Interviewing Q&A and Videos

Hi everyone, I'm a senior software engineer in Brazil, and I'm interested in exploring fully remote opportunities with FAANG companies. Does anyone have experience or insights into whether these companies hire engineers from Brazil for fully remote roles? What are the main challenges or requirements? Where can I find such job postings? Do I need a referrer? Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

In the video polish your resume in "Ace your tech interview and get a job as a software engineer", Alex mentioned that we should focus on the stack we're the most experienced in and pick a lane. However, in my case, I only have ML experience and do not have specific stack that I am working on, even though I am fluent in .NET Should I put my projects upfront instead of work experience?

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, I am a software engineer at a hardware startup company in the South Bay Area and live in San Francisco. I make $124K/year and have been at the company for little more than a year (I joined out of college in mid-late 2022). Work-life balance at the company is pretty great (40 hours/week), the company does make exceptions for working remote from other locations from time-to-time (i.e. when you’re traveling) and is generous with PTO (this may change in 2024 as new processes have been put in place). The company raised quite a bit of money in 2021 and receives funds from government research grants so they’re in a good financial position and are even looking to hire a bit in 2024. The company culture is positive, the software team as a whole gets along quite well and I genuinely like my manager; there’s very little office politics. The company also encourages its engineers to learn. Admittedly though, strong mentorship is lacking; something that I think I’d be highly receptive to given that I deeply cherish and frequently act upon feedback. As for the company's future, I think the company has established a solid technology moat and might do well (maybe unicorn?). But I don’t think the company will explode into wealth anytime soon (5+ years to get there) and the equity payoff is OK (I might make an additional $280K/yr if the company 20x in valuation to be a unicorn). The reason I am seriously considering resigning is the commute. The company has a hybrid model (3 days in-office, 2 days remote) so it’s about 1hr 30 min one-way, (3hr roundtrip) 3 days a week and it’s really getting to me. To commute, I walk 30 min (or 20 min by bus) and then drive for an hour, sometimes in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 101-South to 280-South. Then I repeat this going back, one hour drive, and a 30 min walk (or 20 min by bus). In multiple ways, this is costing me. Financially-speaking, I’m paying $545/month ($250 parking and $300 for gas, that’s $12,500 gross, meaning pre-tax), so effectively I make $111,500/year. I could maybe pay more for parking ($350-$500) and skip the 30 min walk, then I’d be making even less. While I could live near Caltrain in SF, even taking Caltrain would involve taking a bus and then a 8 min walk (still roughly 1 hr 30 min one-way). Additionally, I really enjoy where I live in the city and would strongly oppose any move (as a last, last resort only). Time-wise, I strongly feel that it’s a waste of my time to sit in traffic! I often put on podcasts + songs to distract myself from staring at the bumpers of vehicles in front of me. Getting back 9 hours of my time per week (effectively a whole day) would be incredibly beneficial. This is time and energy that I want to put towards things that are deeply, deeply important to me, one of which being health (gym, yoga, movement in general). Health is a really important pillar for me and so having reduced time & energy to go to the gym strikes me as a major red flag for this job. I value my health far, far over compensation and career growth. Energy-wise, on the days that I commute, I feel incredibly low energy after work. I typically come home, eat junk food, watch some on Youtube and sleep late. It's not the person that I am when I’m not commuting. While I recognize that the market may not be so great, I am considering quitting my job in the beginning of next year and diverting my efforts to looking for a new job within the city, either startup or Big Tech (generally a company where the profit center is technology) and something with a much shorter commute (a bus or walk to somewhere in the city is perfectly fine). Alternatively, a remote job w/ healthy culture would also be OK. I also have 6+ months of savings and am not at a risk of being deported (a U.S. citizen). Additionally, I have multiple friends who live & work in SF, others who commute 1/week to South Bay and even some who work entirely remote. Some also work at SF startups that are actually looking for engineers right now! So in my head, it’s quite hard to justify driving each day, paying all this money, spending all this time & energy to work at a company so far away for equivalent, or many times, less money than I would be making here in the city or even working remote. Would greatly appreciate any thoughts y'all have! Any and all feedback is welcome :)

Is It insensitive/disrespectful to try to initiate conversations with employees at a company about your aspirations to join if there has been recent layoffs within their organization? E.g. I invite someone to a lunch and ask for advice on how to improve my prospects for a future position at this company? My aspirations to join has been quite constant during a year or so, but I don't know what's the right thing to do right now given the current circumstances.

I recently graduated with my MS and I'm still job hunting. I'm unfortunately at a point where most of my strengths/impressive accomplishments are in MLE/DS which is Harder to break into at the new grad level Fewer jobs in the market I need a job ASAP and would love advice on how to job search optimally Here is what I'm doing Creating regular content on LinkedIn 1. (I've gotten 3-4 interviews from this), 3 of them were recruiter calls that went nowhere, one was an interview that went to final round Applying to any and every job with < 4 YoE requirement with tailored resumes for verticals (MLE/DS/SWE) 1. I got 2 interviews from this. Unfortunately didnt get either For strong matches, I am trying to arrange coffee chats with managers at the company. 1. This has not worked well at all I've tried getting referrals but it's never resulted in an interview. The strong referrals (where the person sends the resume directly to HM) I get the feedback of some internal red tape (not hiring NG, only return intern, or cannot hire international students) or sometimes they just simply want someone with more experience with a specific area (training models, or a specific framework) Trying to apply to SWE roles as well. But quite frankly since I have just spent most of my time, internships, projects directed at MLE/DS, the SWE tailored version of my resume is not top tier. It's quite average in my opinion I'm not sure what else to be doing or if anything else I can do that I am missing. Any advice would be appreciate! If you can even just share your experience on what works for you/what doesnt work that would be great to hear as well

I don't hate my job but not interested in overly performing as I am not happy with my compensation. No motivation to prepare for interviews in the current market I just want to do whatever is assigned to me. I have no leadership skills, no confidence. No motivation to put lot of efforts and make an impact due to low compensation to fix my leadership and communication issues. It typically takes 2.5-3 years to get promoted to next level as an average engineer like me. I have been stuck due to immigration issues. Manager has too many reportees. Hiring freeze everywhere. Do you have any recommendation on what to do in this case?

The question mentions the details. Given the uncertainty around, how to choose your next organisation?

Hello, I'm looking for more software jobs to apply for I used LinkedIn and currently using Wellfound. Is there any other good job site I could use to find roles? Specifically, I'm looking for a backend or full-stack role. Also, I wanted to ask how I reach out about finding the rare junior roles that may not be advertised is this something I ask someone or do I hope a position I apply for will make an exception?

Hello, I’ve been going for senior level positions even though I was mid level at my previous FAANG company. Before FAANG I was senior level at a startup so I think I can handle senior again. But when a recruiter asks what level I was previously, should I tell them or should I be vague somehow like when they ask for what compensation I’m looking for?

What I've noticed is that FAANG companies don't seem to look beyond Data Structure and Algorithms (DSA) or system design in interviews, whereas medium-sized companies also consider other skills. For example, for a Python web framework, they might look at Django, Flask, or FAST. For a data engineer role, Apache Airflow might be important. ATS may not even pickup your resume unless they see very specific word like Django or Apache Airflow in your resume. It seems like it might be easier to prepare for big tech companies since they focus only on DSA, System Design, and behavioral rounds. In contrast, other companies look for such a wide range of skills that it's hard to master and work on all of them. Let me know your views.

Should one keep multiple offers till a week before the joining date as a safety net? What are the steps one can take when an offer gets rescinded?

Hi, I currently work in a large enterprise firm as a software engineer. What do you think of moving into early stage startups at this time? Given the economic climate and the possible transition to a more mature AI space (read organisation restructuring / layoffs), do you think its risky?

I normally apply to companies on a warm basis, with warm contacts so I can always try to get feedback post-interview to land a job, or sometimes while I apply cold, limit these and prioritize warm ones. I've noticed a lot of new software coming out during the pandemic for mass applications, but I am not sure this will work for me as a non-traditional candidate who has mainly interviewed for positions in the non-standard way. I do realize that given layoffs, the numbers is game is one I might need to play more and could invest some money into this, but I know some software might be better than others. There seem to be so many new services out there, that the market is saturated and I'm wondering how effective this would be and if it's worth the money and that maybe I would rather spend my time (instead of just money) instead focusing on applying more thoughtfully through my warm networks and referrals, rather than mass cold applications via an AI bot or other software service. Will I get screened/frozen out and auto-rejected for two years if my resume is crap because I hit 'apply' to a hundred companies? Thoughts?

I am trying to start a conversation to get across my technical proficiency so that the manager is likely to recommend me for an interview at the big tech company. The company has an engineering blog that I have read, but not sure what I should ask. This is for a mid-level (ideally senior) backend role. The manager has said that if I send them a list of questions they would be open to a call to discuss said questions. Also the company is Uber ->

I want to figure out how to draw explanations in Google Docs efficiently: I only find these resources if there is a mock interview recording. But is there a standard way to communicate with the interviewer? I struggle a lot in this area - Even though I know the solution, I get stuck

So I wanted to ask the opinions of hiring managers or anyone who had to hire someone for a technical role. Could you possibly talk about some of the characteristics of candidates that made not want to move forward with interviewing/hiring them? And if possible, could you also talk about if you'd hire Junior Engineers and if not, why not?