I feel accomplished and want to briefly share my story in case it motivates others in a similar position.
Cliff Notes:
10 YoE in Dallas, TX
Current TC: $165k ($150k base + $15k bonus)
Accepted Offer: $331k ($200k base + $525k RSU/4y) from Twilio
Applications Sent: 11
Passed resume screen (i.e. got a recruiter call): 5 of 11 (no call or rejected: Stripe, Twitter, Uber, Block, Plaid, Instacart)
Passed recruiter screen: 3 of 5 (rejected: Atlassian, goPuff)
Passed tech screen: 3 of 3 (aborted Coinbase loop due to Twilio offer, the numbers were $192k base + $175k equity for Senior SWE)
Passed on-site: 2 of 2
Offers:
Twilio Staff SWE ($200k base + $525k RSU/4y)
Affirm Senior SWE ($155k base + $240k RSU/3y + $150k RSU/2y + $15k sign on)
Investment:
* 167 LC problems over 6 months (casual for first 4mo, hit it hard last 2mo). Bought 1y premium for the locked questions.
* ~20h studying Crack the Coding Interview
* Bought 1mo of LinkedIn premium
What helped me:
* I drank the LeetCode kool-aid, and it definitely helped me. At the beginning I was god awful at nearly every exercise. For 10 YoE, figured it'd be a bit more second-nature, but it was months of struggle. Blind 75 was a great way of touching a breadth of DS&As, my prior technique of hitting random probably wasn't the best. Eventually I did feel comfortable with most of the Blind 75. Ultimately, the only algorithm I used in interviews was interval sorting, but the practice kept me fresh regardless.
* Referrals from Blind were INVALUABLE. I didn't get a single call from any application that I didn't have a referral for first. Actually Coinbase and Twilio rejected me first before they called me back due to another application through referral.
* Blind culture of "you don't have to be special to get a FAANG job" was really motivating. Understanding that studying for an interview is normal helped put things into perspective.
* Learned how to navigate the modern interview loop from lots of searching on Blind. Being 9y since my last interview I had many rudimentary questions which many on Blind had asked before. For example: how to get multiple offers? what types of interview questions to expect? are the TC numbers on levels.fyi representative of the norm? what details can I share with my recruiter?
My goal going into this job search was $200k TC but due a mismatch in my expectations and this crazy gravy train going on now, I set my new goal to $300k and _still_ shattered that goal. So pumped.
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Levels.fyi - Compare career levels across companies
comments
โyou don't have to be special to get a FAANG jobโ ๐
For system design: I started with tryexponent.com's materials. I would watch YouTube videos for any specific systems I was curious about. Then I also put on InfoQ's YouTube channel any time I was driving somewhere, they have some great material.
I have been a software architect last 4 years so I think that gave me a bit of an edge on system design due to being fresh on my mind. Although my company doesn't operate nearly on the scale of any of the companies I was applying for.
Edit: updated my answer, originally misread there were two questions.