Comment by testfit1
5 days ago
> I'm not a good enough software engineer to do complex stuff (think: very high load, distributed, etc) - so I can't pass interviews to all the FAANG move-fast-high-load-distributed-world-changing-do-our-7-round-dfs-bfs-interview style companies.
Feel free to disregard if you're simply not interested in FAANG, but what makes you say this? What has your interview preparation looked like so far?
I have almost two decades of experience. I'm approaching 40 years old, I have a family. Sure, I might sound stubborn, but I don't have the time to study 3 months for the nuances of DFS algorithms, or grinding leetcode.
The interviewing process should evaluate my knowledge as required by the job description, and not to play a role in satisfying the ego of the interviewer(s).
So yes, while I did refresh my memory on Big-O notation, and ran through some common brain teasers, I'm not going to read books and invest 3 months of sleepless nights in order to get the opportunity to be a cog in FAANG.
Life is about choices. You want to make BigTech money you have to play the game. You’re not going to change the way the industry works.
It’s fine not to want to play that game and accept that you probably will make less as a “senior developer” working in “the enterprise” as someone just graduating from college and getting a return offer from any of the well known companies.
I am 50, married and an empty nester. Spent all of my career working in “the enterprise” and even my one stint at BigTech between the time I was 46-49 was working in the cloud consulting division (full time direct hire) working with enterprise customers and I am now doing the same thing at a smaller company
You can put your ego to the side and enjoy making a quarter million a year as a cog or you can keep your ego and not - choices.
I made my choice and I continue to turn down opportunities to make more money for better work life balance. But I am making that choice with my eyes wide open.
There is also a world of semi-faangs. Something like working for salesforce or workday or even vercel or fly.io. These pay good money and will interview hard but maybe more accessible than the hard core Faangs. (And Facebook and Amazon are known ad hard places to stay at anyway).
Lots of choices out there!
2 replies →
Warning: unsolicited advice incoming. DFS, at least in the context of big-tech interviews, basically just means searching a 2D matrix, or a graph. It's not some esoteric 160 IQ PhD CS concept. You probably've implemented DFS in your day job without even realizing. I used to think algorithmic interviews were beneath me, too, but then I realized that attitude and insecurity was just getting in my own way.
I begrudgingly started treating LeetCode and CodeForces like a game, and it turned out to be more engaging than I expected. I'm also 30 with a family, so I get the time constraints, but just 30 minutes a day for a few months made a huge difference.
Put it this way: If someone told you, 'I'll give you $500k, top-tier career opportunities, and a resume that opens doors, but you have to spend 30 minutes a day for six months solving toy programming problems,' would your sincere reply be "no thanks"?
> I'll give you $500k, top-tier career opportunities, and a resume that opens doors
And he is not going to spend three months grinding leetCode, after working for an unknown company and walk in the door making $500K. He will make significantly more than he is making now admittedly.
And being in BigTech doesn’t guarantee a job or really help on your resume in and of itself after you leave these days. As many people who have been laid off, it won’t even separate you from the noise. Especially if (hypothetical) you, don’t have anything to show for it but you pushed some code maintaining a service.
Again no shade toward the original poster. I was about where he is when I was 40. If you take away my AWS account , I turn into a pumpkin - an enterprise dev with above average soft skills.
I don't think you sound stubborn, I think lots of people think the same way. Wishing you the best of luck in your search.
So you don’t have the time or you do have the time but won’t do it?