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Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

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Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#231

Post by discordance »

timsneath wrote: post #169
pisteoff wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Depends on what you do at Google. I imagine they have multiple PhDs working on those projects. For your bog standard SDE these interviews have very little to do with the day-to-day job.

In all honesty, there are not that many "bog standard SDEs" at Google. That's not what the company is hiring for: it wants engineers who are comfortable with complexity, whether measured in technical challenge (Tensorflow, Dart etc.), robustness (cloud, GSuite) or extreme scalability (Gmail, ads, search etc.) A PhD is clearly not the only path to that skillset, but it's not unusual either. Separately, I'm sorry the o…

I actually think this is a big issue for Google, and maybe why there is so much time burned on internal threads.

There aren’t enough good problems to go around and a lot of folks who were promised the world end up bored, working on just another mobile app or whatever else.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#232

Post by triceratops »

blackflame7000 wrote: post #215
triceratops wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lose 40% to taxes and you're looking at $180k/yr. Who's paying 40% taxes on $300k/year? Your math is wrong straight off the bat. Including 401k and match, this hypothetical person is making at least $200k after taxes. Even more if they're married or have a dependent or two. And as others have noted, $135k/year will make you a millionaire in 7 years even if it's cash under your mattress. You'll make it there even fa…

> Who's paying 40% taxes on $300k/year? People in California. > $135k/year will make you a millionaire in 7 years Yea if you are a person who somehow has 0 expenses over the course of those 7 years. Again, all but impossible in California.

> People in California.

The only way you'll end up with a tax bill that large is if you contribute $0 to tax-advantaged retirement accounts. And that's taking into account state taxes, SSI/Medicare. You don't have to believe me, try it out yourself. https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator. Putting in $300k of income for a single person, it gave me $175k take-home pay + $19k in a 401k, which is an effective rate of 35%. Keep in mind, I'm not including the 401k match, which is pretty darned generous at the BigCos. If we assume the max allowed IRS match ($9.5k or thereabouts) the effective rate falls to 32% and this hypothetical person is banking $145k/year after living expenses.

Lots of people (especially young, healthy people) also opt for health plans with HSAs, which give you more deductions.

> a person who somehow has 0 expenses

Where did you get 0 expenses from? GP stated pretty clearly expenses of $45k/year - on the modest side (probably assumes living with a housemate, or not eating out too much). I was going with $60k/year expenses on $195k/year after taxes.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#233

Post by Zach_the_Lizard »

JDiculous wrote: post #116
izacus wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it really isn't: https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/

Ok let's say you make $300k/yr at a FAANG. Lose 40% to taxes and you're looking at $180k/yr. Living in SV your expenses will roughly be at least $45k/yr. So you save $135k/yr (180 - 45). That's great, but a far cry from being a millionaire in just a few years. Of course as you get promoted your comp increases, hitting $500k gross at L5, but that takes more than a couple years to achieve.

I work at a FAANG-type company.

My effective tax rate is much closer to 30% than 40%, but I'm married so I get a bit of a break vs. being single since there's a big gap between my income and my wife's income.

Even so, $135k per year post-tax, post-expenses is a fantastic amount of savings.

This is much more than I made pre-tax, pre-expenses earlier in my career.

Just having access to $135k means you're more or less a millionaire if you invest it and never need to dip into your investments.

The S&P 500 has averaged around 10% or so over the last 90+ years. Over 30 years, at a 7% growth rate, you'd have $1 million in savings with no additional contributions, assuming I didn't screw up my math.

With such a high income sustained for just a few years, it'd be hard to screw up later in life so long as you avoid the hedonistic treadmill.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#234

Post by simonkafan »

tyrankh wrote: post #223
choppaface wrote: post #166

“You can pass every interview with A grades and still not get a job, because a senior Googler decides that you're the wrong person to be hired.” Google doesn’t need you. They probably already have a clone of you. They have gobs of rank-and-file SWE effort on reserve should one of their key products fail. The process is designed to entertain the hiring manager and certain key employees. They don’t want you for your pr…

This is ludicrously false and not at _all_ why Google hires people. They hire people because - big surprise - there are projects that need staffing. "At this stage, if Google hires you, you are almost certainly being used to aid in the retention of somebody else. You’re going straight for the bench." I mean, just wow. Do you really believe this? This is fantasy to an incredible degree.

Of course this is sarcasm.

But after all, most of the newer Google products really seem to be there just to entertain their own people and give them something to do. No one can tell me, for example, that there was a serious business case behind Google Allo.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#235

Post by cmonnow »

JDiculous wrote: post #113

Google just loves to waste your time. A close friend of mine interviewed there, was flown out to Mountain View, and one interviewer showed up to the interview over 30 minutes late, with only about 5-10 minutes to spare. He didn't get the job. Seems like a lot of engineers there get the job after many months of (unpaid) preparation and years of interviewing many times. I can understand doing this for one's dream job,…

> I'm not spending months practicing

However, 10,000 other people are ready to.

It's just a game of supply and demand.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#236

Post by djohnston »

JDiculous wrote: post #95
izacus wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's look at it from another perspective (and this holds true for most FAANGs): A month of serious work and preparation can land you one of the most paying jobs on the world which will make you a millionare in a few years if you play it right. Most people (especially if they didn't win the birth lottery by being born in CA, USA) go to schools and colleges for YEARS and YEARS to come even a few steps towards what you…

> will make you a millionare in a few years if you play it right. This is a pretty steep exaggeration.

Few is probably 6 at faang, if you're investing and budgeting and getting promoted. Even if you start at the bottom.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#237

Post by blackflame7000 »

triceratops wrote: post #232
blackflame7000 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who's paying 40% taxes on $300k/year? People in California. > $135k/year will make you a millionaire in 7 years Yea if you are a person who somehow has 0 expenses over the course of those 7 years. Again, all but impossible in California.

> People in California. The only way you'll end up with a tax bill that large is if you contribute $0 to tax-advantaged retirement accounts. And that's taking into account state taxes, SSI/Medicare. You don't have to believe me, try it out yourself. https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator . Putting in $300k of income for a single person, it gave me $175k take-home pay + $19k in a 401k, which is an effe…

$45k/year is an absurd estimate of expenses especially in silicon valley.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#238

Post by blackflame7000 »

ska wrote: post #230
blackflame7000 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot about state tax in addition to federal taxes.

right, but federal, state, and FICA is still less than 40%

Not really. That's about what I paid last year.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#239

Post by triceratops »

blackflame7000 wrote: post #237
triceratops wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People in California. The only way you'll end up with a tax bill that large is if you contribute $0 to tax-advantaged retirement accounts. And that's taking into account state taxes, SSI/Medicare. You don't have to believe me, try it out yourself. https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator . Putting in $300k of income for a single person, it gave me $175k take-home pay + $19k in a 401k, which is an effe…

$45k/year is an absurd estimate of expenses especially in silicon valley.

I pretty clearly stated $60k/year. $45k/year was someone else's suggestion. But $45k/year isn't "absurd" at all if you live with a housemate.

Heck assume spending $70k/year on $205k/year after taxes and 401k + match. It's still $135k/year. I don't know why you're arguing against arithmetic.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#240

Post by akincisor »

timsneath wrote: post #169
pisteoff wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Depends on what you do at Google. I imagine they have multiple PhDs working on those projects. For your bog standard SDE these interviews have very little to do with the day-to-day job.

In all honesty, there are not that many "bog standard SDEs" at Google. That's not what the company is hiring for: it wants engineers who are comfortable with complexity, whether measured in technical challenge (Tensorflow, Dart etc.), robustness (cloud, GSuite) or extreme scalability (Gmail, ads, search etc.) A PhD is clearly not the only path to that skillset, but it's not unusual either. Separately, I'm sorry the o…

This may have been true 15 years ago when they were a small company. Google now employs ~60K engineers and the majority of them are "Bog Standard".

Disclosure: I worked at Google twice.

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