4 ms·

Counterexample: I got an interview at Google a few months ago, with no referral and one phone screen.

fossuser 6y ago
Yeah it's not impossible, but it's not easy. Did you go to MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Harvard, a different highly selective University? Were you previously working at another highly selective/famous company? If so it's pretty easy to get the interview, if not it's pretty hard without a referral.
- yitianjian 6y ago
  I work at a FAANG right now - I received interviews for FAANG, top unicorns (Palantir, Uber, Lyft), quant/finance (Citadel, TS, Jane St), with an unrelated degree (Biochem), average school (top Canadian school), and 2ish YOE at a no-name startup. So I would say it's better than I had expected.
- xxpor 6y ago
  At the time I started, my university had a 75% acceptance rate. I didn't do any interesting side projects or have amazing extra curriculars. I just went to the jobs page and clicked the "I'd like a job please" button. And what do you know, a recruiter contacted me a few days later to setup an interview. I think people underestimate how desperate big tech companies are for warm bodies right now. It's not that hard to get an interview.
  - fossuser 6y ago
    Maybe things have changed then (or you went to a highly selective brand name school in which case it’s easy). I went to RPI which isn’t a bad place, but isn’t MIT. I had a good gpa and decent projects but got ignored or instant rejections from Google and Facebook, I was able to get other interviews (Twitter, Palantir) and after working at a famous company now it’s easy to get interviews, but there’s a randomness to it. If you don’t have a brand name school or don’t know someone it’s still difficult. Not the fault of the companies really, there are just too many applicants. Since I was in school there are more companies tackling this like triple byte so maybe it’s better now?
    - xxpor 6y ago
      I went to Case Western and got in to RPI as well. So similar tiers of schools IMO.
yen223 6y ago
Same here. Knew nobody at Google. I didn't even go to a particularly good school or anything. I was approached by a recruiter. Didn't pass the interview, but oh well. Out of the handful of companies I interviewed at, Google was the only one who offered feedback on where my interview went wrong. I thought that was nice of them.

Yeah it's not impossible, but it's not easy. Did you go to MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Harvard, a different highly selective University? Were you previously working at another highly selective/famous company? If so it's pretty easy to get the interview, if not it's pretty hard without a referral.

yitianjian 6y ago
I work at a FAANG right now - I received interviews for FAANG, top unicorns (Palantir, Uber, Lyft), quant/finance (Citadel, TS, Jane St), with an unrelated degree (Biochem), average school (top Canadian school), and 2ish YOE at a no-name startup. So I would say it's better than I had expected.
xxpor 6y ago
At the time I started, my university had a 75% acceptance rate. I didn't do any interesting side projects or have amazing extra curriculars. I just went to the jobs page and clicked the "I'd like a job please" button. And what do you know, a recruiter contacted me a few days later to setup an interview. I think people underestimate how desperate big tech companies are for warm bodies right now. It's not that hard to get an interview.
- fossuser 6y ago
  Maybe things have changed then (or you went to a highly selective brand name school in which case it’s easy). I went to RPI which isn’t a bad place, but isn’t MIT. I had a good gpa and decent projects but got ignored or instant rejections from Google and Facebook, I was able to get other interviews (Twitter, Palantir) and after working at a famous company now it’s easy to get interviews, but there’s a randomness to it. If you don’t have a brand name school or don’t know someone it’s still difficult. Not the fault of the companies really, there are just too many applicants. Since I was in school there are more companies tackling this like triple byte so maybe it’s better now?
  - xxpor 6y ago
    I went to Case Western and got in to RPI as well. So similar tiers of schools IMO.

yen223 6y ago

Same here. Knew nobody at Google. I didn't even go to a particularly good school or anything. I was approached by a recruiter. Didn't pass the interview, but oh well. Out of the handful of companies I interviewed at, Google was the only one who offered feedback on where my interview went wrong. I thought that was nice of them.