I won because ...

TLDR: New Grad + interviews + failures + more interviews = SDE 2 @ azure. Disclaimer: - This is my personal experience. Do not generalize my views on companies, institutions, communities, etc. - Ended up with lot of words to share my story. I've tried categorizing the content so that you can find what you are looking for quickly. - I have to renege an offer and I do not want to encourage that. Be aware and ensure this is the right thing for you before reneging. Story: Decided to pursue masters after working for 3 yrs as an SDE (outside US) at a well known company. Amazon: Virtually interned at Amazon during summer. My experience was good in terms of learning and development. Worked on a project which operates at scale. Received good overall feedback and got a return offer as L4. I was trying for L5 and had always been in discussion with my manager and mentor about this. But, was told I need to work on certain areas and improve myself. While I'm just a newbie and still have a lot to learn, I felt few parts of the feedback were pushed on me. Decided to change team when Amazon asked if I'll be accepting the return offer. Reason - I felt my internship manager is not much interested in me and my career, but extended an offer just to get the work done. Backup plan: I continued interviewing at other places during and after the internship. Was able to secure new grad offers from Microsoft and Bloomberg. Numbers were very close and deadline was near. Decided to accept Amazon offer with a new team. Team allocation is random and subject to Amazon's business needs. It does not include candidate's preference and is shared 1 month prior to joining. Heard back last month and do not like the product on which my new team is working. Microsoft: Cleared interviews for new-grad. Was offered L59. Tried negotiation for the first time and was able to increase stocks + joining bonus. Was told this is the best they can extend for L59. Declined as I felt I will learn more at Amazon and TC is comparable. Bloomberg: Cleared interviews for new-grad. Was able to negotiate offer by decent amount. Declined again as I felt I will learn more at Amazon and TC is comparable. Other companies: I used to apply aggressively to lot of companies, both new-grad and +1 level positions, but had a hard time in getting a callback. Was once approached by LinkedIn recruiter for Sr. SWE position in Infra track, but was told they are looking for someone who can start ASAP after clearing the interviews. This was not the case for me as I was still pursuing masters degree. Next steps: COVID isn't over. Working virtually has not been great. Had to decide whether to finish masters in 3rd semester and start working at Amazon from Jan 2021 OR finish it in my 4th semester and try interviewing once again and see if I can secure better offer. Decided to graduate in May 2021 and try once again. Winter-break (Dec-Jan): Chilled around. Had seen lots of ups and downs during past couple of months and wanted a break. Just like everyone, I also think about what I'm doing, why I'm doing and if it is the right or wrong thing to do. During lows, I feel like giving up. This break helped me in getting my MOJO back. Realized I'm grateful for lot of things in my life. Giving up is not an option. Keep trying and accept what life is offering. I became happy again! Interviewing again: This time, I had changed my approach. Instead of blindly applying on job postings, I reached out to managers who post on LinkedIn about specific positions their team is hiring for. I realized, I am a good salesman and can convince people to offer me an interview. Lot of managers replied back and connected me with their recruiters. Google: Applied with referral. Got rejected. After few days, a recruiter contacted and told me they liked my profile and wanted to schedule sometime for knowing what I'm doing and what are my future plans. After the meeting, recruiter told me that they will be happy to offer me direct onsite. The process was really slow. Faced NP-Hard and met an interviewer who pushed me off the track. Got rejected. Realized I need to work on my interviewing skills, handling pressure and avoid making mistakes which I will not commit outside of an interview. Square: Reached out to a manager for Sr. SWE position on LinkedIn, was offered a phone screen. I read Square has pair programming interviews and do not ask LC style questions. Faced an LC hard and again a tough interviewer. Got rejected after phone screen. I shared my experience on blind and someone from Square DM'ed me saying the question was unfair. Was advised to contact the recruiter again and request another phone screen. To my surprise, I was given another phone screen and this time I cleared the interview. Unfortunately, the position to which I was applying was filled and my recruiter had to share my resume and profile internally with all managers. Nobody offered me onsite. After this, I again tried messaging on LinkedIn and another manager from Square was ready to give me onsite. But all this took good amount of time and I had to accept between standing offers. Did not move ahead with the onsite. LinkedIn: Was referred for Sr. SWE position in infra track. Cleared phone screen. 7 onsite interviews went decent (3 system design which includes concurrency, data structure design and high level design + 2 coding interviews + 1 lunch interview + 1 hiring manager round). Rejected. Recruiter shared I need to improve on concurrency and high level design. Rest all was good. Mentioned about gaining more experience and try again in 6 months. Uber: Messaged hiring director on LinkedIn for SWE II position and was connected with the recruiter. Got 845/850 in CodeSignal, which lead to virtual onsite interviews (phone screen was skipped). Performed decent in 5 virtual onsite interviews and was hoping for an offer. At the end of onsite, recruiter shared they will get back to me with the feedback in 2 days. Was ghosted and did not receive a response for approx. 10 days. Rejected with feedback on 1 interview where I could have performed better and good response about my system design interview. Box: Recruiter reached out for Sr. SWE position. Cleared phone screen and 6 virtual on-site interviews. 1 interview did not go very well. Was offered SWE-3 position with TC 250k in Redwood City, CA. You get to share your preference and rank the teams which are hiring. Recruiters share your resume and profile with these teams one by one. I got interest from managers of my 1st and 3rd preference. Overall experience was really good. They are very welcoming and treat you well. Declined and decided to go ahead with Microsoft. Reason: Wanted to work in cloud (azure) + TC was better after considering cost of living + equally exciting team who really wants me + better stock growth. Microsoft: Referred for SWE 2 position. Cleared phone screen and 4 virtual onsite interviews. Manager and other neighboring team members liked me. Got an opportunity to meet with senior architect of my org. He shared my performance was great and talked about the vision where my team and org are heading. Was offered L61. After negotiation, my level was increased to L62 with TC around 210k (average over 4 years) in Redmond, WA. Accepted. Ending: Winning and losing is relative and defined by us. I agree with Simon, it is an infinite game. I won because I accepted my future (whatever offer I will secure), did not lose hope during my lows, did not give up and persisted with trying more while enjoying the process of getting better everyday. There is a lot in life apart from TC and I am working on those areas as well (let's keep that for another post). At last, wishing you all success in life and sending you warm hugs! Motto: Be happy and do good! Resources for prep: Coding: - Leetcode - Cracking the Coding Interview - Elements of Programming Interviews - Grokking the Coding Interview - Grokking Dynamic Programming patterns Design: - Grokking the System Design Interview - System Design Primer - Designing Data Intensive Applications Negotiation: - Harvard Program on Negotiation: https://www.pon.harvard.edu/blog Blind formalities: TC: 210k YOE: 3 before masters degree in US #grateful #life #tech #microsoft #amazon #google #linkedin #uber #box #square #bloomberg EDIT-1: Added negotiation resources.

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PON - Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School