Here is my attempt at brining some hope to someone who might be where I was a few years ago. If you want the TLDR skip to 2019 2012 Graduate with B.S. in Environmental Science, tried for a good solid year to get a job with the federal government, state run fishery, environmental consulting firm, etc. but got very little traction. Eventually moved home and ended up teaching ski lessons for a season (best job I ever had although it didn't pay a living wage.) 2013 I didn't want to become another towny so I moved to Seattle without any real plan. Found a job as a canvaser for a nonprofit (another really fun job that barely paid enough to live.) Eventually found my first office job, which made me feel special because it was my first salary job (40k) and had health benefits. I hated the office job but this ended up being one of the most fun periods of my life because I would go out to shows twice a week and stay out with my new friends all weekend. 2014 Life is fun but I'm feeling pretty down about my career prospects, started looking into MBA programs just looking for a lane up. Found out that coding bootcamps were a thing. Started taking night courses at a local bootcamp. 2015 Got accepted into the bootcamp's full time 8-week accelerated program. Quit the office job. Finished the bootcamp and about a month later I found a jr. developer position with a startup through a friend-of-a-friend (I got pretty lucky with the timing here.) 2015-2019 Worked at the startup. Learned a fuck ton. It was a great place to work, great people, and I think this company will always hold a special place in my heart. Salary went from 60k-132k in the 4 year period. 2019 In early 2019 I started to get recruiter outreaches from FAANG companies through LinkedIn. I didn't really pay attention until Google reached out (it was sorta my "dream" company.) Once I realized Google was within reach I started hitting the DS/Algos hard. They didn't really cover these in any depth in the bootcamp so I was starting from 0. I decided I would do better with some structure so I signed up to do https://interviewcamp.io/ (for someone starting from scratch I would definitely recommend the program.) I also supplemented the course with a couple dozen leetcodes. Prepped for 15-20 hours a week for ~3-4 months. Summer 2019 Phone screens with Google, Amazon, Facebook (all from recruiters on LinkedIn.) 3/3 got to onsite. 1/3 got an offer (FB) Funny enough Amazon was definitely the hardest interview. The Fb offer was for their "rotational" eng program. Basically a 1 year probationary role that converts to E4. Honestly never thought I would work for FB but I had worked so hard and the money was too good to say no. 2020-Present Worked at FB as a rotational engineer, passed the probation, doing my thing at FB as an E4. 2014 - 40k 2021 - 260k It's possible. Feel free to ask any questions. #tech #faang #bootcamp #seattle #fb #facebook #google #amazon
did took you whole year to become E4? I am joining this year as rotational but the recruiter says is possible to get E4 after the first rotation.
Yes it took me and about half my cohort the full year. Everyone joins thinking they will do it in 6 months but honestly its a bit of a lottery with your team. My first team had never hosted an rEng before and I think that led to some timing and scoping issues that made it hard for me to demonstrate my impact in the 5 months. Try to get on a team that has successfully graduated an rEng before. Its a bit of a special game that your manager needs to know how to play.
Thanks for the info. How much was the pressure on rEng program to get the E4? i mean on blind says about 90% get it, so I assume it is just demostrate you are competent? How different are the responsabilities as rEng role vs E4?
Nice dude!
Congrats! I did a $7k bootcamp and I still think I have a lot of knowledge gaps. Could you please share why or how interviewcamp worked for you?
Interview camp goes through the key types of questions and emphasizes problem solving strategies that can be translated to solve numerous different types of algo questions (as opposed to just memorizing 100s of questions.). Their system design stuff was pretty good too. But I would never have had the confidence to apply without the 4 years experience at the startup.
Thank you! The course is in Java. I only know Python and I can't LC without looking at solutions. Should I sign up?
Amazing story, thanks for sharing. I’ve been hearing mixed reviews of bootcamp ROI post-2019. Some say that the market is saturated with not eng-bachelor degree bootcamp people, and even if they build projects for 6-8 months after bootcamp completion it’s still a crapshoot to find a jr. dev job. However a friend of mine said it’s worked out for them and they found their first jr. dev role 2 months out of bootcamp. What are your thoughts? Market too saturated at this point for bootcamp to be worth it? I’ve considered this route myself in the past, ty!
I think theres still room in the market. The two most important parts are 1.) Finding a reputable bootcamp with a good curriculum and 2.) Location. The bootcamp I went to had/has a very good reputation locally. Local candidates have a much better shot at landing an interview, no one is going to pay to fly a Jr. halfway across the country for an interview. Being in Seattle I think was a big part of my success. If you can, relocate to a tech hub. (maybe covid has changed all this but seems unlikely for Jr.'s) Right when I left the startup we hired another bootcamp grad who did way better in our interview than half a dozen candidates with Comp Sci Masters degrees (the interview was very practical and didn't involve leetcode.) Also people were saying the market was too saturated when I graduated in 2015 and nearly all of my bootcamp cohort found a job within a year.
Hey man congrats on getting into Facebook! Once you graduated the program, were you able to negotiate the full time E4 offer or do they give you the mid band offer? Do you mind sharing the tc breakdown of your tc? Also, during the rEng program how was your wlb? I know it also depends on the person based on skill set but for you how many hours did you work per week?
Thanks! I was not able to negotiate, the breakdown is 156 base, 320 stock/4years, 10% bonus (so I guess 251k not counting my first year sign on bonus) I'd say the WLB was decent. Generally 40ish hours per week but each half there were a couple of crank weeks were I got into the 60 range. I'm also lazy and easily distracted so if you are hard working and focused you could probably get your work done without having to crank. The hard part is its so high stakes. It feels like a year long job interview. It was also tough because at my previous gig I was putting in maaaaybe 30 hours/week and was considered high functioning (mainly because I stayed around so long I was the only one who could operate the legacy code base.) It's harder to slack at FB for sure.
Thumb up to interviewcamp.io, also heard it from a co-worker who took the camp and landed a good job. It took me about 1 year and sort of double my salary with multiple offers!
My wife just completed a bootcamp as a SWE and is expecting an offer from a startup in SF. What should be the salary range? It’s a non-profit
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Congratulations! Much deserved. How is PSC at Facebook?
Stressful lol. I wouln't say its been nearly as bad as some people on blind make it out to be but its definitely a high pressure environment.