Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#181

Post by kaspm » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 1:24 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #167

kaspm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are those of us, of a certain age, for whom the "web" was at best a novelty while we were in school. Even through the original .com bubble, becoming a web programmer wasn't the same as "CS". EE and CS were disciplines for which you got hired at Microsoft (gold standard at the time), Oracle, Western Digital, HP (on the decline), etc. It wasn't that cool. Then Google happened. Google elevated the Web into a real…

Yea, I got similar advice during undergrad (back in the nineties, when dinosaurs roamed the earth): The web is a toy. It's not for Serious Developers™. Serious Developers™ do real time embedded systems, device drivers, systems programming, control systems, etc. Don't worry about HTML (which isn't a "real" language for Serious Developers™). Learn C and assembly, and microprocessors. Then Netscape happened and I found…

An interesting grass is always greener perspective. I have an impression that if you studied C and embedded programming, switching into a Google environment and working on the web is much easier than if you started with Web/HTML and tried to switch into embedded systems.

I took the web route and always dreamed about tackling C and embedded systems. I did some hobby work to learn it but without doing it every day at work, tough to keep it going.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#182

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 1:37 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #180

user5994461 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#London SV and Wall Street in the same place = an interesting playing field. --- I wouldn't say it's fair to compare ALL finance jobs to a few big tech companies. If you're doing over $500k somewhere in the USA, you should stay there. There are very few places on the planet that offers that for engineers. (and they're probably all big companies).

Can you throw out some numbers? I almost never hear of London developers making >$200k.

I'd rather not talk numbers sorry.

Let's just say that if you want easy money in London, you should get into consulting. It's also very tax friendly. (200k = 1000 daily rate, don't expect that for most people).

> I almost never hear of London developers making >$200k.

Yeah. £150k is extremely rare (pre-brexit exchange rate)

I dunno know about the costs of living in SF but it is my understanding that at $100k you can barely afford a one bedroom. At £100k in London, you're doing incredibly well.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#183

Post by morgante » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 1:44 AM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #182

morgante wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you throw out some numbers? I almost never hear of London developers making >$200k.

I'd rather not talk numbers sorry. Let's just say that if you want easy money in London, you should get into consulting. It's also very tax friendly. (200k = 1000 daily rate, don't expect that for most people). > I almost never hear of London developers making >$200k. Yeah. £150k is extremely rare (pre-brexit exchange rate) I dunno know about the costs of living in SF but it is my understanding that at $100k you can…

Yea, if you're not going to give any numbers I'm calling bullshit on the notion that finance pays better than big tech. From my experience in NYC tech, finance developers (not quants) make less than big tech by far.

With $100k you can easily afford a one bedroom. Don't listen to all the griping on Hacker News—it's an exaggeration. Yes, prices are exorbitant but you're still doing incredibly well.

It's not like London is especially cheap. $100k in SF is $70k in London. [0]

[0] https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#184

Post by gravypod » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 1:58 AM UTC

sn9 wrote: post #177

gravypod wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I've found most masters and PhDs don't have a rock solid understanding of ALL of the Computer Science undertones. Some are good at datastructures, some are good with algorithms, some are still studying concurancy, parallelism, and distributed systems, and the rest know cryptography (which I hold as not being a Computer Science discipline). Very very few people have a rock solid grasp of everything (that I con…

What are you talking about? This guy doesn't know all that. He might have it on his list, but he's still in the middle of learning the core subjects of a CS curriculum. And pretty much any programmer could take the time to study these topics in depth and achieve that level of competence with them. Most choose not to.

> Most choose not to

That's the point I'm making. He's ahead of the game just for trying.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#185

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 2:09 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #183

user5994461 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather not talk numbers sorry. Let's just say that if you want easy money in London, you should get into consulting. It's also very tax friendly. (200k = 1000 daily rate, don't expect that for most people). > I almost never hear of London developers making >$200k. Yeah. £150k is extremely rare (pre-brexit exchange rate) I dunno know about the costs of living in SF but it is my understanding that at $100k you can…

Yea, if you're not going to give any numbers I'm calling bullshit on the notion that finance pays better than big tech. From my experience in NYC tech, finance developers ( not quants) make less than big tech by far. With $100k you can easily afford a one bedroom. Don't listen to all the griping on Hacker News—it's an exaggeration. Yes, prices are exorbitant but you're still doing incredibly well. It's not like Londo…

I am genuinely confused by London salary in dollars. That makes absolutely no sense.

$100k in SF = $70k in London = £55k in London - is that what you're saying? In that case, we both agree, the costs of living are a lot cheaper (so are the salaries).

Google top salary is 85k base for senior developers, which is shit (numbers from the guys I know, some of which are openly mocking Google and advising people to never go there because of the pay).

Not sure about the other big 4 (Facebook/Microsoft/AMZ), not much more allegedly.

Quants make a shitload more than developers. The standard in finance institutions is £130k base + variable bonus. (Well, now that I think about it, the difference might be the industry, not the role :D)

As for what the top developers make in the top few financials institutions. I need to get a few guys drunk to get accurate numbers. But I already know that it is definitely higher than at Google.

What's your numbers for top performers in NY and SF? In London, there is no money in the usual valley companies. That's just how it is.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#186

Post by solipsism » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 2:10 AM UTC

recursive wrote: post #176

solipsism wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked which part is religious. Bambax quoted some non-religious things. Why would it be on me to prove everything he/she says is not something it obviously isn't? Also, which attack is personal? I'm attacking an interpretation. Nothing personal about it.

Ok, so what is Googleyness?

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+does+googlyness+mean

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#187

Post by morgante » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 2:18 AM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #185

morgante wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, if you're not going to give any numbers I'm calling bullshit on the notion that finance pays better than big tech. From my experience in NYC tech, finance developers ( not quants) make less than big tech by far. With $100k you can easily afford a one bedroom. Don't listen to all the griping on Hacker News—it's an exaggeration. Yes, prices are exorbitant but you're still doing incredibly well. It's not like Londo…

I am genuinely confused by London salary in dollars. That makes absolutely no sense. $100k in SF = $70k in London = £55k in London - is that what you're saying? In that case, we both agree, the costs of living are a lot cheaper (so are the salaries). Google top salary is 85k base for senior developers, which is shit (numbers from the guys I know, some of which are openly mocking Google and advising people to never go…

> $100k in SF = $70k in London = £55k in London - is that what you're saying?

Yes.

You're right that European developers (even at the big 4) make far less. My comparison was more with SF/NYC salaries, where big 4 developers will easily break $200k and reach $250k without excessive effort.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#188

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 2:30 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #187

user5994461 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am genuinely confused by London salary in dollars. That makes absolutely no sense. $100k in SF = $70k in London = £55k in London - is that what you're saying? In that case, we both agree, the costs of living are a lot cheaper (so are the salaries). Google top salary is 85k base for senior developers, which is shit (numbers from the guys I know, some of which are openly mocking Google and advising people to never go…

> $100k in SF = $70k in London = £55k in London - is that what you're saying? Yes. You're right that European developers (even at the big 4) make far less. My comparison was more with SF/NYC salaries, where big 4 developers will easily break $200k and reach $250k without excessive effort.

Well, in Europe, the best is London, and the best in London is either consulting (easy and awesomely low taxes) or finance (hard).

In the USA, obviously SF against NYC, you need to get information from Americans. I can't help you.

In case anyone wonders: inter-continental comparison are worthless so don't bother. It's [almost] impossible for Europeans to get VISA to work in the USA, and even if they get one they won't have the leverage to get the top range salaries.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#189

Post by morgante » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 2:35 AM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #188

morgante wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $100k in SF = $70k in London = £55k in London - is that what you're saying? Yes. You're right that European developers (even at the big 4) make far less. My comparison was more with SF/NYC salaries, where big 4 developers will easily break $200k and reach $250k without excessive effort.

Well, in Europe, the best is London, and the best in London is either consulting (easy and awesomely low taxes) or finance (hard). In the USA, obviously SF against NYC, you need to get information from Americans. I can't help you. In case anyone wonders: inter-continental comparison are worthless so don't bother. It's [almost] impossible for Europeans to get VISA to work in the USA, and even if they get one they won'…

> In the USA, obviously SF against NYC, you need to get information from Americans. I can't help you.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I'm based here and making those comparisons myself.

Specifically, NYC has both finance and tech. For developers (not quants), big tech pays better.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#190

Post by wdr1 » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 2:35 AM UTC

msoad wrote: post #106

I worked at Google. This makes me sad. Sad to see people are treating a for profit company like a religion. Google is a good workplace compared to other companies but it's not a religion and it's not perfect. As other commenters said it's not the thing it was before either. I left Google to work on something more interesting and I can't be happier. If we're going to hire people, I'm not putting any weight on their wo…

I'm not sure you read the article. In it explains he went overboard, a lot of it wasn't needed for the interviews & narrows down his recommendation to ~3 books.