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Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

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Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#141

Post by sfgweilr4f »

jamesrcole wrote: post #139
guyzero wrote: post #12

I was 37 when I joined Google in a senior IC role in 2008, so nearly my entire 40's. It's still work, there are still issues with coworkers and there's still stress compared to the startups I used to work at. The company isn't going to go out of business but you can still get a manager who doesn't communicate well and gives you bad performance reviews as a result. Google turns over more employees in a month than the…

If anyone else isn’t familiar with ‘IC’, it seems it stands for “individual contributor” (as opposed to a role where you're managing others). Correct me if I’m wrong.

[was] IC =worker.

[updated] IC = worker with management tendencies but more technical knowledge.

[kept] Ok then. Helpful. Corporatespeak is often just jargon creation to exclude others for whatever reason.

[edit expansion] Worker who is not manager but has manager skills sufficient to orchestrate as needed to deliver a result in required manner. Knowledge level exceeds expectation normally associated with a classic "pure" manager.

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#142

Post by Twisol »

krn wrote: post #120
jfk13 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't that give you the letters in alphabetical order, which may not be correct? See example 2 on the problem page.

> Won't that give you the letters in alphabetical order, which may not be correct? But that's what "lexicographical" means? > In mathematics, the lexicographical order is a generalization of the way words are alphabetically ordered based on the alphabetical order of their component letters. > This generalization consists primarily in defining a total order on the sequences (often called strings in computer science) o…

I think the problem statement wants the lexicographically least string of those obtainable by deleting characters.

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#144

Post by hiram112 »

jamesrcole wrote: post #139
guyzero wrote: post #12

I was 37 when I joined Google in a senior IC role in 2008, so nearly my entire 40's. It's still work, there are still issues with coworkers and there's still stress compared to the startups I used to work at. The company isn't going to go out of business but you can still get a manager who doesn't communicate well and gives you bad performance reviews as a result. Google turns over more employees in a month than the…

If anyone else isn’t familiar with ‘IC’, it seems it stands for “individual contributor” (as opposed to a role where you're managing others). Correct me if I’m wrong.

Haha, thanks. Too much political investigation news for me these days. What the hell does working at FAANG in your 40s have to do with the Intelligence Community?

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#145

Post by robdimarco »

Rickasaurus wrote: post #61
robdimarco wrote: post #28

I have very similar experience. I'm 42, spent most of my career in startups / small companies in CTO-level positions, but last year took an engineering position in big tech (at one of the companies you mention). My suggestion for someone with a lot of experience is to focus more on networking your way in to the company than on skills brush up. Find contacts at the company(s) you are interested in and try to set up di…

As someone in a CTO position now but being a serious IC ~5 years ago, I'm curious. How was the transition back for you? I love my job, but I also miss it.

So far (been about 9 months), I like being an IC a lot. I still get to be a leader and mentor, but have a lot less paperwork to fill out come review time! I always enjoyed the coding part of the startup CTO job more than the manager part anyhow. I feel that if I ever want to get back in to management, either at my current employer or somewhere else, I'll be able to make that transition pretty easily.

But if I go full-time manager, I don't know how easy it would be to flip back to dev / IC.

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#146

Post by sfgweilr4f »

decebalus1 wrote: post #68
cmsonger wrote: post #66

I joined Google at the age of 50. Just send a resume. They are not trying to surprise you and want you to do your best. Consequently, not only do they tell you what to expect from the interview process, the recruiter will send you a PDF that talks through what to expect along with a reading list you can use to prepare. (For example: cracking the coding interview and CLRS are on it.) That said, I just went in cold. If…

You advice is sound but incomplete. > if you still understand your undergraduate level algorithms course and the corresponding vocabulary, then you know what you need to know speaking from experience, this would not get you nowhere near the level you have to be for passing the Google interview (or any other FAANG interview for that matter). You need to study long and hard in addition to solving OJ problems and famili…

I think I'd rather solve real problems than some basic algo I'd never bother to write myself. If Google just wants basic algos and will likely filter me out during interview because of that, I'd sooner not bother. This is probably why big companies complain of talent shortages. Also why they forget real people and start going on very strange tangents. Stupid filters. Good.

I'll stick with creating actual solutions for real people with real problems. So much easier. shrug

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#147

Post by hiram112 »

decebalus1 wrote: post #68
cmsonger wrote: post #66

I joined Google at the age of 50. Just send a resume. They are not trying to surprise you and want you to do your best. Consequently, not only do they tell you what to expect from the interview process, the recruiter will send you a PDF that talks through what to expect along with a reading list you can use to prepare. (For example: cracking the coding interview and CLRS are on it.) That said, I just went in cold. If…

You advice is sound but incomplete. > if you still understand your undergraduate level algorithms course and the corresponding vocabulary, then you know what you need to know speaking from experience, this would not get you nowhere near the level you have to be for passing the Google interview (or any other FAANG interview for that matter). You need to study long and hard in addition to solving OJ problems and famili…

As I'm in a similar boat to the OP, this is exactly why I'm hesitant to even interview with any of these companies, even as a test to see where I stand, simply because I fear I'd be blacklisted on some list these companies might share, should I bomb one without a lot of time spent reviewing.

I sometimes follow a Reddit sub geared for mostly recent CS grads. Every week or two will be a post from someone who got a FAANG job, detailing what he did in order to pass the interview. And some of these are pretty absurd - graduating last semester and since then spending 6 months going through leetcode 6 hours a day, studying algorithms, paying for interview training classes, etc.

And as an older guy who has a decent CS degree but hasn't needed to use 90% of anything related to algorithms in 15 years, I'd have to study a lot, and along with the numerous days of vacation time used for these interviews in California, it doesn't seem worth the effort.

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#148

Post by james_s_tayler »

donavanm wrote: post #134
braythwayt wrote: post #21

Anybody in their 40s or older has valuable experience above and beyond ephemeral value of “Hitting the ground running with Cabbage and Sprouts containerized with Cuper9s using ES2020 and JSxyz.” One way to deliver that experience is in delivery management, that is, being responsible for teams that ship stuff. Another way to deliver that experience is in people management. Not all companies equate this with the previo…

> My 2c on being in engineering leadership is that it’s best to think of yourself as a manger without authority, rather than thinking of yourself as an engineer with authority. Im a principal at AWS. A coworker made a joke that resonated with me; a principal engineer is a manager without direct reports. My job is twofold. Helping managers understand where to go. Helping ICs and teams to get there. I have no inherent…

Sounds ideal. Do you code much still as part of that?

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#149

Post by jeffshek »

sfgweilr4f wrote: post #141
jamesrcole wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone else isn’t familiar with ‘IC’, it seems it stands for “individual contributor” (as opposed to a role where you're managing others). Correct me if I’m wrong.

[was] IC =worker. [updated] IC = worker with management tendencies but more technical knowledge. [kept] Ok then. Helpful. Corporatespeak is often just jargon creation to exclude others for whatever reason. [edit expansion] Worker who is not manager but has manager skills sufficient to orchestrate as needed to deliver a result in required manner. Knowledge level exceeds expectation normally associated with a classic "…

Not quite, the term IC also comes with connotation you don’t want to be a manager track.

Many software engineers (including myself) much prefer the IC route.

Re: Ask HN: Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s

#150

Post by grahamburger »

decebalus1 wrote: post #68
cmsonger wrote: post #66

I joined Google at the age of 50. Just send a resume. They are not trying to surprise you and want you to do your best. Consequently, not only do they tell you what to expect from the interview process, the recruiter will send you a PDF that talks through what to expect along with a reading list you can use to prepare. (For example: cracking the coding interview and CLRS are on it.) That said, I just went in cold. If…

You advice is sound but incomplete. > if you still understand your undergraduate level algorithms course and the corresponding vocabulary, then you know what you need to know speaking from experience, this would not get you nowhere near the level you have to be for passing the Google interview (or any other FAANG interview for that matter). You need to study long and hard in addition to solving OJ problems and famili…

Well this was a fun distraction! Took my no-CS-degree self a few tries to get it, but I got it[1]. I doubt I could have done it very well in an interview setting, though. A bit trickier than it looks at first for sure. Good practice because I have a coding interview tomorrow.[2]

12ms w/ 2.1MB memory usage - apparently 25 percentile for speed and lower memory usage than 100% of submissions in ~50 lines of Go.

[1] https://leetcode.com/submissions/detail/292246392/ (Not sure if you can deep link in to leetcode like this?)

[2] I am looking for a job! Hit me up! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21937576

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