Interviewing Q&A and Videos

I had a round with a recruiter from a Big Tech company today. She reached out to me on LinkedIn, but it wasn't for a specific role, it was more of a call to determine what team would be best for me.

The call lasted about 25 minutes, where she asked about my background and explained the interview process. Then she asked me if I had any questions.

I felt constrained in asking questions because I felt like the questions I would ask a Hiring manager or member of the team to find out more about the team would not be questions the recruiter could answer. Also, she is recruiting for many teams, so how much can she really know about the team?

Should I have taken the opportunity to ask questions?

My usual go-to questions are:

• What are the company’s/team’s greatest challenges right now?
• What can you tell me about the team or group I’d be working with?
• How has the company changed in the past year?
• What are your favourite and least favourite things about working here?

The first 2 are team specific and are ones I felt the recruiter might not be able to answer so well. Indeed, when I asked what the company's biggest challenges were, she said that's very broad question, and I don't think she could answer for the team. She already told me basic info about the team, so I couldn't ask my 2nd question.

I could've asked the latter 2, but they feel kinda forced, especially during an intro call.

Should I have asked anything? I'd like to make a good impression on her, but I also don't know how important that is since she's going to take my profile back to the team and they'll determine if they want to proceed with me.

I've heard that a good question could be "How did you find me?" or "What made you interested in me?" since it forces them to come up with strong points about you and thus gives you a more positive image in their mind. Practically though, if I ask "how did you find me?", they might say "simple LinkedIn keyword search" rather than "I love your background using X, Y and Z tech!"

Thanks!

I had an interview with a 60 person company last week. It was the first round with the Hiring Manager. It went well and he told me he'd move me on to the next round. It's been 6 days and I haven't heard back from the company.

I'm wondering if I should ping the recruiter, but here's the thing: I don't necessarily want to have my next interview soon because I have other companies I'm speaking with.

So this question has 2 parts:

1. Assuming I want to interview with the company sooner rather than later so I can get an offer (fingers-crossed) sooner rather than later, has enough time gone by to warrant me pinging the recruiter?

2. If I don't want to get an offer sooner, but instead am fine getting an offer later, should I still reach out? I suppose you can separate reaching out for when you schedule the interview for, although they're definitely generally correlated.

Hi there, everybody. I was aiming to build a few applications to present in interviews. Last week, I was building a small-scale Spring Boot application with the help of a tutorial. The project I was working on was meant to retrieve data from a database using PostgreSQL to provide multiple choice DSA questions. I was creating an automated study buddy for technical interviews. Unfortunately, I've been trying to figure out some technical issues and database connectivity mishaps for some days, unfortunately to no avail. Currently, I'm working through a Node.Js tutorial to build an application geared to help me keep track of the things I'd like to do during my job search, so I can always stay on task. I don't know if I'm going to run into some more issues that plague me.

The thing is, I'm learning a LOT from both experiences. Now I feel I can have an educated conversation on the trade-offs of monolithic and microservice architectures... and I LOVE what I'm learning. I'd really like to have at least 3 small-scale projects handy that I'm using to automate my own life and make this job search easier for me.

Of course I'm going to continue to try to plow through these issues, and I'm not here to necessarily ask for help with my applications (although I won't say no if someone wants to help). It'd be great if I can explain how I solved these problems, because I know the challenging problems I've solved are what I'd want to highlight to people in an interview.

But let's say if the day comes where I have an interview and DON'T have a "finished" product, yet I still have these code samples that I can defend and show that I've gained a great deal of experience from... would it be a good idea to present these in an interview?

Thanks for the help,

Evan

One of my coworkers is leaving my company at the end of next week. I'd like to ask him for a LinkedIn recommendation. When I end up leaving the company at some point, I'd like to ask my current coworkers for a LinkedIn recommendation.

My question is, when should I ask for the recommendation? While they're still at my company but on 2 week notice, or after they've left? I think while they're still here makes sense since there's nothing wrong with a current coworker recommending you.

Any other thoughts about LinkedIn recommendation and their value (or lack thereof) are welcome.

In taro there are tons of great resources for Job Switches, like:

• As Alex explained  Job Switching has some caveats
• As , it is a red flag for recruiters when you switch jobs within 12-14 months.

I understand the point, but what if I choose the wrong company? It's well-known that not all companies can offer the opportunities that we wanted initially. In this case, should I stay longer even if I know that I won't grow there due to factors such as the company structure or lack of opportunity?

I have a goal of reaching senior levels in my career, but to achieve this, I need to gain expertise in certain areas, like

• Strong domain knowledge to make an impact on the product side,
• connections and collaboration
• software craftsmanship.

Currently, my role does not offer me an opportunity to gain experience in the first two areas. As the product is well-regulated and the entire engineering team works on-site, it is difficult for me to connect and collaborate remotely.

On the other hand, this is making me lose my confidence and my ability to make an impact, even though I have gained hard skills and knowledge from my previous experiences in software craftsmanship part.

I am seeking advice on what to do next, should I even care about those red flags in my particular case if I switch the job?

I've recently received an up levelled FAANG offer in the US. I originally applied for a mid level role (SDE II, E4, L4) etc. but was up levelled to a senior engineer in interviews.

I currently have ~3.5 years of engineering experience all at small unknown startups so I'm trying to decide whether to accept the offer or whether to ask for a down level.

I have several concerns about taking the senior offer, which I've listed below:

• I have only 3.5 years experience in development and I'm simply worried I haven't written enough code as of yet to be a senior and I'm not actually technically strong.
• My current experience has been in startups and I've never worked in the big tech environment. Currently we don't need to do things such as write design docs or seek approvals to write code. Additionally, we don't aggressively unit test and only have unit tests for key parts of the code.
• During the interview process I studied super hard and ended up seeing a lot of the questions that were asked beforehand in both system design and coding rounds (I'm concerned I have somehow gamed the system).
• I am worried that the fast ramp up time and expectations in big tech will end up seeing me setup for failure.

On the other side:

• I'm a hard worker and have good soft skills so I wonder if this will be enough to aid me while I get up to speed.
• I know that big tech companies spend a lot of time on their interview process and because of this I should probably trust their rating. They must have seen something if they gave me this offer.
• Finally the senior role offers a lot more money and it might be a good opportunity to see whether I sink or swim. At worst case a highly paid learning opportunity.
• If I could make it through as a senior engineer it could potentially save . 1 - 2 years career time.

Wondering if anyone has advice for this particular situation?

I am looking for new opportunities and based on what I am seeing on Taro. My strategy so far has been.

1. Create and polish resume
2. Prep for DSA and System Design
3. Apply to jobs.

This is the end of week 2. 8 Applications, 2 Rejections and not heard back from the rest.

So far I have been applying through LinkedIn and Otta only. I have intentionally avoided and not reached out for personal references. My thinking has been, that I don't want to waste the guaranteed interview opportunity if I am not ready.

My target at the moment is that I should be able to complete 90% of the grind 75 leetcode questions and at least a few system design mocks.

My questions to the community:

1. What are other good job listing services?
2. Is my approach sound or should I change my strategy?

With every rejection, I try to remind myself what said. "We can only do what is in our control; that is to continue preparing."

I occasionally have people reach out to me on LinkedIn asking me to refer them to my company. I want to be a nice guy, but I also don't want to refer people who are probably no better than the average person cold applying.

How should I think about helping these people without sacrificing too much of my own time? E.g. I can ask to see their resume and go through it to see that they're basically qualified. In my mind, the more qualified they are, the more reason I have to refer them, although the less likely they need my referral.

Am I thinking about this the right way?

Thanks!

I am a self taught developer and have primarily focused only on Android. I'm not a genius and I know I lack in many of the lower level foundation areas. Examples would be I've been doing Android development and really do not know much about the JVM or ART for the matter and how they work. I have never had to learn algorithms at all with my 7 years in the industry. The list goes on.

I do see myself as a solid Android developer and can churn out work but the goals I am striving for I won't hit at my current knowledge level. In my opinion.

However I am a process person and for me I basically need to put together a personal step by step plan on what to learn in order.

What are some suggestions?!

Hello I wanted to get some advice. I noticed I can make it to the recruiter, but I keep failing when it goes to the hiring manger side. I'm not interviewing with any engineers - Any ideas on how I can improve this?

How common is it that folks self-sabotage their interviews? I think I might have during one of them unintentionally. I had interviewed at a FAANGMULA company and mentioned a competitor. The pay was low compared to my level, but also, I felt like it was more junior and I tended to go very long winded (lack of practice) for various questions. It seems I am a bit out of practice for soft skill interview screens, though usually I kick butt on these and spend way more time on DSA than anything (my weakest area since I'm rusty and system design and behavioral interviews don't scare me at all).

Thoughts?

I'm currently happily employed and I want to cultivate a strong network so that when I need a new job in the future, I am not struggling

I have watched the Taro course on referrals and cold emailing, but my issues is that I went to a small no-name state school and I don't know that many alumni. Also work at a 5-10 person YC backed startup so I don't interact with many people at my job

I understand networking is a long term game, but I feel stuck trying to build deeper relationships and especially trying to level up

I'd love something actionable on how I can add value to people and network that doesn't rely on my job/college

I'd also love to know how to leverage the fact that I work at a YC backed company to network with other YC backed startups?

Everyone wants to work at a YC backed company so I worry that the eng leads/founders get tons of spam email, so how can I stand out -- especially if they are a B2B company where I cant use their product and offer feedback or if they're more mature (series A/B) and I don't really have a lot of feedback

I had an interview with a Big Tech company last week. The Hiring Manager told me that he had 2 spots open on his team, one mid L4 and one senior L5. He then asked me what role I wanted to be in. I waffled a bit, but then said the L4 role. I genuinely believe I'd rather be in the L4 role since I've never worked in Big Tech before.

I'm assuming I made a mistake in answering the question though. Similar to how you should never give the first number when asked about comp expectations, I'm assuming the right answer to a levelling question is something like "I'm looking to contribute at the highest level I can".

I imagine this response is the better response for 2 reasons:

1. I might be able to get an L5 role and operate at that level, even if I don't feel that way

2. If they think I'm going for L5, they might give me L4 as consolation, whereas if they think I'm going for L4, I might end up with nothing. This is the "shoot for the moon, land among the stars" strategy.

Can people confirm my thinking is accurate?

Hello! Are there any websites to assist with evaluating startup offers (e.g. salary and equity)? Pave and Carta are focused on providing benchmarks for the offer-givers, not the offer-receivers. seems interesting, but I'm not sure how much I can trust it?

Is it possible to just use Pave / Carta without paying for it?

Thanks!

Interviews typically comprise two main elements: DSA and behavioral assessments. Both demand practice to excel. Reflecting on my own journey, I vividly recall struggling with initial DSA rounds during college (lol I failed to reverse a linked list). However, through some practice through the years, I've significantly improved (one recent interviewer said something like I used up their followups and that didn't happen so often). Nevertheless, I still notice a disparity in my head when solving technical problems in live coding scenarios compared to when I'm quietly practicing on leetcode. The pressure of performing in real-time often induces anxiety, brain fog and being stuck when there's a bug. I believe additional practice could mitigate these challenges.

Needless to say, behavior & system design need practice as well. I also tried to sign up to be a interviewer of my company to practice from the other side, but there's not a lot of hiring happening.

I think currently the biggest efforts is to find the companies that are giving interviews.

Which companies are hiring / best for practice? I also heard you can interview with multiple teams in TikTok, which make it a perfect practice land.

What thoughts do you have?

Hello, I have 3 years of experience and I'm an SDE II at Amazon. The Q1 promotion results are out, and I'm surprised to see many fast-track SDE III promotions. It seems to me that when the time is right and stars align, SDE III promotion can be quick, and if you stay in one team long enough, it wouldn't be hard to get to SDE III.

80% of my team are SDE IIs, and I don't see my possibility of SDE III promotion in the next 2 years unless:

1. I find some big opportunities that bring huge revenue to the organization
2. There's a major reorg, and I'm assigned to a new team, and the new team expands
3. My current team shrinks for some reason, I stay, and my team grows again. Interestingly, my team's senior manager and 2 senior engineers actually fall into the third bucket.

What do you think? Should I just relax, keep pace, and grow my skills, hoping for a promotion by job hopping when the market recovers?

I would like to get some ideas for team match interviews with EMs. Most times, the team match interviews are the last ones after the entire loop with the company has finished. These interviews are very unstructured and very EM specific. Since there is no structure and most times, the team details are not known upfront (except team names), I was wondering how I navigate these and make sure I can show my full potential and upsell for this interview.

After speaking with the recruiter for the first screen, is it good practice to send a quick follow-up email to the recruiter saying "It was great speaking with you today. Looking forward to next steps!". Does this convey enthusiasm and focus or being a over-eager and insecure?

After finishing my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and and working as a Machine Learning Engineer for ~5 years I'm looking for something new. So far, I've been mostly focused on building software for real time systems, deployments, basic modelling, information retrieval (search) and troubleshooting "legacy" code and systems.

I'm now preparing for a new round of interviewing and I hope to make the jump to a highly paid job, possibly in the US (I'm based in Europe).

After assessing my skills and profile, I noticed that my data engineering skills are really superficial and I'm absolutely not confident in this area. E.g. I know basic SQL, but haven't build a data pipeline or ETL, I don't know hadoop etc.

Now, my question is if it would be wise to do Zach Wilson's  Boot Camp.

What I'd hope to gain from it: data engineering skills, more confidence in this area, and a higher chance of succeeding in (finding) a high paying job.

Do you think it's worth the investment, both in terms of time and money? Or do you think I should direct my focus elsewhere?

I am a Sr Engineering manager with 10 yrs of engineering management in Tier 2 type of companies. I am thinking to switch now and want to work for more tech geared companies. Do they ever hire M1 from outside?

In the middle of the hiring process I decided to review the company I had applied to in Glassdoor.

The reviews were very demotivating because they all mentioned multiple waves of layoffs in the last year.

By the time I read the company reviews in Glassdoor I had already had 3 interviews: phone screen, technical interview (leetcode) and system design interview. I performed excellently in all of them. The feedback from the interviewers and the recruiter was really good.

In my last interview with the hiring manager, everything went perfectly until it was my turn to ask questions. I could almost tell he was about to offer me the position. This was the question I asked him:

"When was the last wave of layoffs at <company>?"

He was surprised; I could tell by his facial reaction.

One week later, the recruiter sent me an email with an absurd reason for why they decided not to extend me an offer.

Do you think that the question I asked was the sole reason for my rejection?

Hello, everyone. It is March 29, 2024 at the time I am creating my first ever post on Taro. This is the Friday night where as of now, I am no longer an employee of a Fortune 500 company I used to work for. I was, how one says in corporate talk, "impacted by a layoff". I was given news of this on March 7th that I had a few weeks before I needed to return all my work technology and leave. This is the night of my last day in the company. People in the company liked me, so they told me to apply and come back again. A LOT of people were willing to let me use them for referral. It was one of the top 10 worst feelings of my life. But, it should not be one of the top 10 worst things to happen in my life. It's on me to make sure of that. I'm only 24, so I'm confident I can bounce back. I was also given a severance package to last me until the end of July. My company provided me outplacement benefits (resume writing, interview prep, etc), but I heard they honestly weren't too helpful. That's why I'm here.

What I've done in the meantime is update my résumé. I also have a plan of action for how I want to handle this upcoming first week of the job search. I want to build small-scale projects of each programming language on my resume which showcase understanding of mid-level to advanced topics of the skills I list in my stack. I want to treat my job search like a 9-5 job, where half the work day is spent building meaningful connections, applying strategically, and interview prepping (I need a LOT of that now), and the other half is spent on coding, be it refining what I think I know and adding new skills: hopefully getting chances to contribute to open source and giving back to the community.

I think I need to work on things such as making my résumé stand out, ensuring my interview prep is rock solid, and finding opportunities to show what I can do.

In the meantime, I'll check out some content that Alex and Rahul have on Taro, but I want to ask everyone else how I can refine the best way to begin my approach. What do you all think I can do?

Thanks!