Interviewing Q&A and Videos

Hi all. Got laid off from Amazon in April and still looking for a job (I know :/). I don't get any interviews with lower tier companies but I get interviews at top companies. Do you think that lower tier companies avoid me because I worked at Amazon and they know that I would leave when I get an offer from a top company?

How do they differentiate between senior and Staff in the interview process. What areas of STAR I should focus on while answering these questions and how to prepare for this round? I see some companies have the first round where they decide on this Any pointers on existing recording would help too.

Hello, I got laid off this January, and I am trying to find guidance on finding my next job. I have almost 4 years of experience (2 FAANGs). So far I had 7 first round interviews, made it to final round on 2 (failed 5), and got one offer, which is a really big pay cut (govt job) and I have to relocate far, so I am not really wanting to take that offer. I am applying for front-end roles so my prep varies between leetcode (50%), JavaScript and front-end tech questions (30%) and System Design (20%). I was very shaky on algorithms and front end, I wish I studied more before interviewing (I kinda freaked out and jumped too soon to the job hunt with spoiled skills). Almost every new job opening is a pay cut, even for senior positions (I wasn’t senior). Is the market really that bad now? I’ve seen posts on Reddit and other places of people getting a job quickly after getting laid off, and not only that, it is a pay increase, which makes me feel like I am doing something wrong, since I’ve been job hunting for 4 months now. Sometimes I get demoralized after so many rejections but I keep trying every day to get better skill wise, I feel like I got laid off because I was an underperformer. Even though I was never put on disciplinary action, it did take me a lot of effort to understand and accomplish my tasks, unlike other of my coworkers, so I keep reflecting if I could have done something different. Anyone in the same position than me or has experienced this before could give some advice? Or any comments are appreciated, thanks.

The context: I am looking for a startup to join and realized that most of the opportunities are with NodeJS and TypeScript. I've been working mostly with .NET for quite some time but JS/TS are not new to me. In fact, TS is written by Microsoft and probably because of that, the syntax is very close to C#. So, I don't see big issue here. But NodeJS is a different world. I have some professional experience with it but don't know it deeply. I understand if you are a good SWE the stack doesn't matter that much. But we are talking about finding a job here. I will have to convince the interviewer I can do it. And the questions will go for sure deeply about Node env. My motto is if the interview is tough, there is a higher chance that there will be more talented people than usual. But tough interview will make it even more impossible to me. What are the opportunities? Learning it for few months myself? I am sure will help me to understand it better but it's not like having years of experience with Node. Applying for non-senior positions, sacrificing the payment but learning? I am not sure this is possible actually. Or smth else?

Hello everyone hope you are all doing well. I got laid off from my Full Stack Developer position mid Sept. It’s Dec, and I’m at 1700 applications. I only got 1 interview early Oct, nothing after. I couldn’t get a call back from a few companies paying 15/hr. Positions I’m applying to: Web Developer, Full stack developer, Front End Developer, UI/UX designer (occasionally), Software engineer. What I have been doing this time Setting a day every Thursday of the week to improve something in my resume I’m a foreign student so I don’t have the luxury to wait out, or work any other job than tech so I’ve been working on a project alongside applications. Finishing Meta’s full stack certificate on coursera so I can be prepped up with the basics Collaboration posts contributions on LinkedIn Walkins at recruiter agencies Using referrals still no luck Messaging hiring managers and recruiters - no luck or response on that end to Going an extra mile with cover letters Redid my LinkedIn I’d be curious to hear your opinions on how I can break out of that cycle. I’ll attach my resume below for your reference and feel free to point out everything that I can change. Link to my resume:

Just got an INCREDIBLE job offer (new company) after being under-stimulated and feeling super unvalued by my current team. I have completed work on all my projects and have no open threads. My last performance review was strong and in there was a mention of promoting me during the fall cycle. But I have some questions: How do I gracefully communicate that I'm leaving the company? What do I say to my manager when I tell him? What should I say to my teammates? Who should I connect with before leaving? How should I handle the exit interview? What can I do to leave in a manner where I'm welcome to come in case things go south at the new place? I genuinely hate this place and my manager was a total jerk to me until I learned to just keep my mouth shut and avoid certain conversations. I don't want to be pressed during the exit interview or conversations as I'm leaving and put my foot in my mouth and burn bridges -- especially with everyone and their mom getting laid off right now.

I recently interviewed with two 100-person startups and both of them have one round of "pair programming" interview. In that round, we do live coding with a very simple coding question. An example question is to design a Robot class that has integer 2D coordinates and listens to keyboard input to move up/left/right/down - Intro to Programming level questions. They emphasis on class methods design and how the solution code is structured. During the interview, I feel like the interviewer has a clear answer in mind of how it should be structured, but I can't read their mind. I asked what's the use case of my class (how it's called, call patterns, future features, etc...) and the interviewers say something like use your best judgement or ask the question back. The interviewers don't seem to be interested in input parsing and edge cases (like how many edge cases could there be for such a simple question?). They also asked what would you do if you want to deploy it to prod, which feels more confusing (I answered a few metrics, logging, tracing and monitoring stuff but not sure if that's what the interviewer is asking for). I failed both, but I want to get some learnings out of it. What are interviewers looking for in this round and how should people prepare for it?

I use Typescript for work and in the past I used C++ exclusively for coding interviews, but now I feel I can use Typescript itself for interviews. What do all use and has anyone given a coding round using Typescript? It would be great if you highlight the pros and cons as well.

I am at the final stage of a interview with the CTO of a startup. All my interviews were scheduled via an automated system on their end and hence have no method to contact a recruiter or anyone from the said company. The interviews till now followed a “big tech” process with tech phone screens, system design, etc. This final interview is for 30min and i am guessing its going to be behavioral and some “getting to know each other” type of thing. What are some questions i can ask to show I'm interested in the company and the role. But, at the same time i want to understand their long term plan (think 6 months, 1 year and forward)? A side question: Should i keep interviewing for public companies? Given I'm on a visa, but the tricky situation for me being that my current employer will be undergoing a layoff in the last week of April. If i do end up getting an offer from this startup should i still be looking out for jobs at more stable companies? (i do acknowledge that there isn't any such thing as “stability”)? Any pointers or guidance on this would really help me out in making a final decision 🙏 Note: they are willing to sponsor visa

Hello Taro Community I want to pick a specialization now due to the market and the lessons I’ve learnt being in the group. A little context on the issue: I had a mindset that more technologies I know the more options I’ll have and also working as a full stack dev in my last position I got a lot of hands on experience on different stacks. More like breadth of knowledge but not depth. I was applying to jobs like Database, UI/UX, Front End, Back End, Software and DevOps couldn’t land any interview in the last job hunt. Last month I let everything go and I told myself I’ll specialize in “Full Stack”. I have been also working on side projects for my portfolio. However, a lot of senior devs told me Full stack is too broad and 2 and 1/2 years of experience that won’t cut it. I want to specialize in Front End with React and go very deep in that. Build projects pertaining to React Front End for my portfolio. My fears: I’m closing down my options, and limiting myself to Front End Also being a foreign student where you kinda have to “work in tech” since that’s my major a lot of fear is coming up. In case the time I go back in the industry there is lack of front end openings A lot of family friends in the industry telling me that Front-End specialization will be a waste of time since the industry is very saturated with it Deep down I have realized specializing will really make my portfolio, knowledge and resume stronger. Plus Front-End is something I genuinely am drawn to and enjoy doing. Would love to know your input on this.