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I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

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Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#21

Post by azhenley »

ForrestN wrote: post #10

I find it shocking that Facebook would still be considered as a peer to these other companies in terms of desirability as an employer. I would only accept a position at Facebook, which seems to be building a fundamentally destructive product while going out of its way to behave unethically in many dimensions, if it was an absolutely last resort to pay the medical bills of some dying loved one or something. Why would…

They have some really interesting projects going on. For example, they have recruited some top researchers in program analysis and compilers (among many other areas).

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#23

Post by gamblor956 »

ForrestN wrote: post #10

I find it shocking that Facebook would still be considered as a peer to these other companies in terms of desirability as an employer. I would only accept a position at Facebook, which seems to be building a fundamentally destructive product while going out of its way to behave unethically in many dimensions, if it was an absolutely last resort to pay the medical bills of some dying loved one or something. Why would…

There are plenty of people who feel the same way about all the useless startups in SV that exist solely to take VC money.

At least Facebook actually provides something of value to the hundreds of millions people who use it.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#24

Post by dimgl »

markdoubleyou wrote: post #12

"After about a month of consistently practicing problems each day (maybe 2–3 hours/day, more on weekends)..." I'm reading this as a guy with a wife, kids, full-time job, and rusty whiteboarding skills. My inability to make this kind of time investment makes me feel trapped at my current position.

You're not trapped literally. This is all a mental game. Everything you just listed is an excuse.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#25

Post by vinhboy »

guessmyname wrote: post #9

> If it’s of any use: I was interviewing for my second job out of college with about two and a half years of experience without any particularly notable internships or employers on my resume; I went to a very small school that had zero known software companies at their “career fair”; I started preparing in late April and started applying in June/July; and, lastly, a few months in, my job is everything I could have po…

I am just leaving a comment to commiserate with you. This is exactly how I felt. And I have a similar story. It was a depressing time.

> Finally, I realized my brain needs more time than the average programmer

I also came to this conclusion. I accept it and focus on my strengths as a team lead instead.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#26

Post by sun_har »

markdoubleyou wrote: post #12

"After about a month of consistently practicing problems each day (maybe 2–3 hours/day, more on weekends)..." I'm reading this as a guy with a wife, kids, full-time job, and rusty whiteboarding skills. My inability to make this kind of time investment makes me feel trapped at my current position.

I think these sorts of posts give people a warped view of interviewing for SWE positions. Most companies don't ask whiteboarding questions of the difficulty discussed here. If you want to work at one of the biggest corporations in the world, thats one thing - but there are plenty of good jobs out there for people like you and me who don't want to put in this sort of time commitment to interviewing.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#27

Post by RHSeeger »

guessmyname wrote: post #9

> If it’s of any use: I was interviewing for my second job out of college with about two and a half years of experience without any particularly notable internships or employers on my resume; I went to a very small school that had zero known software companies at their “career fair”; I started preparing in late April and started applying in June/July; and, lastly, a few months in, my job is everything I could have po…

> Finally, I realized my brain needs more time than the average programmer to find patterns in this type of problems.

I'm the same way. I'm really good a identifying solutions to a problem. I'm really good at identifying the costs/benefits/issues with each of the problems. However, I take a while to get there. I may figure out one (suboptimal) solution quickly, but it takes me a while to pick out a variety of them and identify the one I think is the right one for the current situation.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#28

Post by 51lver »

m0zg wrote: post #19
ForrestN wrote: post #10

I find it shocking that Facebook would still be considered as a peer to these other companies in terms of desirability as an employer. I would only accept a position at Facebook, which seems to be building a fundamentally destructive product while going out of its way to behave unethically in many dimensions, if it was an absolutely last resort to pay the medical bills of some dying loved one or something. Why would…

>> fundamentally destructive product That's just, like, your opinion, a random HN reader. And the vast majority of FB users do not share it.

Ex FB user here checking in. FB free since `11. There's a ton of us.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#29

Post by azhenley »

anonymousiam wrote: post #22

It would be nice to know which offer the author decided to accept...

I'm interested on the differences between all the offers. It still surprises me how much variability there is between the top companies.

It’s much easier to compare multiple offers made to the same person, rather than comparing isolated offers on websites like Glassdoor.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#30

Post by AimForTheBushes »

ceejayoz wrote: post #13
leowoo91 wrote: post #5

Good to see Yelp being compared with giants :P

It's a publicly traded company with a market cap of $3B. It's certainly not tiny.

Hard to say it's a top SV company when the list lacks intel, tesla, netflix...
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