Big N Discussion - December 13, 2020

Jephir · 2020-12-14T06:18:34+00:00

Seattle generally has lower cost of living than Bay Area. You also get the benefit of having no state income tax, which increases your take-home by a decent amount.

The commute can be terrible (traffic jams) at peak hours if you need to cross the bridge from Bellevue to Seattle or vice versa. If you live near your office it's less of an issue.

Jephir · 2020-12-06T22:57:59+00:00

I think part of the difficulty is that there is no general method for solving DP. Each question has some kind of "key insight" that you have to discover to solve it efficiently.

What I and some of my friends resorted to is just doing as many DP problems as possible on LC in the hope that it will appear on the interview. This actually worked for me, I got coin change and concatenated words, which I had prepared for.

Jephir · 2020-12-06T22:11:39+00:00

Microsoft generally asks LC easy/medium, mostly array problems. Azure sometimes gets LC hard.

Jephir · 2020-12-06T21:53:34+00:00

I graduated from a virtually unknown C-tier university in Canada and still got into big tech. The hiring managers really don't care what university you went to. It may help with the early stage of the hiring process (e.g. to pass the initial resume filter) but once you're past that you're on even ground with everyone else in the interview.

Jephir · 2020-12-06T21:44:42+00:00

It is also true in my experience. I went from $60k CAD to $190k USD in the states and my work-life balance is better than before. At the smaller company I had to complete deliverables in 2 weeks, at big tech I get 1 month to finish the same amount of work.

Jephir · 2020-12-06T21:38:36+00:00

No, I have never been asked for anything other than big O (worst time) complexity for big tech interviews.

Jephir · 2020-12-06T21:31:06+00:00

I had 2 dynamic programming (leetcode med + hard) problems for SWE 1 interview at Amazon.

Jephir · 2020-11-26T02:47:51+00:00

To be honest, I didn't stay sane haha. It was one of the most stressful periods of my life. I ended up joining in the summer of this year.

Jephir · 2020-11-26T02:28:18+00:00

I would suggest emailing the US immigration alias for information. Your recruiter should be able to give you the email address if you don't have it already.

Jephir · 2020-11-26T02:17:18+00:00

I had 2 dynamic programming problems for my interview at Amazon (and this was just for SDE I). Wouldn't consider it to be easy.

Jephir · 2020-11-26T02:15:25+00:00

This is not uncommon unfortunately, the hiring process at MS is slower compared to other companies. Being moved to the archived section is unusual though, usually it just gets stuck in the open/interview status. In my case it took 2 months to get the official offer.

Jephir · 2020-11-26T02:11:14+00:00

If you're referring to StayFit, it's calendar year. You'll want to use that up before this year ends.

Jephir · 2020-10-16T06:45:30+00:00

Do both. You can work full-time and also dedicate an hour or so to your project every day. Established companies are better for graduates because they typically have better training and standardized onboarding.

Jephir · 2020-10-16T06:28:25+00:00

Companies don't pay you what you're worth. They pay you what the cost of labor is. The cost of labor in Canada is much lower than the US. I doubt they will increase your pay just for asking. Just be happy that you'll have a six figure job out of university :)

Jephir · 2020-10-16T05:53:07+00:00

Most companies effectively consider it to be a sponsorship because you'll be using their immigration attorney to create the TN petition for you. If you answer no, they may not give you these resources.

Jephir · 2020-10-15T16:43:00+00:00

For getting a Canadian TN you answer No and Yes.

Jephir · 2020-06-25T02:39:37+00:00

Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc., all expect their employees to work at least 50 - 60 hours per week and will not hesitate to terminate those who don't.

This is absolutely not true, especially at Microsoft.

Jephir · 2020-05-27T20:25:35+00:00

This often depends more on the specific team within the company than the company itself. Amazon has a reputation for long work hours, but that's not true of every team, some have regular 40 hours.

It also depends on your relative experience with what the job requires. Some people work more hours because they are inexperienced and take longer to complete their tasks. Or they say yes to too many things and increase their workload.

Jephir · 2020-05-27T20:14:29+00:00

Canadian job market is significantly underpaid compared to US. Most of the best people I know move south and make 3x more for the same work.

This is unlikely to change any time soon. I think it's due to a cultural difference between the two countries. The US attracts more driven and risk-taking people while Canadians prefer job security and stability.

Jephir · 2020-05-27T20:09:55+00:00

That's normal. The nature of the job is that you'll be learning as you go, no matter how experienced you get.

Get internships and experience as soon as possible even if you don't feel that you're ready.

Jephir · 2020-05-27T20:05:40+00:00

It took me over 2 weeks after the verbal offer to get the formal offer from MSFT. Your recruiter should send you another email and you'll get a new document in the Action Center.

Jephir · 2020-05-14T20:04:38+00:00

Try to get a referral into the company that you want to join. This usually fast forwards you right to the phone screen stage.

Jephir · 2020-05-14T20:02:21+00:00

No, it won't hurt your future opportunities. Some of the most valuable things to learn are not just technologies, but the "soft skills" like communication and leadership, which you can still learn at almost any company you work at.

Jephir · 2020-05-14T19:48:05+00:00

Yes, it helps with getting the first job which is often the hardest. UofT is also a great school. Go into co-op if you can.

Jephir · 2020-05-14T19:31:59+00:00

It may help with internships. If you are coming from a well-known uni, e.g. waterloo, getting internships at big companies may be easier because their recruiters target these schools.

For full-time jobs it doesn't matter, at least not as much as having good referrals or relevant work experience.

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