle will not hire https://nypost.com/2022/10/25/oracle-wont-hire-talent-from-new-york-san-francisco-report/ SAP pays low not sure. Cisco and Capital One are a bit different they might have tough interviews and is based on the interviewer and this I think has been documented in other posts in Blind .
I went directly to onsite with IBM through a referral. Interviewer asked specific questions in Java and Spring. I only worked on bank IT in the past where complexity was all abstracted away, so not sure if I answered deeply enough. The news about Oracle could be true. I interviewed well, though questions are not that challenging. I actually liked the Cisco and Capital One guys that I interviewed with. They have lots of depth in their domain and asked me meaningful questions, versus the 3 YOE "top-tier" engineers who seem to lack experience but a leetcode champion.
Congratulations 🎉 you have great offers and i really like your attitude.Also , what have you decided Square or uber or some other option.
How was MongoDB interview like?
Congrats on bagging the upper tier jobs. The lower tiers I think are looking for more experience and they might be going with gut feeling of your experience in terms of how extensive it could be instead of LC type of problems.
Congrats on the offers! Lower tier definitely tend to value different things. I like that about them a lot of the time. Verdict is out on how effective it is.
Yes. I feel that I was evaluated from all angles about my engineering skills, and my background may carry a lot of weight during selection. "top tiers" give every average Joe a chance. Their standard test procedure is all they care about. I do not feel my resume is even being looked at, so I got away with my no-name college and bank IT experience. At the same time, I think it is not fair for engineers at "lower tiers". They are definitely great engineer from what I can tell during interviews.