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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

#91

Post by mmmmmmmmm »

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…

Facebook's stock is probably more oversold than any of them. That plus the fact that they tend to offer very generous compensation packages to begin with would make them my preferred company if I had to choose to between those six.

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

#92

Post by pascalxus »

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…

It might just be a resume booster, for the earlier years of a career?

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

#93

Post by maximp »

anonymousiam wrote: post #22

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

This is a total guess, but the author does seem to hint a preference for LinkedIn:

> I was very impressed throughout the entire interview process with LinkedIn from both a culture perspective and an engineering perspective. They rose the highest on my mental list of iOS Prestige™ from the start of the process until the end.

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

#94

Post by ForrestN »

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.

If you do some quick research, you'll find that the harmful nature of Facebook is the subject of a vast public discourse in the United States and Europe. Lots of academics and public health professionals continue to research the negative consequences of facebook use. It's not an opinion, but I suppose it could still be considered a subject of some controversy. The best evidence I've seen, and that the commentators I trust have seen, is that Facebook is destructive to its users.

Here is an excellent explanation of some of the most robust arguments against Facebook.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/21/17144748/c...

Yglesias, a very smart writer focused on public policy, comes to the conclusion that it would be in the public's interest for Facebook to completely cease operations immediately.

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

#95

Post by underwater »

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.

Putting in a couple of hundred hours of work for a large, permanent jump in salary? That's a fantastic ROI. The study is a side gig with an expected monetary benifit, not an idle hobby.

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

#97

Post by [deleted] »

odorousrex wrote: post #80
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 cannot help but think that these big tech companies (FAANG, et. al) are missing out on diversifying and increasing their engineering expertise by passing over developers like you. I often think what would Google/Facebook would be like if they hired in some experienced engineers that may not be able to whiteboard a BFS tree or can tell you Djikstra's algorithm, but have proven business track records of getting proje…

[deleted]

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

#98

Post by Reedx »

southphillyman wrote: post #82
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.

The time commitment is not as bad as people make it seem. You don't have two hours to yourself every night? How about 1 hour during the week and doing 2-3 on weekends? You just have to sacrifice other leisures like tv and video games to make it work.

Exactly. Most people who say they "don't have time" are spending hours/day watching TV, on social media, etc.

https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2018/time-flies-...

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

#99

Post by wesleytodd »

IMHO, this is the worst possible approach to finding a job. The opportunity cost of doing this over working on interesting problems and letting that guide you to pay seems extremely high.

Also, the focus on "top bay area companies" seems misguided at best. If you work more on identifying what type of work you want to be doing you might find there are GREAT opportunities in other regions or at smaller scale companies.

Maybe I am just not the type of person who resonates with this approach, but I cant imagine this being healthy for most people.

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

#100

Post by Aloha »

gamblor956 wrote: post #23
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.

Facebook gives me excellent tools to keep the family members I dont want to talk to at arms length, while letting them feel involved with my life, yet taking none of my time to do so - its preferable to the alternative, which would be breaking off contact with those people.

But, I dont consume much news from facebook (outside of reputable sources, like NPR), nor do I pay much attention to it in general, and I'm VERY cautious about what I post, to avoid anything that could create controversy or waves of any sort.

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