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Ask HN: Is it possible to get hired by FAANG as a European graduate in the US?
I have interviewed 100+ companies and got rejected by all of them because of lack of experience. According to the feedback, my data structure and algorithm skills seem to be fine. A year ago I started out on this journey. I need help.
I want to work at Google as a software engineer or creative technologist (collaborative culture, amazing pay, 20% time, focus on best-practices instead of "fail fast").
Despite that I applied for 6 years to Google (mostly) and Facebook (somewhat). I never got a phone screen.
I have learned that some Full-Stack Academy graduates do get a phone screen. Even if they didn't know coding 3 months prior. So less experienced people than me (see my profile) do get a phone screen.
Is it because I'm not from the US? Or am I potentially doing something else wrong?
- gaogao 7y agoHow long ago did you graduate, and what's your current job?
- mettamage 7y agoI graduated in Aug. 2018, and worked until the start of 2019 as a freelancer. From then on I took a break (6 months) and I've been looking for jobs since July 2019. I've done 3 side projects for fun during that time. One was following a security course, the other one was prepping for OSCP and creating something like Google Jamboard.
- gaogao 7y agoSounds like you missed the college hire cutoff (something like a year after graduation) that a few of the FAANGs have. After that cutoff, you generally need more work experience or need to apply to a rotational position.
- mettamage 7y agoBut would they even hire Europeans applying for US positions?
- gaogao 7y agoIt depends. US immigration, especially under Trump, is pretty tricky. Also, does it need to be US? The European offices hire pretty handily too e.g. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/21/facebook-is-creating-1000-new-jobs-in-the-uk.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/21/facebook-is-creating-1000-ne... or the Google Zurich office.
- mettamage 7y agoI applied for the Zurich office as well in 2018 and 2019, but since it doesn't have any graduate positions open at the moment I specifically specified my question to the US. In all fairness, I wasn't ready for a phone screen then. I had no clue what it meant to apply for jobs (I had to learn that the hard way). I'm ready now, I figured out what type of developer I am (a creative one, Brett Victor, Nicky Case and Douglas Engelbart are inspirations).
- mtmail 7y agoUS companies need to sponsor a visa and that requires them to provide proof they weren't able to find an equivalent US citizen for the position. The visa has a cap limit per year, cost, paperwork, takes months to years. The big enterprise companies have dedicated staff and lawyers, and experience to deal with it but given equal candidates it's simply easier to hire from within the US. International students currently residin in the US also have it easier. They're already on a student visa which can be converted. Consider applying at their European offices, then after a year internal transfer with L1 visa. No cap limit, paperwork can be ready in as little as two weeks. (I thought the 20% time was long debunked. "Realistically it's hard to do your day job productively and also build a new project from scratch. You have to be willing to put in hours outside of your normal job to be successful." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6223466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6223466)
- mettamage 7y agoI've read that you need to be a bit bureaucratically crafty, but it is possible. My source is Clement Mihailescu's YouTube channel. He had quite a few videos that were much more in-depth than the videos of Google on how it is to work there. And while your strategy makes sense, I can't imagine applying to Warsaw (currently the only graduate position open) and answer any "why Google in Warsaw?" questions with a straight face. Because the answer is: after a year I want to transfer away. Though I wouldn't mind to live in Poland for a year.