I've got 9 years of experience in all in my career out of which 4-5 are in software development/ data science all with my current company Qualcomm. Unfortunately, my career and TC has stagnated to such an extent that I feel I am equivalent to someone fresh out of school with 3-4 years of experience. FWIW, my TC is 170K. To add to this, there aren't many opportunities in SD and I can't relocate because my spouse is going to school here with a toddler in the mix. On top of this, I am on H1 (7th year) with no GC in sight (EB2 IND) and we are ideally looking to go back to India for good in 3-4 years so ideally, I'd like to work for a company where international transfers are possible. The last constraint is probably the only once I can relax by deciding to stay here longer until I have my career sorted out. Based on my understanding, FAANGs are really my best option - remote ones and ones with an office in SD. Lastly, it's very hard for me to get promoted in my current role or even increase my TC beyond CoL adjustment. It almost feels like they're happy to let me go and in fact are secretly hoping for it so they can hire someone straight out of school and pay them even less. The elephant in the room now is leetcode. I have been trying for about an hour or two days over the past 6 months and had to start from the basics of algorithms and data structure ( used CLRS and zero to mastery extensively). Coming to LC, I started about two months back and have solved a grand total of 20 mediums, 10 easies and no hards. I have browsed through about 100 mediums. A new unseen medium can take anywhere from an hour to 3 hours for me to solve. By solve I mean write error-free code which compiles and runs optimally. I can figure out the high-level approach in about 30-40 minutes but writing the code and tuning the algorithm for various input combinations takes time. System design is another beast although I feel more comfortable with those as in, I can identify constraints, come up with a reasonable architecture, and talk about various pros and cons and I see myself improving significantly with preparation. Given all of this, I feel it'll take me at least a couple of years to crack FAANG interviews given their expectations of requiring optimized, error-free code for 2 LC mediums in 45 minutes - I have a full time job with a fair bit of learning to do (machine learning, pyspark and so on) and a not very supportive family. My concern is that by then I'll have 12 years of experience in all and might "age" out of FAANGs. It won't help that only 7 of those 12 years will be in software. So, rather than bouncing these concerns in my head, I want to reach out with some specific questions: 1. What would it take to get a job at a FAANG for someone with 12 years experience. I am prepared to put in the effort but need some assurance that all this leetcoding will help because if I don't make it then there is little use in me knowing how to reverse a linked list. To be even more specific (a) How do recruiters pick candidates to phone interview - will it hurt if I move to a no name startup and get Qualcomm off my recent experience? Will the 12 year experience thingy hurt? (b) Will the interview be even more demanding to the extent that it can only be cracked by someone who's got 12 years of solid software experience at a FAANG? 2. I am also looking at data science roles and feels I might have a good chance as my day-to-day work comes into play during the interview. (a) What is the content of data science interviews? 3. If nothing works out, I could start looking for roles in other locations outside the US - India is the #1 option with Singapore, Europe, and Middle East being others. (a) How different is the job search process there for SW and Data science roles compared to the US? For folks with a fetish for TC: TC: 170K YoE: 9 Appreciate your time in reading thru.. any insights are appreciated.
DM me, will try to help you out on understanding DS side, I understand it can be tough if you are starting after a long time but keep hustling , it gets easy over time
This person is awesome
Thanks man đ
See, you have a problem, you intentionally telling yourself that you canât get a better job. Stop, throw all these years worth of plans away⌠just start interviewing, there are a tons of jobs out there.
Op i know you have you eyes on faang but have you considered Intuit? Intuit TC can certainly blow your current one out of the water, and the interview isn't that hard.
You will not age out of FANG. Just study. If you want to do this faster do a boot camp like" interview kickstart" or similar, that will also help you with leadership, soft skills, and TC negotiation.
Is it any good?
Yes, it is grwat assuming you are serious and put the effort. The information they give you on negotiating and soft skills is great. The coding part is a good systematic review of everything you need from first principles. It is expensive, a lot of work, but if you put the time it is great.
You just need stats, SQL and great product sense/metrics/experimentation for DS at Facebook. We are hiring for fully remote as well.
Work hard and smart. Leetcode and learn system design. I was in that position too. Stuck at Tc 150k 4yoe. I have wife and a toddler so I can only study early morning (5am-7am) before my son woke up and late night (10pm-midnight) after my son go to bed. My eyes turn red because of that and I went to opthometrist. But after 6 months of sacrifice, I finally get better TC (260k) at startup. Luckily, the company ipo less than a year after I joined and my TC is >500k now. Itâs possible and you need support from your family. Also try other companies instead of FAANG. The pay is almost similar nowaday with less competition.
+1 to sacrifice and red eyes
I would think you should focus less on LeetCode and more on System design. Once a person becomes more senior, don't the interview shift to more system design than LeetCode?
DM for ServiceNow
Thanks for tc
Get off your ass and stop complaining, do leetcode and system design My TC is 170 at 4yoe I have sacrificed since March to prepare and study and grind interviews I have an offer in San Diego for 290k now. And I am waiting to hear back from one more remote role.
also, an interview is not a fucking leetcode session, you need to show your thinking and your coding and your reasoning, if the code is not fully working that doesnât mean you wonât get a pass unless itâs hardass company like FB.
I think you should try something , we call it â GROWING UPâ.