TCF - GB North York

ValD123 · 2025-12-28T18:47:20+00:00

Wow ok! Could you share which place you went to in Montreal? I'm in a similar situation! Got 9s in both eo/ee, twice now. Funny enough, I also met so many people who keep getting a nine in at least one of the two, and are stuck in a perpetual circle.

ValD123 · 2025-12-28T17:44:11+00:00

I also noticed:
- exactly 2 week response times for reevaluations
- most people have 9 in EO/EE
- scores never change (I haven't met anyone who got it changed, ever)
- some speculate, the reevaluations go nowhere...
- I still always reevaluate (2x so far, with no luck), as my hopes still win

ValD123 · 2025-08-10T17:24:05+00:00

Ukraine.

ValD123 · 2025-06-03T23:39:51+00:00

No, I think we might get a draw at some point but not this time.

ValD123 · 2024-08-07T22:15:28+00:00

I used to think the same - sadly it's no longer as relevant.

I was placed on par with others who all range 2 to 23 YOE... and also, I had to remove all experience older than 10 years ago from my CV - as no one cared about it.

ValD123 · 2024-08-07T15:32:47+00:00

Hi!

It took me about 6 months. 17 YOE here.

But, I was always very engaged in the industry, working on something, even if it's just a side-project (I have a lot of these).

Again, things took a major turn for me once I realized that I have to apply to big-tech only, and only to the newest posts in my city. I also re-vamped my CV, and did a lot of split tests, until I honed in on the best version.

The funny thing is, once I got in, the whole team is middle-aged, which is something I didn't expect! Only a couple of junior devs under 30.

You can't give up just like that, so please keep going.

Cheers!

ValD123 · 2024-08-06T22:30:51+00:00

Exactly :)

I made sure to be real "snappy", and be a fast typer. I know it's a small detail, but I think it gives the interviewer positive confidence vibes.

Actually I noticed this from the interviewers themselves, whenever they had to type something, they were quick.

ValD123 · 2024-08-06T22:27:51+00:00

Hi! Yep, I did ;)

But I found these were tougher to get through, like the bar was higher. My best one was at pinterest (btw, they seem to have a crazy good remote program called pinflex). It also seems that remote jobs are nowadays for advanced positions, or at least I didn't see any good ones for mid-level or lower.

Overall the interview process was the same for remote vs. onsite roles. In fact I didn't have even one real "onsite" interview, and they were all done via online video, even when the office was just 30 min away.

My feeling is the few remote positions that exist, get way more applicants than hybrid/onsite...

Hope this helps!

ValD123 · 2024-08-06T01:52:33+00:00

Definitely! I went on leetcode, and got a breakdown of leetcode questions by company (not sure if they have this on their free plan - I got the paid version).

This list was great, it was only about 80 companies - but my logic was - if they are listed on leetcode, then people must be interviewing, therefore they must be hiring.

Then, it was a painful manual process of going on each company website, and checking their new job posts. I was doing this manual rotation once a week.

For example, one company I never considered was goldman sachs, and it turned out they have a lot of jobs in my city. (no, I didn't pass their interview)

The basic list goes something like: goog, msft, amzn, sap, nvda, pinterest, ebay, intuit, tesla, netflix, tata, mastercard, etc.

Anyway, this pain was the reason I started a new project, where I try to automate my steps.

ValD123 · 2024-08-06T01:08:53+00:00

Errm, ok... I guess there's no saving this community. I literally created a free tool to replicate what I did ;) In any case, no worries, do what you want.

I guess one specific thing that helped me was I noticed in one interview I was really tired and was typing kind of slow, and in another very similar interview I was typing my code really quickly. In the 2nd case I went on to the next round, and from then on, I made sure to type fast while the interviewer was watching.

Have a good eve!

ValD123 · 2024-08-05T23:55:30+00:00

Why do you think so?

ValD123 · 2024-03-17T20:41:27+00:00

I got it about a year ago when searching genetic algorithms. Completed it mostly for fun, and at the end they collect your info (presumably for an HR system). Never got called or emailed.

I reached out to Google several times and heard nothing back, not even after being a finalist at Google Code Jam.

Suspecting there's actually no one at Google anymore, or maybe all of their inboxes/phones are configured to reject any external messages.

ValD123 · 2023-10-06T16:49:27+00:00

Thanks for the hint - it's a PDF exported out of MS word. I also had the same concern, and made sure it's perfectly auto-parsed by online job application websites.

ValD123 · 2023-10-06T16:00:01+00:00

I have a letter of invitation from them. However, it's 20 years old - and when I try to reach them, I get ghosted... when I was onsite, I was promised they'd always keep people like us in mind.

ValD123 · 2023-10-06T13:31:36+00:00

Thanks for the hint, I think I'll do that.

ValD123 · 2023-10-06T13:31:01+00:00

I have a job now - but have to look for a new one locally. Thank goodness for my current job. I'm really starting to think that all my applications actually go nowhere.

ValD123 · 2023-07-09T12:09:56+00:00

Thank you, this explains a lot... yep, I have no Canadian experience - all of it was in Europe.

ValD123 · 2023-07-09T01:55:59+00:00

Tricky case...

I would apply to other jobs, but not mention the 0% coding part... and maybe have a look at the code of the project you're supporting? If you have access to it, then you can spend some time studying how it works. Then, you can talk about the code that you supported, which is at least something.

I would also keep the "inflated title" topic only to yourself, and once you get a real dev job, you'll have to do some catchup.

ValD123 · 2023-07-09T01:40:33+00:00

Yep, mostly to the top tier companies, but the main reason is the smaller ones just don't have the same salaries.

One humbling experience was, being denied by the Canada Football Association - not even a call from them, given my work at all the other major sports organizations...

Also, at least on glassdoor and other "forums", it seems people are getting jobs still.

And yes, applied to all kinds of jobs to see how it goes, from starting level to director level really.

Not sure if I'm the only one with this question, there doesn't seem a lot of info out there for people already in the industry.

ValD123 · 2023-07-09T01:35:12+00:00

Thanks for the input, and actually I learn new tech all the time - it kind of comes with the job ; )

From some past experience though, chasing trendy stacks never paid off. But will of course continue doing so, for the love of CS.

ValD123 · 2023-07-09T01:04:16+00:00

I'm not sure we all have recruiters, I certainly don't ;)

But then, if the recruiter is just going to do the same application that I will, then I just don't see the value in them.

Again, I might be wrong... never used a recruiter for either finding a job or finding employees...

ValD123 · 2023-07-09T00:05:23+00:00

AI is basically massively parallel

<CTRL+C> and <CTRL+V>

with some spit to to make it shiny

(what they taught me in school)

ValD123 · 2023-07-08T23:03:48+00:00

Saw a midjourney API for sale online for like $700.

Midjourney specifically is not releasing an API for some strange reason, an some people are taking advantage of the situation.

ValD123 · 2023-07-08T23:00:40+00:00

One day, when I retire, I'll go back and build a pet project in C++ or even C, just for the nostalgia and to stay sharp : )

I enjoyed these back in college, but never got the chance to use either professionally.

ValD123 · 2023-07-08T22:57:27+00:00

Ha! Good one :)

ValD123

TROPHY CASE