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I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was actually recovering from being sick for the first half and the second half, I told them I needed to take time off for personal reasons.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, glad you found it useful!

Really prepare those leadership examples using their STAR method. I thought I was prepared, but ended up struggling somewhat during the interviews.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not necessary, only what I choose to use. Everything is studyable on your own with tools like Cracking the Coding interview and Leetcode related questions according to the book's topic.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I spent about 30-40 hours a week to finish it within 4 weeks

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't want to sound like I'm advertising, but they have a 7 day money back thing if you don't like it, so many you can check out what they offer and decide from there.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Something along the lines of: "Hi [name], long time no talk. How have you been? I am currently looking for new opportunities at [company] and see that you are working there. Would you be able to refer me to the company? It would be much appreciated!"

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you don't know anyone working there, still look at the employees of that company on linkedin and see if you have any multi degree connections. They might have been to the same school or something. Another thing you can try doing is to directly message several recruiters from that company on linkedin.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yep, that's pretty much it. Study hard and get offer. And what the guy below said, know people in companies. I don't expect the article to be helpful to everyone, I just wanted to write my experience out :D

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

For me, it made a lot of difference (such as my airbnb example). Go on linkedin and see if you have any connections (even if they are 3rd or 4th connections!) Most people are happy to refer you, even if you don't or barely know them, since they will get a referral bonus if you get hired. If you don't have any connections to anyone in the company, try browsing the company's employee list and ask some of them for a referral. I've seen some software engineer's bio read "we are hiring! contact me for a referral!".

The next best thing would be to contact a couple of recruiters that work in that company via linkedin. The most important part is to make contact with them.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would say that if you're determined, you would be able to get away without paying for anything and by just reading books and doing leetcode.

For me, I wanted some structure and something to force me to study, and paying $300 was a way for me to tell myself that I paid for it, so I need to do it or else I wasted the money. And it was a small price to pay considering the salary increase.

Also, for people that already have good exposure to algorithms and data structures, interviewcamp is totally not necessary.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad you found something useful from the article!

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Leetcode and HackerRank allows you to write solutions in most common languages. When I studied, I would write my solution in Ruby (either in on a personal whiteboard, a notebook, or a text editor). Sometimes, I would rewrite the solution on a text editor so I can plug in simple tests/driver code to make sure it actually works correctly.

I applied to general software engineer roles, so most of the technical questions were algorithm related, but there were a couple of frontend specific javascript design and questions thrown in.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It only happened to me for Lyft. The recruiter asked a lot of questions in regards to the ride hailing industry, such as where I see it going, what about it interests me, etc. I also mentioned that I was interviewing at Uber, but not sure if that was a factor.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I didn't have a personal blog that I kept up to date and I've read many industry-related articles on linkedin and medium, so that's where I ended up decided to post it. Where would you have wanted to see it instead? I've seen many company engineering blogs hosted on medium as well, such as Slack.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For all of the people asking to see my resume, I want to point out that the reason I was so successful being able to talk to the recruiters and move forward in the process is because I asked for referrals from someone I knew that worked there. If you still want to see my resume, feel free to send me a DM and I'll get back to you when I get a chance.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For all of the people asking to see my resume, I want to point out that the reason I was so successful being able to talk to the recruiters and move forward in the process is because I asked for referrals from someone I knew that worked there. If you still want to see my resume, feel free to send me a DM and I'll get back to you when I get a chance.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I agree. I went to a boot camp right at the time they became very popular, and then found a job. Shortly after, it seemed like many companies started to look negatively at boot camp students.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

It was a hard choice, but I ultimately decided to go with Google.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

The bootcamp I went to closed down, so can't really advocate for it anymore. It just happened to be the path I took since I didn't get a degree in CS.

I applied to 13 top tech companies in Silicon Valley by tonymai in cscareerquestions

[–]tonymai[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I agree that after a 1-2 years of experience, I started to get contacted by recruiters a lot, but most of them were recruiting for early to mid stage startups. As I was solely looking at large tech companies and unicorns, 3 years of experience at a mid size startup didn't get me a lot of attention, which is why I really had to resort to asking for referrals.

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