Interviewing Q&A and Videos

I viewed the resume masterclass video presented by Alex and Rahul, and in the video, Alex's resume was featured. It consisted of three sections: work experience, projects, and education. For a recent graduate without any work experience, is it acceptable to have just the projects and education sections in their resume? Or does it seem too limited, potentially having a downside when applying for jobs?

I've looked through the code quality course but for the purpose of an interview can I get a checklist of things that the interviewer will be looking for in terms of code quality? For reference I'm a junior SWE and I plan to use Python.

Hello, is anyone familiar with the interview process (what questions they will ask) for a sr. python engineer position at apple?

I'm currently at a Tier-3 company with 3.5 YOE and get ~5 recruiters reaching out a week. Some of the messages I can automatically ignore, while some are more compelling. I tend to ignore anything consulting-oriented and am more enticed by the recruiters for specific startups who say something like "come join our series A/B/C startup founded by engineers from Uber/Stripe/Meta! We have $X Million Raised!" I can only imagine that folks working at Tier 1 or 2 companies must be inundated with these emails and messages all the time and from better companies. What's good practice and etiquette for handling these? I'm aware of the masterclass on choosing a good team/company and since I'm aiming for Big Tech or Unicorn, it's somewhat helpful in being able to dismiss a lot of postings. To make this more concrete, I have 2 specific questions: Is it worth the time responding to recruiters if the answer is no? If my goal is Tier 1 (MegaCap Companies) and I'm at Tier 3, would it be a lot more helpful to get there via Tier 2 (Unicorns and companies people have heard of)? Open to any other thoughts!

I am an SDE1 that was recently laid off from AWS (~2 YOE total). Lately, I have been reflecting on what I wanted to do/what really excites me. I really enjoy software development and while I do want to get another job one day, I wanted to use this opportunity to scratch my entrepreneurial itch and create apps/websites/side-projects for fun or for many small business owners I know that need someone to create software for their business. I'm not sure how long this "break" will be but I would say ~2 to 3 months time. Part of this is inspired by Alex Chiou's love for side projects. I understand that finding a job will take some time as well, so the total gap on my resume that will be filled by this freelance work/applying might be ~6 months total. I understand that there are other posts on Taro that talk about the impact of a career break but this won't necessarily be a break per se. On my resume I will put this down as freelance work I completed for clients and will be prepared to show potential employers a portfolio of what I did. I was wondering if this would negatively reflect on my application when applying for SDE jobs again/will make it harder for me to land a job. Alternatively, I could begin applying and interview prep now and only work on these projects on the side. Thanks.

Hi, I have recently received an E5 offer from RL team as part of the dev-infra org working on developer tooling infra such as debugger, code editor. I have received this offer after a long 2 month wait in TeamMatching. Given the long wait time in team-matching, the recommendation in general is to accept the first offer regardless of your preference and then do an internal hop later. I have a safe and secure job at Msft L62 right now(about to be promoted in the next quarter), working in developer tooling as well. Team structure: The team is comprised of 4 sub teams with each sub-team focusing on a vertical and containing 6-8 members. My manager has 25 reportees under him and we have a tech-lead who is overseeing the whole product. Any advice/gotchas in general about work-culture, leadership for the org? Being an infra role, I wanted to know if there would be enough scope for me to succeed in this role ? I see there is less diversity in my immediate team, except me all the other team mates, tech-lead, skip manager are Asian, my manager is Indian. P.S I am not against any race, but wanted to get some perspective if I would be isolated and if I could an impact and survive there. I see that some of my peers are L6 at Amazon and I wonder if it would be difficult to compete with them and have decent job security. P.S: I am on H1B visa Thanks!! YOE:9

Given the following email: > Please follow the link to select a date and time that works for you. > > > The last step of the interview process will involve meeting with the leadership team, who are the leaders of each department (HR, Operations, Marketing, Product, and Strategy). This will be an informal session where you can get to know each other better and discuss topics such as what motivates you, your strengths and weaknesses, and your understanding of our product offering. We encourage you to review our website to refresh your knowledge before the meeting. How would you approach preparing answers for the questions?

I've been an SDE 2 at Amazon for the past 4 years, consistently exceeding expectations. However, I'm feeling burnt out, and it seems like support for my growth is lacking. I'm contemplating taking a career break, but uncertain about the current state of the industry and whether I'll find equivalent-paying jobs upon my return. What advice can you offer?

I got a job offer - It's just the 1 offer, so I don't have much leverage. I suggested a specific amount which I thought was the average salary (which is the amount they offered), but I forgot to take into account inflation going on in Netherlands/Europe. I want to negotiate for a higher salary and less working hours (which is negotiable). I have to negotiate it soon so would appreciate any tips ASAP. What I'm thinking of saying is the following: > I would like to receive xxxx amount because that would make me feel very appreciated and motivate me to work extra hard. I forgot to take into account inflation for the amount I suggested. > > "I would like to work 32 hours. This way I can spend more time on my hobbies and start well rested with the work week after a long weekend. Does this make sense? Follow-up questions: How are my arguments for salary negotiation? Is it better to ask for slightly higher so they can counter offer and we can meet in the middle and maybe get lucky and get paid even more? Not sure whether working hours negotiation makes sense outside of Europe - Is it common outside of here? If I ask for too much will they rescind the offer? All in all the current offer would be great for my current situation, but for the long term, the salary would be kinda low with inflation going on.

For context - I have recently left Amazon and I'm actively looking for another role that suits my lifestyle in terms of work/life balance as well as the interest during the job role. Given how the market is right now - I was wondering if it is better to get a contract role until you can get the opportunity that you find interesting or go for a full-time opportunity regardless?

What differentiates a Senior vs Staff engineers in terms of : the design they come up with how they communicate in the interview and how they drive the conversation how deep they dive in to each area of the design

I'm in my early 20s and started a startup with my friend from college shortly after we graduated. We got into Y Combinator and worked on the company for about 2 years in total before shutting it down recently. I didn't go to a name-brand school, and didn't work full-time anywhere after graduating, but I did a few prestigious internships, one of which being in Deep Learning. I've heard larger companies and recruiters in general don't like former founders, and I mostly did sales/product for our startup. We built a few web-based products and a few AI infra/AI apps, but nothing crazy and nothing with massive traction. We spent most of our time pivoting and doing user interviews/sales. I want to get an engineering job rather than PM, because I have internalized the value of being technical when being a founder and don't want to give entrepreneurship up yet. There aren't too many entry-level positions open, and I was hoping to not have to go into an entry-level role, but simultaneously I'm not sure I have enough experience to feel confident in being self-sufficient as an engineer. Before starting the company, I had a return offer at one FAANG company, and a New Grad SWE offer at Facebook that I let expire. I emailed my recruiter to try to reinstate it, and she implied that I would not be eligible for New Grad since I was too far from my graduation date. Ideally, I'd like to work in AI at a larger company since that's where all my experiences in college were and where I see the most opportunity (ideally OpenAI or FB). Otherwise, probably back-end/infra at a post-IPO startup/FAANG or worst-case post-PMF startup. I have a few questions: Should I only apply to entry-level engineering jobs, and am I even eligible for them? If not, what level of experience should I apply to and how do I convince them I'm qualified? How should I write my resume/describe my experience+title (especially for larger, more bureaucratic companies which are less open to former entrepreneurs)? Should I even include that I was a co-founder? How custom should I make my resume for each different kind of job I'm applying to (new grad swe, new grad mle, ai eng, at faang+ vs. growth stage startup)?

Hey Folks, I have a System Design Interview with Figma. Is there some fundamental material that I can start from?

What is the company looking for or expecting when they ask "Why do you want to work at Meta?" Is saying something like "I have used Instagram/Facebook for a long time so it would be great to work on a product that I use daily" a good answer? What is a good answer for this question for Meta and other companies in general?

I just got an interview for a backend role with Big Tech. I'm pretty excited. They informed me that the interview will not be a standard Leetcode DSA Interview. Here is what they said: > We’re excited you’ll be interviewing at Stripe! This interview will evaluate your ability to solve a programming exercise in a readable way, as well as your knowledge in automated testing. We don’t use Leetcode or trivia, or ask trick questions. This exercise is an example of the kind of coding we do regularly in our daily life at Stripe. In fact, every part of our interview process is designed to give you streamlined examples of the kinds of real-world problems we solve day-to-day. > > - We recommend practicing timed coding problems. Focus on writing code quickly, ensuring correctness, and explaining your thought process out loud as you work. > > - While our interview problems are different from exercises on LeetCode, Interview Cake, and Interviewing.io, some Stripes have found these sites helpful for practicing timed coding challenges. My question is, other than Leetcode, is there any way I can prep for this? I'm looking for a better way than Leetcode since I won't be asked a Leetcode question. Thanks!

Context I have a potential offer from Google. The job description mentions the following "The US base salary range for this full-time position is $221,000-$314,000 + bonus + equity + benefits" I was under the impression that this will be an L5/L6 role. The recruiter didn't really give that information away in the phone-screen. However, just before the team-match call (happens after the onsite), the recruiter told me that the HM had hinted them that this will most likely be an L4 role. During the team-match call, I made sure I demonstrated L5 signals when they asked me about my current job and past experience. The HM even told me that they really see me succeeding on the role and I should hear back from the recruiter shortly on the next steps. My Question I am preparing for negotiating with the recruiter. Is this a common low-balling tactic by Google recruiters? Otherwise why is there a mismatch between what is mentioned in the job posting and what they are saying?

Will they potentially downgrade based on interview performance? Or will I get flat out rejected if it doesn’t go well?

I have been given the option of a PIP or take a severance fee. I am planning to take the PIP, but if I fail I know I am fired. So when I interview for jobs after my termination, if they ask me why did you leave, am i obligated to bring up my pip?