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Ask HN: How to work at a bigger tech company?

10 points by llmdrinker ↗ HN
My career trajectory looks something like this: medium sized publicly traded company, early startup, another startup over the course of about 5 years.

I’m pretty tired of the startup scene to be honest and would like to try to work at a larger tech company but I’m having a hard time even getting interviews.

I think this is partly because of a bad job market, and partly because I have two no name companies on my resume that I’ve worked for. How can I fix this?

19 comments

[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 55.8 ms ] thread
JojoFatsani
Grind leetcode for six months
catlover76
He can do that if he wants, but it's pointless if he can't land an interview
muzani
I find at the senior level, scores matter much less - you can be rejected despite getting 100%. I'm not saying ignore leetcode, but it's not enough of a factor to grind for 6 months.
sk11001
> you can be rejected despite getting 100%

But can you be accepted without it?

muzani
Yes. It's ironic that I've never been 100% qualified (as per job desc) at any job I've been hired for, but never hired for something that I am fully qualified for.

Most places are fine having you pick things up for the job. Some just don't have any better choices.

scarface_74
Of course at the senior level, being able to speak to scope and impact means a lot
MaxGripe
Besides browsing job offers on platforms where big companies recruit (like LinkedIn in my country), you can also try applying directly on corporate websites. They usually have a „Careers” section. In my opinion, large companies don’t have unique requirements. Your previous workplace shouldn’t matter as much as whether your CV’s tech stack and experience match what they are looking for. Unfortunately, the IT job market situation is extremely bad right now.
LordJim
The best way to get into any company is to get a strong referral from someone who knows you and can speak meaningfully to your abilities. I think this is especially true for big tech due to the massive volume of applications they get.

However, realistically I think this is a difficult time to be trying to get into big tech. A lot of these companies have been doing layoffs, while ramping up their hiring of H1Bs and moving jobs out of the US. At the same time, it feels like there is kind of an informal hiring freeze while companies wait and see how AI develops before possibly deciding to jettison a large fraction of their workforce completely.

Sorry I don't have better advice, but this is my personal take from someone who has worked in big tech in SV.

scarface_74
Referrals do very little as far as BigTech companies that the poster is aiming for. It might get you an interview.

At smaller companies - where he said he wants to move away from - it may help.

LordJim
Well that's the point -- OP said they're having a hard time even getting an interview. In my experience, once you get to the interview stage, most big tech companies care more about your demonstrable skills than the intangibles of your previous experience. For better or worse, that means you can grind leetcode and system design interview prep and get through it.

Anecdotal evidence, but I got a referral from a friend in big tech and skipped past recruiter screen and technical phone screen and went straight to onsite interviews. This was several years ago though, maybe the process has changed.

ActorNightly
Used to work for Amazon, did plenty of interviews.

There is still a demand for competent engineers in big companies, the issue is that most people who claim they can code aren't problem solvers in the sense of reasoning through a solution, but rather trying to find something that they have done in the past and shoehorn the current problem into that solution.

This is why even on this thread, people are trying to tell you to grind out Leetcode - the idea is that you memorize enough patterns to be able to solve the problems.

dsattt
But isn't that the recruiting process? Even Amazon prefers memorising past solutions and rejecting new or creative solutions.
ActorNightly
When interest rates are zero and we are doing like 3 interviews a week because of everything that is open, then yes, candidates generally get selected on this bare minimum.

Now, after layoffs, and the fact that Amazon doesn't hire entry level engineers anymore, the bar is much higher'

Mc91
We say grind out Leetcode, because if someone can't do a Leetcode medium (or hard) like finding a cycle in a linked list in a few minutes, it diminishes their chances of getting into FAANG. It might be the bare minimum nowadays, but if they can't do even that, it is where they should start.

We're not telling people to grind Leetcode because we think Leetcode is great, we're telling people to grind Leetcode because this is usually one of the steps you need to do to get in.

ActorNightly
From my personal experience, those people even during the pandemic hiring craze weren't making it in. Because once I start asking you questions about your experience, things quickly fall apart if you don't understand software dev

I dunno how other companies work, but when it came to Amazon, if you were struggling with a coding problem, and I gave you a hint on the solution, and you ran with it, usually that wasn't a big concern if you could talk about your experience (even during basic college projects), where you showed evidence of being able to deferentially think about things, not just follow patterns that you have been taught.

I do agree that you should know how to do Leetcode and spend time practicing, but grinding them out isn't what I would recommend. The vast majority of Leetcode medium problems are some form of pointer manipulation, linked list (single, trees, or n way like Trie structure), and some O Log N search, which usually involves a sorted data set. The key to learn is how to map a problem into those things, and how to operate on them, not how to solve a specific set of problems.

Its the same reason why ECE/EE people usually have no issue getting coding jobs at FAANG, because they are so used to low level memory operations and optimizations on how to do stuff that they can easily recognize the patterns.

scarface_74
As if that’s not the basis of how Amazon interviews, along with behavioral and system design
scarface_74
The entire market is a shit show right now. But there is really no secret to getting into BigTech and adjacent companies:

1. Grind leetCode - prepare for DS&A interviews

2. Prepare for system design interviews

3. Prepare for behavioral interviews.

These are framed as Amazon LPs. But they are standard behavioral questions.

https://managementconsulted.com/amazon-leadership-principles...

bobheadmaker
Well, try to get referrals in the company and then practice to pass the interview, if the company is genuinely hiring. There are so many fake job postings by big companies as well.
Quinzel
There’s not many creative suggestions on this post that you probably didn’t think of, or try already.

Have you tried social engineering your way into one?

This is just an idea… but big tech companies have generally got LinkedIn pages with employee’s who love to shamelessly plug their position at their company. So.. why don’t you just use that tool to look at what employee’s have the most influence at companies that appeal to you. Watch those employees and what they follow, like and comment on and see how they engage, notice the kind of language they use, gage their morals and values, look for things you can use to bridge a connection with them, and then… once you start building those connections, start using them as leverage, and a foot in the door to what jobs you want.