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I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

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Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#51

Anyone else a bit surprised by the shotgun-like application approach? I have learned from past mistakes to only apply for companies in which I think I will be happy doing what they do. I can't fathom applying to 400 different companies (but then again I also can't see myself wanting to work at FAANG)

> I have learned from past mistakes to only apply for companies in which I think I will be happy doing what they do.

Every time I go to start a job search this is what I tell myself I’m going to do this time around. That quickly goes out the window as soon as I’m rejected from most of those roles though.

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#52
post #28

Here I am, writing B2C applications, wondering, why after 8 years of professional programming, I never encountered the need for a "heap". Then I looked it up, read about it, and realized that I'm using it without naming it. I know it by the name of the special class I'm using in my language. I wonder if I would fail miserably in an interview, or if it just depends on the questions that are being asked in the domain I…

"Heap" has at least two meanings. Often when asked about "the heap", it's in the context of heap versus stack. "What's the difference between a heap-allocated object versus a stack-allocated object", or "what's the diffence between the heap and the stack"? That sometimes comes up in early phone screen interviews. Some languages don't have that distinction: Everything is heap-allocated. So it's understandable how you…

Yeah - I was aware of the "heap" as in "stack vs heap". Though I could not explain, without looking it up, what the difference is between values being put on the stack or the heap.

Now, of course, after reading about it in the linked article, I looked it up and now I have an understanding of it.

But I wonder how much this will be taken into account during an interview. I could, from the technology I'm working with, explain what the pitfalls of an async/await-pattern are, or what the difference between the logical and the visual tree in WPF is.

I wonder if you loose some knowledge on the way while working in a certain domain for a long time, and if that's a bad thing per se.

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember this was one of the first things they teach you in Java but in web world eg. react do you even think about that stuff... Unless you see call stack exceeded. That's why part of me does not consider myself a programmer since I'm just building out applications/basic server admin but I'm not worrying about nLogN or memory management. Unless something is really just blatantly bad/noticable lag/bad performance.…

> That's why part of me does not consider myself a programmer since I'm just building out applications/basic server admin but I'm not worrying about nLogN or memory management. Unless something is really just blatantly bad/noticable lag/bad performance. I only recently started to learn about BST but personally have not had to use it yet. There’s a comment I found from a few years back[0] that touches on something rel…

Yeah I'm definitely currently in group 1, I'm working towards 2 regarding robotics/vision but I also am aware that I am not good at math even if I try. At the very least I can take part in group 2 as a hobby.

I also wonder to what extent can you consider yourself good/bad regarding resourcefulness/desire/aptitude to learn. If you took a developer and had them learn Post/ghostscript while having not worked with printers before, how quickly should they be able to learn it? That's a thing I'm dealing with now, it's not as easy as just pulling a popular library from GitHub and plugging it in.

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#54
I'm currently sat on 2 strong offers in the UK, and think I'm in a favorable position to receive a third. The market is hot right now.

I know it's an exceptionally privileged position to be in, but trying to make the right decision for my future, particularly when it affects my partner as well, is really stressful.

Interviews vary wildly. Some are pure HackerRank grinds, others are more conversational and want to assess how rounded or seasoned I am as a developer. Some had a focus on algorithms and data structures, others were purely coding, debugging and thought process focused.

One started with a 2.5 hour homework as a timed HackerRank test, before any human contact, and was followed by 6 hours of further technical assessment. I took holiday off my current job to take these interviews, and WFH has helped me "bunk off" and do them.

The only advise I can offer to others is this: work with _only_ the best recruiters you can find, and leverage your personal connections and word of mouth. If your recruiter isn't introducing you to companies you've never heard of, or getting you interviews, ditch them.

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#56
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lot of money. A lot of it, and usually great benefits and a flexible schedule. You also typically get to live in a very desirable place.

But in Europe they barely pay more than a lot of medium-sized companies.

Which medium sized companies? I haven’t seen any that get even close.

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#57
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in Europe they barely pay more than a lot of medium-sized companies.

Have you recently checked fb/google europe TCs? for L5 it's 250k£+

IIRC L5 in those companies is equivalent to L7 in Amazon though no? Like Staff Engineer basically.

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#58
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lot of money. A lot of it, and usually great benefits and a flexible schedule. You also typically get to live in a very desirable place.

But in Europe they barely pay more than a lot of medium-sized companies.

That is not my experience in Germany. Maybe for base salaries; but not for total compensation.

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#59
post #8

While the top 20% at FANG's probably do interesting stuff I think most of the people there don't do terribly interesting stuff. If you have to game the hiring process I don't think you'll expect to be in that 20% with the interesting work? So what is it with people wanting to work so badly for large / FANG companies? The money and perks?

[deleted]

Re: I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

#60

Here I am, writing B2C applications, wondering, why after 8 years of professional programming, I never encountered the need for a "heap". Then I looked it up, read about it, and realized that I'm using it without naming it. I know it by the name of the special class I'm using in my language. I wonder if I would fail miserably in an interview, or if it just depends on the questions that are being asked in the domain I…

I used to read a lot of programming books in my early 20s, but experience taught me that everything I don't use on a daily (or at least weekly) basis will end up forgotten in no time. So now I'm just trying to work diligently and integrate stuff that offers immediate benefits. Of course, there are certain situations where, say, mad complex analysis skills would have meant shipping a significantly better product. But hey, perhaps those jumps aren't for me to make.

Individuals who learned data structures and algorithms in university 20 years ago and can recall 95% of it do exist, but there's far less of them than most people think. There's no real progress without keeping your personality and your situation in mind.

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