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That's fair. I've been a bit confused as to what would be directly helpful, there's potentially a lot of side projects that I could do. I realize though that ov

That's fair. I've been a bit confused as to what would be directly helpful, there's potentially a lot of side projects that I could do. I realize though that over analysing the situation doesn't help. :D Right now, I'm trying to write an interpreter following a book [1]. [1] https://interpreterbook.com/ https://interpreterbook.com/ > "I'll add that the sentence you wrote would be viewed as serious red flag by a FAANG interviewer, IMO." Which sentence? The one about challenging work?

ThrowawayR2 7y ago
> "Which sentence? The one about side projects?" The sentence from you quoted in my original post. Take a look at the Amazon Leadership Principles, for example: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles ; all of the FAANGs have something similar. Contrast your sentence with "Bias For Action", "Ownership", "Invent And Simplify", "Learn and Be Curious", etc. and you can see why it would be viewed as a strike against you. > "there's potentially a lot of side projects that I could do" External side projects are nice but they're unlikely to be weighted as much as projects you do to help your employer. I personally don't attach much weight to external side projects unless the candidate's previous job was completely non-software development related or they're a new graduate or the side project is directly related to something they'll be doing on the job that I'm interviewing for.
- akshbdj 7y ago
  That makes sense. Part of the problem is that the team I'm working with doesn't have too much challenging work. We're usually stacked with work, tight deadlines, write a lot of code, and move on to the next thing really quickly. I've talked to my manager about finding work that helps me grow, but I've only got generic responses. In the last 12 months, I've also tried to contribute to the backend, written APIs in Go, but again, that is surface level work that I cannot really talk about (that is I have some experience, but no proficiency). Now I'm back to working primarily on the UI and my scope is limited to basic things like writing standard React components. I feel like I'm stuck in a bit of a catch-22 situation. The current work isn't challenging enough but I cannot get out without doing some challenging work. How do you seek out challenging work in your existing org? FWIW, the company I work for employs about approx. 2000 people so it might be possible to change teams. I'm also considering that option. > The sentence from you quoted in my original post. Take a look at the Amazon Leadership Principles, for example: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles ; all of the FAANGs have something similar. Contrast your sentence with "Bias For Action", "Ownership", "Invent And Simplify", "Learn and Be Curious", etc. and you can see why it would be viewed as a strike against you. Thanks for that link! That looks really useful.
  - ThrowawayR2 7y ago
    > "the team I'm working with doesn't have too much challenging work" I'd suggest making that part of your sales pitch: "I'm applying to your job because I'm eager to learn but there weren't a lot of growth opportunities at my old job for me. Here are some of the things I tried do to grow: ..." You can attempt to point your interpreter side project but you'd better be prepared to talk about it in deep detail. I'd also suggest asking your management about whether training budget is available and, if so, asking to use it to learn something work related. > "How do you seek out challenging work in your existing org?" I don't really have any advice to provide for that; the problem in the places where I've worked tends to be avoiding being drowned in challenging work. That being said, surely there's some form of automation, security evaluation, code analysis or some other common industry tooling or practice that your organization could be using but isn't? I've yet to meet a software team that was doing everything optimally.
    - akshbdj 7y ago
      That definitely sounds like things I can do, I'll try them! Going to think harder about the areas where I can try and make improvements for the team. Thanks again! :)

ThrowawayR2 7y ago

> "Which sentence? The one about side projects?" The sentence from you quoted in my original post. Take a look at the Amazon Leadership Principles, for example: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles ; all of the FAANGs have something similar. Contrast your sentence with "Bias For Action", "Ownership", "Invent And Simplify", "Learn and Be Curious", etc. and you can see why it would be viewed as a strike against you. > "there's potentially a lot of side projects that I could do" External side projects are nice but they're unlikely to be weighted as much as projects you do to help your employer. I personally don't attach much weight to external side projects unless the candidate's previous job was completely non-software development related or they're a new graduate or the side project is directly related to something they'll be doing on the job that I'm interviewing for.

akshbdj 7y ago
That makes sense. Part of the problem is that the team I'm working with doesn't have too much challenging work. We're usually stacked with work, tight deadlines, write a lot of code, and move on to the next thing really quickly. I've talked to my manager about finding work that helps me grow, but I've only got generic responses. In the last 12 months, I've also tried to contribute to the backend, written APIs in Go, but again, that is surface level work that I cannot really talk about (that is I have some experience, but no proficiency). Now I'm back to working primarily on the UI and my scope is limited to basic things like writing standard React components. I feel like I'm stuck in a bit of a catch-22 situation. The current work isn't challenging enough but I cannot get out without doing some challenging work. How do you seek out challenging work in your existing org? FWIW, the company I work for employs about approx. 2000 people so it might be possible to change teams. I'm also considering that option. > The sentence from you quoted in my original post. Take a look at the Amazon Leadership Principles, for example: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles ; all of the FAANGs have something similar. Contrast your sentence with "Bias For Action", "Ownership", "Invent And Simplify", "Learn and Be Curious", etc. and you can see why it would be viewed as a strike against you. Thanks for that link! That looks really useful.
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  > "the team I'm working with doesn't have too much challenging work" I'd suggest making that part of your sales pitch: "I'm applying to your job because I'm eager to learn but there weren't a lot of growth opportunities at my old job for me. Here are some of the things I tried do to grow: ..." You can attempt to point your interpreter side project but you'd better be prepared to talk about it in deep detail. I'd also suggest asking your management about whether training budget is available and, if so, asking to use it to learn something work related. > "How do you seek out challenging work in your existing org?" I don't really have any advice to provide for that; the problem in the places where I've worked tends to be avoiding being drowned in challenging work. That being said, surely there's some form of automation, security evaluation, code analysis or some other common industry tooling or practice that your organization could be using but isn't? I've yet to meet a software team that was doing everything optimally.
  - akshbdj 7y ago
    That definitely sounds like things I can do, I'll try them! Going to think harder about the areas where I can try and make improvements for the team. Thanks again! :)