I worked at a FAANG company. My co-worker hadn't graduated High School. I recommend applying and grinding leetcode if you aim for a SWE role. Two years SWE experience is enough for them to give you an interview with a cold application through their job board in my experience.
Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
51–60 of 170 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you that course that I refer to? People within companies are all different, so we can't say. Some hiring managers might, others actually prefer no degree, others might focus more "shipped". It depends
To be clear I'm speaking generally, not on an individual basis. Everyone has their own preferences–I personally don't discount it. But in my experience the average hiring manager does, because certifications are often seen as a thing you just pay money for to get a piece of paper. Of course college degrees are like that too, but the quality of "big state school CS degree" is usually somewhat regulated and "big state…
The courses from Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, MIT are quite good. There is no paying, just knowledge.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#53Do you have specific industry areas you want to get into? I was hiring for 5 year for some EU companies (startups to 1k) as an engineer, I _never ever_ looked at the applicant's degree - if you have any university degree, it's a plus ("you are willing to learn") but not much more. CV/past (own) projects will get you all the way. If you are targeting fintech, ML or "rockstar" corps that might be different.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#54You don't need a CS degree and you don't need certs once you've established yourself. I've been in SRE or SRE-adjacent roles at Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox, and now a quant hedge fund (the first three in the US, the last in London). My only degree is in English lit. Your hardest step is getting into your first job with good name recognition in the tech industry. For this, your best bet isn't certs, it's networking --…
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#55For certification, I don't think it's important for FAANG - a referral or other way of getting a recruiter to get you to an interview, and passing the interview, is all that really matters. The only part of a degree course that really matters in an interview context is algorithm analysis. You need to understand how the cost, in space and time, of code you write scales with the size of inputs. Degrees and certificates…
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#56In a way it's insanely easy to get a high-end tech job in the US. You don't need to spend 4 years in college. If you're willing to lock yourself in your bedroom and do leetcode for 3-6 months, one of them will hire you.
Oh? I applied to Google in late 2021 / early 2022. The suggestion was to grind leetcode. The recruiter emailed me after my interviews to say they'd resulted in good news. She set up a phone call shortly afterward in which she told me I'd passed the interviews, I should prepare for a series of "team fit" interviews, I should see a job offer in about 6 weeks ("the end of February", when the call occurred in mid-January…
A lot of times you're not interviewing for "Google", but a specific team. If that team has all it's members, then well, sucks to be you.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#57I am UK based. I also did CS50x and found it was worth doing and fun even if you don’t have a particular goal. It won’t get you very far though it’s an intro, personally I am looking at CS61a/b/c next. https://cs61a.org/ https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61b/sp22/ More concretely from reading your post the best thing you can do is move companies to a more engineering focused company where you can learn more, before y…
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#58Genuine question: why are you focused on just those five companies?
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be clear I'm speaking generally, not on an individual basis. Everyone has their own preferences–I personally don't discount it. But in my experience the average hiring manager does, because certifications are often seen as a thing you just pay money for to get a piece of paper. Of course college degrees are like that too, but the quality of "big state school CS degree" is usually somewhat regulated and "big state…
Please take a look at the course. The courses from Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, MIT are quite good. There is no paying, just knowledge.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#60I have a BSc and an MSc and I don't ever want to work for FAANG. I work as a contractor and work only few months a year if it allows it. Rest of the time I work on my own side projects - the dream for me is for them to get successful. UK based but relocated to Asia. FAANG might seem like the successful endpoint but theres many exciting companies/startups out there that might make you feel more accomplished than worki…
Do you work remotely in Asia? I would like to relocate too one day.