Interviewing Q&A and Videos

Hi, I have a question about answering these prompts for Meta referral How well do you know this person's professional skills within their area of expertise? (Never worked together, just by reputation, worked occasionally, very well) Why do you think your referral should be hired? How important are they? What are they looking for?

Hi all, I'm prepping for a behavioral interview and have gone through the courses on behavioral interviews and communication. They were both super helpful, so thank you for that! I was wondering if anyone has developed any ideas for how to respond to a great weakness. Often, it feels like people use this as an opportunity to humble brag (e.g. "I don't take enough breaks", "I can fixate on a problem too hard", etc.). Maybe these are terrible examples... In the past, I've gone with "I don't multitask" because I mostly try to focus on one task before moving on to another. But I also don't want this to land poorly when interviewing at a startup. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Under what circumstances is a candidate typically down-leveled after the onsite interviews at Meta? The interview was for an E5 SWE role. The recruiter mentioned that the coding interview was not at E5 level (this was even after acing both the medium level coding questions with the correct Time & Space complexities). I am looking for guidance on what could be the reason here. Also, the feedback for the System Design and Behavioral rounds were good. Thanks in advance!

Hey, I just posted a question related to me considering to quit my job here: Should I leave my company due to effects of commute? (jointaro.com) TLDR: I am seriously considering quitting my job due to the commute, I live in SF, have 1+ years of experience and am looking to work in the city/remote. I have 6+ months of savings and am a U.S. citizen. Effectively, I'd say there's a 95% chance I'll quit my job in Jan 2024. Considering this, I'm evaluating the current tech job market. Generally, my impressions are that while the overall economy is doing quite well, the tech market is in a bit of a lull w/ potential layoffs in 2024-2025. We had the major overhiring of 2021-2022, then the layoffs in early 2023 and now are in a period of stasis relative to the bull market of the past 10 years+. I believe this is also due to the end of zero interest loans making capital expensive. This then leads to profits being more emphasized, then cost-cutting in large corporations (employees being a major cost, so layoffs occuring) and then difficulty for startups to raise money. Additionally, I recently read The Pragmatic Engineer's take on Spotify's recent 17% layoff. "Unfortunately, I suspect Spotify is early in having a realization which other tech companies will also have, next year. With the zero interest rate period (ZIRP) over, it’s expensive to borrow cash. Spotify making a loss meant it was effectively borrowing money in order to operate. Turning a profit is more urgent than when capital was cheap. But how do you turn a profit if you cannot significantly increase revenue? You cut costs, and the biggest costs for most tech companies are employees, sadly. As a result, Spotify could well become profitable, assuming it generates similar revenue in future. And this is exactly the plan; to keep doing the same as before, but with fewer people. In this way, Spotify’s cuts make business sense in the context of business growth slowing, persistent loss-making, and a hiring spree in 2021-2022 which didn’t boost revenue. These cuts may be surprising for many at Spotify, but probably not for the leadership team. The only question is how many other companies are in the same position as Spotify, but with leaderships yet to draw the same conclusion from the economic conditions. This is probably a good reminder that the tech jobs market remains volatile. If you have a stable job, it could be a good time to put aside some earnings for a nest egg, stay engaged with your network, and to position yourself to work in areas seen as profit centers, not cost centers." What are your impressions of the tech market right now? Any recommendations of how to navigate the market or resources to utilize? Anything advice years-of-experience specific (Junior engineers vs. senior engineers vs tech leads vs. etc)?

Hi, I unfortunately missed this event last evening: . I would really appreciate someone highlighting the biggest takeaways. I'm especially interested in the question "Switching jobs in the poor economy: good or bad idea?" but key points from other topics would be helpful too. Thank you so much!

I recently got laid off working as a developer working within an agency. I currently have around 5 years of experience working in the agency setting utilizing React, Next js, Vue, Liquid, and the Shopify API to create custom eCommerce sites. During my time at these agencies, I also had the opportunity to act as a lead, interact with clients, set timelines, and cross collaborate with designers/projects managers to meet deadlines. I have been looking for new opportunities since January and I've been able to secure a couple of interviews, technical challenges, and one onsite. Most of my interviews have been coming from agencies, but my preference is to join a tech startup or maybe more on the brand side of things within the Shopify niche. Below are a couple of questions: Will working at another agency hurt my career in the long run? My ultimate end goal is to work for a bigger tech company if possible. If an agency does want to hire me right now, should I take the job for now or just wait for one of my preferences? I notice a lot of developers within the agency space freelance after their 9-5. Does studying for interviews or future jobs provide a higher ROI instead of freelancing? Lastly, I just finished (super helpful!). It seems like the best course of action for me is to apply a lot, work on side projects instead of grinding leetcode, and study system design. Does this seem correct? Thanks in advance!

YOE: 10 months remote at an AWS Partner (DevOps/AWS account remediation stuff) TC: $136k Hello, I’m in my early career and in need of some career advice. I would like to get into a SRE-SWE role at Google, preferably in Zurich (I’m a US citizen) for better career growth and new life experience. My background: I switched into this field a bit late... 30 years old and now 10 months on the job. I decided I really wanted to learn to code after working in product and I made the switch. I took up a Javascript course online, within 7 months studying full time I had completed a couple portfolio projects including a full stack project. At that point I decided I didn’t like front-end and I got into learning AWS cloud architecture. My coding background + achieving an AWS Associate Architect certification quickly found me a high paying role at an AWS consulting Partner in the devopsy space. Currently I work remotely at a tiny AWS Partner where Terraform and AWS Cloud remediation is my main work. Though I had no intention of giving up coding, the job I got into pays well but is not exactly what I was expecting... After the first couple months of trial-by-fire with terraform - my job stopped being challenging and I have tons of free time (which I used to get 4 AWS certs so far.) Terraform hasn’t been difficult once I got the hang of it, and most of it I don’t consider actual brain-exercising coding work like I had done when learning to code (i.e codewars). Lately, I feel my only growth has come from the knowledge I’ve gained from self-studying for my AWS certs. Though I have enjoyed studying for my AWS certs and gaining depth about cloud services (I really enjoy research and distributed cloud architecture to make things work on a mass scale is amazing) and I just cleared the AWS Certified DevOps Pro exam which was a significant milestone for me. BUT… My coding skills are getting rusty and I never had proper programming mentoring on a professional team to begin with. I joined this company as a junior and have only really grown in Cloud Architecture (does that count as Systems Design?), AWS/Iaac Terraform, but not as a SWE. I have never done leetcode, I don’t know DS and Algos. My interview was about a 3 tier app architecture. My company runs Terraform like a code-cowboy environment and my code almost never gets reviewed properly. And as I said, I’m not doing much here these days, which although is great if you I want to earn money and coast (or self-learn picking up the difficult cloud certs) I am definitely underutilized and not in a collaborative “team” environment. Work is siloed by customer with one senior engineer being the guy assigned to handle all the cool stuff for a customer and I receive undesirable work like dealing with logs or fixing pain in the arse security stuff that no one else wants to be bothered with. (I.E and maybe a bad example, but no one wants to be bothered with accidentally taking down production to remediate ssh ports being open to 0.0.0.0/0, so let the jr take the fall or do nothing since the customer doesn't care about it and won't pay for it) Here’s what I’m thinking - I could use my copious free time to get GCP Pro certs, maybe learn Kubernetes and then decide on another programming language to main and grind 6 months of leetcode to prepare to get into a Google SRE-SWE role or maybe Airbnb as a 2nd choice. Is this plan sound? Please advise. I don’t even know if I’ll like/need to learn Kubernetes, but I’m prepared to do what it takes to team match in my current cloud specialization. Do I need to learn Kube administration for Google SRE work? I’m ready to get back to coding and I can nose to the grindstone leetcode for as long as it takes. The AWS Pro cert was a grueling grind as well, so I know I have the discipline to do it. I’m deciding upon a new programming language to main since I am not enamored with JS at all. I’m thinking either Golang or Python ( I’m already learning Godot and GDscript in my spare time as a hobby) and whichever language I go with will preferably be my main for leet code DS and Algos interviews and my career in tech. What I heard about Golang that I like is that there is typically a correct way to do something rather than a million ways to do one thing. I find that very appealing. Please advise on the language I should go with if you can as well.. My current job has been a good place to excel in self-study while being paid and now is the time to take aim for new goals and steer the wheel on the ship of my career. Also I really love working remotely but I would go to the office if it meant Google and a new life experience in Switzerland. And I would really love any insight you can give about such SRE-SWE roles and if that sounds like the best fit for my current cloud specialization and interests. Thank you

Have my first interview coming up with a big tech company and want to do some leetcode-prep to get my problem-solving muscles warm before the interview. I've gone on Glassdoor and seen some of the questions people have posted that they’ve gotten from the company in the past year. Should I practice these questions? The obvious answer would be “yes, you’d be crazy not to!”, but I can think of 3 reasons not to: if I am asked if I have seen the question before, many people advocate answering truthfully, in which case, I kind of negate the advantage of studying-company specific questions. There are actually 2 reasons people have for telling the interviewer you've seen a question. One, because they want to know. This is the principle-based reason. Two, because they can tell if you're pretending not to have seen it. This is the pragmatic reason for disclosing that you've seen the question. there’s an argument to be made against studying for any one-specific company and instead beefing up my DS&A skills in general – this would argue for studying questions that are the most common across all (big tech) interviews, not specific to the one I’m interviewing with. This company is very big, and Glassdoor combines questions from multiple teams and departments. The chance that I'll see a question from the team I'm interviewing with is small. Thanks!

I'm ambivalent about attending Taro Networking events. On the one hand, the people I meet there are so talented and nice! On the other hand, what am I really getting by meeting them? Now, I know I just said something extremely transactional. That I don't seem to "get" anything from meeting people. But let's continue this line of thinking for a bit. In my mind, going to a networking event can get you 3 things: potential job referrals potential partners for side-projects and maybe even a startup (which can be considered a kind of job referral) friends/social-contact Let's assume that I'm not looking for friends, so only the first 2 are in play. What should I be doing while networking? What happens is I tell them about what I do - my role, company, stack - they do the same, we'll talk about the industry for a bit, and that's that. It seems to me like I'm not getting much out of it, probably because I'm doing it all wrong. Here's an excerpt from an email from a Data influencer I follow who makes a similar point: > Traditional networking is like a relic of the past for back when we didn't rely on the internet. > > Back then, people only recommended and worked with those they'd met in person. > > But in our digital age? > > We can instantly find and judge coders, designers, data experts, and marketers online based on their LinkedIn & portfolio sites. > > So, here's an alternative to traditional networking... > **Build things that matter. > > For example, let's say you wanted to break into genAI, or land an e-commerce job at Amazon, or work in ad-tech at Facebook or Google. > > To impress hiring managers and recruiters at these FAANG companies, you could build an AI tool for generating custom product images to help retailers advertise more efficiently. So his point is to build stuff and use that as the fodder for networking. I'm inclined to agree, since personally, my side-project cupboard is bare. I could be falling into the trap of thinking that I can/should only network once I've reached a threshold of building however. So to sum this up, how do you balance networking vs. building and can you expand on the relationship between them? Thanks!

I've been in the IT industry for 3 years, working on various projects. For the past 1.5 years, I've been heavily involved in Python projects, mainly as a back-end developer using Django. My tasks typically revolved around building or updating APIs as per specific requirements. Most of these projects were already underway when I joined, so I mostly inherited tasks based on existing project needs. As a result, I wasn't part of the initial database design or project structuring. Now, I'm starting on my personal project using Django. However, I lack experience in structuring and designing a project from scratch, especially in organizing apps and defining models. I took a look at other frameworks like Spring Boot and noticed they don't offer the same level of "batteries included" features as Django. I'm currently dealing with two main challenges: Impact of Learning Django First: I'm concerned that focusing solely on Django might limit my overall understanding of back-end development. Django's comprehensive built-in features might not be present in other frameworks, and that worries me. Project Design and Structure: I'm puzzled about the best practices for structuring and designing a Django project, especially regarding app organization and model structuring. I'm seeking advice on overcoming these issues and figuring out how to structure my project effectively. I'm also contemplating whether sticking with Django could potentially narrow my overall grasp of back-end development because of its extensive in-built functionalities. Also, I applied to some companies and most of them are asking for experience in Java back-end development.

I recently had an interview and before booking it, they emailed me a list of questions (including my major, university) and "current company and/or competing deadlines (dates/companies): ______" I wasn't happy about this when I got the email and read I was never to reveal too much information. I felt cornered, pressured, and my family also really pressured me to interview with this company I know was for the wrong role (too junior, wrong focus area). I did it anyway and now I regret even taking the interview, it was actually a huge waste of my time. What should you do if a recruiter emails this and says they require this (and a long list of other questions) within a 24 time period? Something I'm thinking about in the future if this happens again. The recruiter was internal to the company and not 3rd party. By the way this was considered a "pre-screen" interview and normally I don't talk about other competing deadlines or offers until like the very LATE stages of interviewing (meaning you've already gone through like at least 3-6 rounds, not the pre-1st round which I found SO odd). This is the list of questions I was sent: "[ACTION] Complete this Questionnaire within 24 hours [copy & paste answers to the below in an email reply] current company and/or competing deadlines (dates/companies): ______ motivators (when deciding on multiple offers, what is most important to you i.e. mission, culture, team selection, location, etc.): ______ please note that all x y z city headcount has been filled. Rank remaining locations in order of preference * xyz, CA, x y z city, state): _____ are you open/available to start on September 9, 2024: ______ preferred name: ______ pronouns (i.e. he/him, she/her, they/them, etc.): ______ graduation date (month/year): ______ degree (level & major): ______ university: ______ hobbies/anything else you’d like me to know (optional): ______

Hi Taro Community! I am in a very similar position as mentioned by someone here: and from the responses it is evident that switching teams/companies will be an unavoidable step soon. I am currently at an entry-level position (will be completing 6 months at current company soon) and wish to look for roles at the next level of hierarchy (for instance my current role is equivalent to SDE 1, I wish to look for roles similar to SDE 2 or equivalent next). Few points: I am planning to complete 1 year at my current company, so by the time I switch I shall have ~1 yr of experience as an entry-level software engineer (apart from other experiences as internships/side projects/etc.) Firstly, is it realistic to prepare for mid-level at the current position? Do companies hire entry-level SWE's with at most 1 yr of experience for mid-level? If yes, is it advisable to apply now (or 6 months down the line)? I do not wish to work as an SDE-1 (entry-level) in another company by leaving my current one as it will only lead to further delays in promotions (I believe it takes at least a few months to set a good impression in a new team that you are capable for a promotion) How can I best utilize the next 6 months before I aggressively start applying to companies? I understood the point related to side projects - is it advisable to build side projects in the tech stack my team is using, or should I expand my scope to include new technologies I am interested (but not actively working on right now)? Any insights/suggestions/interview tips will be really appreciated. I have very less workload right now and really want to make the best use of time to switch further. Thank you!

Hi there, I'm a senior engineer and I'm looking to apply to startups. I feel like this is a different ballgame compared to working with recruiters at big tech as there is no resume. For example one of my top choices has a job posting that simply asks me to submit my linkedin, github, or website link. How can I stand out? Many of their engineers are on linkedin, so I can try to start the conversation that way. Their backend is golang, so I've been working on building backend golang projects and putting them on github, as well as making youtube videos about my process. When I feel like I have enough of a portfolio, I could apply with my github link. I do use their product, so maybe there is something I can do with that. Maybe I could make a simple website where I introduce myself and link to everything - github, linkedin, live demos of my projects, etc. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Hi All Some companies have a project deep dive interviews as part of the hiring loop interviews and I was looking for any good resources about how to structure and be well prepared for these interviews. Appreciate any pointers. Note: I have seen this predominantly for Staff+ positions. Thanks Rahul