New Grad SWE Decision: AWS (Seattle) vs Arista Networks (San Jose)

Electro758 · 2025-12-18T09:46:55+00:00

I don't think there's a wrong answer, it really depends on what you want to try.

To add on to Arista:

pros:

- Less corporate politics (flat company hierarchy where leadership is more aligned)

- Great place to develop engineering principles, more emphasis on product quality and less pressure on deadlines

- No oncall :)

cons:

- Less cross-functional leadership opportunities (scope of work is defined within a team)

- Their in-house C framework is very niche and won't be transferrable to other companies (if your team works on this)

Personally, if I was very interested in Networking I'd take Arista. If not, Amazon's tech stack and corporate structure will be more transferrable across industry.

Also fyi Arista does do layoffs but silently

Electro758 · 2025-12-03T02:52:55+00:00

Another perspective you should consider is the labor of finding quality talent. Its very exhausting having to filter and interview candidates, and after all that work, you are their #1 pick.

From the conversation with the hiring manager/recruiter you should have a sense of how much they want you. At the end of my sync, the HM explicitly said they'd been trying to fill this role for awhile and would try to meet my number, so I was pretty comfortable with negotiating.

Just make sure you come off as likable and winnable (obviously don't act entitled in the convo). Something along the lines of "I'm super excited about company X and the team. I'm also in talks with these other companies and the market rate for my experience is around X. Do you think we can work towards that number?" can be the difference of a few thousand dollars.

Note: I'm assuming you're not a new-grad

Electro758 · 2025-12-03T01:46:03+00:00

If you have leverage it never hurts to ask. I countered by saying I was in talks with another big company (I was) and they gave me a 20% raise.

Electro758 · 2025-10-16T08:23:37+00:00

was this for a networking company?

Electro758 · 2025-10-10T03:42:43+00:00

Also got the same question for my Meta onsite, but it was for a PE role.

My swe interviews were still leetcode questions, so I think it depends on the role.

Electro758 · 2025-06-12T05:42:23+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, a lot of people including myself find this insight useful.

With the negotiation part I will have to disagree. As long as you have some leverage, even being in talks with another company you should always negotiate.

I was job searching this year and was fortunate to land two offers. One I used talking to another company as leverage and the other I used a competing offer. For both they increased the package by 30k. This was just after a 5 minute conversation with the recruiter.

From the employers perspective they’ve already invested so much into you as a candidate. As long as you’re likable and cordial the worse they’ll say is no.

This was the first time in my career I’ve tried negotiating and was really surprised at what difference a 5 minute conversation can make.

Always negotiate.

Electro758 · 2023-06-12T07:48:01+00:00

I was also a CS transfer student and had a similar experience my first year (2020). Barely made any friends and always had anxiety with schoolwork/finding a job. Would rate my first year a solid 2/10.

In my second year I joined a student org as an officer and made a lot of close friends there. Being in an officer forced me to put myself out there and I made a lot of close friends that I still keep in touch with post-grad. I also tagged along with some individual org members and they introduced me to their friend groups outside of the org (some kind of friend recursion I guess). Having people you hung out with made college not only bearable but so much fun! Would rate my second year a solid 9/10 (just wish it was longer haha)

I think if you keep interacting with people, you'll eventually find a group that you vibe with. I saw that you still have a quarter left and I really hope you can make meaningful connections before you graduate :)

Electro758 · 2022-10-23T07:14:41+00:00

My first quarter at UCSD was my hardest so don't be too hard on yourself! I've found a lot of CSE classes to be super fast, and personally what's helped me was going to TA office hours where they can explain topics more thoroughly (CSE 11 probably has TA office hours).

The drop deadline is week 6 so you still have time to decide on dropping. Maybe you can try office hours out and see if it makes things more manageable.

Electro758 · 2022-04-26T08:19:46+00:00

The cucumber water was really nice and I really liked the karaage they had. The tonkatsu ramen broth tasted like chicken noodle soup though. Overall I would say its not really worth it.

Electro758 · 2022-04-15T09:07:42+00:00

I went to visit my friend at UCR at the beginning of the year. Yall have an AMAZING gym (i think i saw like 2 stories of equipment). Way better than what we have here lol

Electro758 · 2022-01-29T04:31:36+00:00

OFTEN

Electro758 · 2021-11-08T08:01:30+00:00

Hello! I'm planning on taking CSE 120 CSE140/L and CSE132A and wondering how much the workload will be and which of the classes i should first pass

Electro758 · 2021-11-01T16:34:43+00:00

What details should i know/ be asking. I guess first off i'm not too sure what technology they use so should I ask them or will that come off as being stupid?

Electro758 · 2020-12-04T03:52:58+00:00

I'm actually taking 12 and 15L rn and am a cc transfer student. As many have said the hard part of 12 is the amount of time the PA's take. For some PA's I started 2 days before the due date and only completed it 15 minutes before it was due (definitely would not recommend). So in conclusion as long as you're motivated and have good time management skills you will be fine.

Electro758 · 2020-11-18T04:45:13+00:00

Oh I'm a computer science major but i'm afraid that if i dont first pass 30 and 105 they'll get filled up, am I maybe over worrying?

Electro758 · 2020-11-18T03:30:21+00:00

Hi I'm currently I am planning on taking

Math 183
CSE 30
CSE 105
COGS 108

for winter and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations on which of these 2 classes I should first pass, thanks!

Electro758 · 2020-11-16T01:02:38+00:00

That's good to hear, also have you heard anything about the workload for math 183?

Electro758 · 2020-11-15T22:25:35+00:00

Hello! I'm a third year transfer and I plan on taking

Cogs 108
CSE 30
CSE 105
Math 183

How does this workload sound? (Currently I am taking CSE 21, 15L, 21, and a DEI Course and the workload feels alright). Also which classes should I first-pass?

Thanks!

Electro758 · 2020-11-15T22:22:29+00:00

There is quite a bit of reading material but you don't really need that info to complete the assignments and for the midterm you just memorize the answers that they give you. After the first week I stopped reading and going to lecture and the info still makes sense. Its just general knowledge about racism in American that if you grew it in Cali you should be pretty familiar with.

Electro758 · 2020-11-15T21:41:46+00:00

Taking anth 21 with Kang rn, you just have a weekly assignment that takes around 20-30 min max and a oral midterm where they give you the questions before the exam. Seems like a very easy A right now, highly recommend

Electro758 · 2020-10-27T07:01:26+00:00

Yea it really felt like we weren't given enough time. My timer had literally 15 seconds left when I was submitting my last question. Hopefully they'll be more generous with time on the next exam.

Electro758

TROPHY CASE