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Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. No need for a famous school

Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. No need for a famous school, specific degree etc. It requires intelligence, if you don't have that then you need luck. Step 2: Save more than two thirds of your take home salary, you can still live way better than the people sweeping the office floor. Step 3: You now have a ton of money saved up, take whatever risks you like or just retire early.

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
>Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. Let me stop you right there. Maybe that works in SV but in most of Europe(the world?) you aint getting in to any well paying job at a big tech company without a degree from a prestigious university or previous experience at equally big and famous companies. Companies here don't have the FAANG resources to whiteboard everyone who bothers to apply and check their algorithm skills when all the future employee needs to do is work on some CRUD app so they initially select based on how impressive your resume is and run you through some coding test later to weed out the bullshitters. Although I live and work in a city with one of the top 300 technical universities in the world where graduating means you have to study algorithms, advanced math, etc. almost no jobs here outside or research and academia require knowledge about algorithms. Companies just want an experienced node/python plumber ASAP.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  I can second that sentiment in Canada as well - I'm not even aware of what the good paying jobs would even be - there's none with FAANG fame, and every job has a hard wall with a laundry list of 5+ years of experience with a dozen web technologies that you can only climb over with the appropriate connections.
  - chrisandchips 7y ago
    As a canadian, I disagree with how strict you’re describing the issue to be. There are a fair amount of big and well established companies that are not going to penalize you for lacking the five years and connections. With that said, they’re almost all in Toronto, but that’s a different issue ..
    - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      Yeah, I didn't want to get too regional, especially when it seems to be a single exception (possibly Vancouver as well?). As I understand it Toronto is almost like a different world, especially when compared to Western Canada, like using New York or Silicon Valley to describe all of America.
- 0xfaded 7y ago
  Step 1: Move to SV. I'm sorry, I'm Australian and studied and worked in Australia. I spent 4 years in SV, and now founded a startup in Europe. Even after the Covid issue has played out, I'm convinced SV will still be where a passionate technologist can optimize their impact and lifetime earnings. There's just nothing that can compare to being surrounded by so many smart people who share your interests. I've heard stories about the dotcom crash, and how it was awesome because everyone who had no business being there left. You just had the geeks that wanted to build stuff for the sake of building stuff, and it turns out there was still plenty of money floating around after things got going again. Europe has laws which makes hiring people risky and expensive. And even if you do become a top earner, expect to pay 50% in taxes (+ 25% VAT). It's hard to fathom individual engineers would be able to save enough to have the sort of financial freedom to bankroll a company while still in their 20's. But don't worry, there are government grants for you! Just be prepared to spend 1/3rd of your time dealing with paperwork and hourly reporting of what you did on a day by day basis, all for 50k here, 40k there. I feel these grants are designed to be demoralizing and the startup equivalent of unemployment benefits. And then you realize that almost all R&D in Europe, from startups to multinationals, is subsidized by EU funding schemes and mountains of paperwork. Don't underestimate how good SV has it with the "I like you and your idea, here's $1m and come back next year and tell me if it worked". </rant>
  - the_af 7y ago
    > Step 1: Move to SV. What about... - I don't want to move to SV, I'm not that young anymore. - I don't want to move outside my country, or - specifically to the US and SV, which are not a particularly good place to live in anyway, or - even if I wanted it, entry to the US is stressful and not that easy, or - I have friends/family ties where I live, and those are important to me There's plenty of reasons why your step 1 is bad advice for a lot of people.
    - vikramkr 7y ago
      No pain no gain. If the US and SV opportunities aren't a type of gain that's compelling to you then of course you dont need to worry about it. But if they are, then you need to make your own luck by making those sacrifices. Things about family ties and wants and stress are all part of the work you put in to make your own luck. Being American is a pretty great gig, for all the stuff you keep hearing on the news. There's a reason silicon valley is silicon valley, New York is New York, and so on. Theres a lot of luck that comes from being here. My parents left behind their entire support network in india to set out on their own, navigated the complex immigration process (granted, easier 20-30 years ago than now), and made those sacrifices, and it more than paid off. And I got lucky by just getting to be born here. Things like "you dont want to move outside your country " are completely valid, and part of why american immigration works is because immigration is such a hard thing for people to do (leaving everything behind) that it self selects for the people willing to make those sacrifices. The one valid one you mention is the difficulty of immigrating. That can be a straight up barrier in the way of a motivated person that would be a useful addition to this country and should be removed. This is the country of immigrants. We should keep that part of our culture alive.
- username90 7y ago
  > Let me stop you right there. Maybe that works in SV but in most of Europe(the world?) you aint getting in to any well paying job at a big tech company without a degree from a prestigious university or previous experience at equally big and famous companies. I did exactly that though, I joined Google in Europe a few years ago.
  - ChuckNorris89 7y ago
    Google Europe in which city?
    - username90 7y ago
      I moved to Zurich.
      - ChuckNorris89 7y ago
        How do you find life there? From some acquaintances who moved there to work in tech I heard integration/dating/making friends is very difficult as a foreigner especially if you come from $UNCOOL_COUNTRY and the real estate market is terrible, with cramped and expensive apartments in a poor state and buying is even more difficult if you're not a swiss citizen which is a difficult citizenship to get.
        philangist 7y ago
        If this is the case Zurich sounds exactly like New York (other than the difficulty of buying property for non-citizens). Might just be the feeling of alienation that arises from living in a big city as an outsider.
        silexia 7y ago
        Zurich is a city of 300,000 people or so, New York is a hundred times larger.
        muro 7y ago
ghaff 7y ago
Do you seriously believe that anyone who is reasonably intelligent can just waltz into a high paying job at Apple or Google by sending them a resume? If so, I'd respectfully suggest that is... probably not the case. (Not that I have firsthand experience. I've never applied to nor been interested in those big tech firms.) ADDED: I'm sorry, but the people on this thread who are arguing that if you can't get a $200K+ job at Google, you're obviously not even trying have some serious blinders on.
- paulcole 7y ago
  > Do you seriously believe that anyone who is reasonably intelligent can just waltz into a high paying job at Apple or Google by sending them a resume People who have waltzed into a high paying job at Apple or Google by sending them a resume believe exactly this. It’s one of the many problems with any sort of unsolicited financial/job seeking advice. Actually the problem with advice of any sort. It’s almost 100% wrong.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    I'm just very aware of how lucky I've been on a couple of different occasions (ADDED: Specifically from an employment perspective). During the dot-com bubble bursting, my company was having big layoffs and I landed a new job based on an informal lunch meeting with someone I knew that I had literally a couple of days after being laid off. (Some other leads I was investigating in parallel prior to getting an offer produced not so much as a nibble.) Then, probably only a month of so before that employer shut down (somewhat after but somewhat related to the 2008 downturn), I contacted someone I knew at another company--which resulted in an offer and I'm still there. But none of that provides much in the way of insights for someone else beyond a generic "have a network that knows you do good work and is in a position to hire you."
    - jimbokun 7y ago
      > "have a network that knows you do good work and is in a position to hire you." Which is an extremely important insight.
fenwick67 7y ago
So, 1 make money, 2 save it, 3 congrats you have lots of money. Thought-provoking.
- icedchai 7y ago
  Yeah, step 2 sounds easy, but is actually the hardest. I know plenty of folks who had well paying jobs, but quickly blew it all on boats, multiple luxury cars, investing in their cousin's hot startup, etc.
  - ChuckNorris89 7y ago
    Sounds like Dinesh from SV :)
  - lucaspm98 7y ago
    Lifestyle creep is incredibly hard to resist when everyone around you is caught up in it. My compromise has been to allow myself reasonable splurging on a few hobbies that prioritize experiences over consumerism while keeping the rest of my life as minimalist as possible.
  - tiborsaas 7y ago
    Sounds horrible, poor guy.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
> Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. You mean, a remote job in a place with low costs of living. Otherwise, this algorithm doesn't work for people with families. I've been on the job market just before COVID-19 hit. The costs of living in tech hubs are absolutely ridiculous. If it's not housing, then it's something else. For instance, you could afford staying in London with a spouse on a tech salary (the other salary would go straight into savings). But not with daycare, which quite literally costs more than housing.
- username90 7y ago
  Kids are not luck though, people have all the power to decide not to have kids until their finances are better.
  - OkGoDoIt 7y ago
    Sounds good until you’re both in your mid 30s and realizing that it’s now or never.
    - username90 7y ago
      I said how to do it without being lucky, not how to do it when you are no longer in your 20's.
  - Balgair 7y ago
    Through true, that's a bit of a coarse statement. Should children wreck your finances? A lot of countries are spending a lot of money to reverse that sentiment right now. Yes, they are currently expensive, but blaming people for having children isn't going to fix anything. What about health aspects? One should never overestimate their fertility. Rates of birth defects rise as humans age (not just women, men too). Complications at birth also rise. Older grandparents have less time to enjoy their progeny. Older parents have health issues that prevent them from spending as much time with new grandchildren. Each family chooses when it is right for them to add a new member. Finances play into that, of course, but they should not dominate the decision like they do today. Top Tier economies are seeing the results of this myopia. Many European countries are schilling out big bucks to bump their birthrates and help with these financial concerns. Places like Switerland have had their fertility rates under replacement since the 1970's. Data is a bit wonky, but it seems these policies have helped the problem from a continued backslide, though not ended it.
pyb 7y ago
I've heard of people who did this and went on to retire. OTOH I don't know of any engineer who left Big Tech to take advantage of their financial security to do something _highly impactful_. In other words, the "Google mafia" was a lot weaker than the "Paypal mafia". The problem is this : most creative engineers don't have the mindset to mindlessly study for algorithms interviews, only to then have to spend years in constrained engineering roles.
- username90 7y ago
  > most creative engineers don't have the mindset to mindlessly study for algorithms interviews, only to then have to spend years in constrained engineering roles. I agree with this, but then they can't really complain about luck when they had the option to fix it. It was a choice they made and now they have to live with it. It is fine to gamble, but then you shouldn't complain about the outcome if you lose.
hysan 7y ago
> Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. No need for a famous school, specific degree etc. It requires intelligence, if you don't have that then you need luck. Sorry but no. Like everyone else has pointed out, this is so far from the truth that I’m actually in awe that someone would write this. There is a ton of luck involved with getting a job at a good tech company. First being something straight up mentioned in the article - knowing the right people. The chances of a regular hard working person getting past even the initial resume filter takes luck. It takes luck for a referral to find the right hiring manager’s desk. Get past that and then depending on the company, there’s always the chance that someone interviewing you is having a bad day or maybe the team “fit” isn’t there. There are a ton of obstacles that come down to luck because it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. Edit: Since many people are using anecdotal data and survivorship bias as proof that this is true, how about a counter point. I interviewed at a FAANG before and didn’t get the job. Later on, I met someone who works at that company who was able to look me up. I had passed their bar. Not with flying colors but well enough that you would generally get an offer. Why didn’t I? Because that specific team that interviewed me had a skillset need that I didn’t have. But there’s no way of knowing that prior because the job description doesn’t point that out. It’s just how their (and most companies’) process works. So like I said, luck.
- solidasparagus 7y ago
  You got rejected twice - so keep applying. Getting into a big company is mostly a matter of perseverance from what I've seen.
  - hysan 7y ago
    Perseverance can help, but what you say doesn’t discredit what I’m pointing out - that you just might not have Lady Luck on your side. Again, anecdotal data. I did keep trying at other big tech companies. I did get a good job where I was hoping to save money, build a career, etc. Exactly as OP planned. You know what happened? COVID-19 led to mass layoffs less than a year after I got hired. Now I’m back to square one. I’ve barely recovered the savings I spent moving, which as others have already pointed out, is a prerequisite to OP’s advice. Sometimes luck simply isn’t on your side. To say that all it takes is intelligence and hard work is simply not true.
gullywhumper 7y ago
Step 1 reminds me of one of my favorites from the Onion: According to a Gallup report published Tuesday, over 95 percent of the nation’s grandfathers began their careers by walking straight into a place of business, saying “I’m the man for the job,” and receiving a position right there on the spot. https://www.theonion.com/report-95-of-grandfathers-got-job-by-walking-right-up-1819576285 https://www.theonion.com/report-95-of-grandfathers-got-job-b...
mettamage 7y ago
Alright, can you get me a phone screen? Sorry to ask the question so directly, but I have applied since 2014, and I can't get to the phone screen. I'd love to be a frontend engineer, UX engineer, creative engineer (I've seen this role at Google, it looks awesome) or a full-stack engineer. I have: A bachelor in information science (2012) A bachelor degree in psychology (2015) A master in game-design where I learned about Unity3D and C# (2016) A master in computer science where I learned about cache eviction in GPUs to perform rowhammer via a JavaScript advertizement (2018). I have done quite a few side projects (not willing to disclose here, email is in my profile). And I have some work experience as a coding bootcamp instructor (1 year, I trained 50 people to become junior web developers at companies like IBM, Capgemini and a top 5 Dutch bank) and a freelance web developer (6 months) and a freelance iOS developer (also 6 months). I graduated in 2018 and after freelancing for a bit, I took a sabbatical in 2019 (setting up a bar in Thailand with family and friends). When I started looking for jobs in earnest in 2020, Covid started to hit. I'm practicing algorithms as we speak, I'll be ready in 2 weeks to a month from now. So far I'm facing no difficulties, this stuff is hard work but it's a lot easier than my security courses. Also, algorithms are actually quite fun. There are a few things there that I really want to learn such as a hyper attention to detail. I'm currently training the skill to write a program flawless without bugs from the get go, complete with the fastest time complexity immediately. I know I can get to this level because I'm noticing that for a lot of algorithms just by playing around one can see the best time complexity for it (I find optimizing for the right space complexity a bit harder). I hope you'll help me with this. If not, and I don't get to a phone screen, well that is my (and many people) their biggest issue. Passing algorithms is not the issue, getting a chance to be interviewed is. I'm a 100% sure I'd rock at the job, as I'm sure that many other people would who didn't get the chance for a phone screen. I'm from The Netherlands and would love to work in Zurich. I see you work in Zurich as well, I've been to Switzerland quite a few times, it's amazing. Google teams that I find interesting and want to know more about: - Google Doodles - Project zero (though I don't think I'd be able work there since people have a super big track record regarding the security work they do) - Google Creative Lab - Google Health - Google Stadia - Google Cloud Platform - Google Brand Studio (though I don't think I'd be able to work there since it's more about people who can shoot beautiful movies)
- 7y ago

ChuckNorris89 7y ago

>Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. Let me stop you right there. Maybe that works in SV but in most of Europe(the world?) you aint getting in to any well paying job at a big tech company without a degree from a prestigious university or previous experience at equally big and famous companies. Companies here don't have the FAANG resources to whiteboard everyone who bothers to apply and check their algorithm skills when all the future employee needs to do is work on some CRUD app so they initially select based on how impressive your resume is and run you through some coding test later to weed out the bullshitters. Although I live and work in a city with one of the top 300 technical universities in the world where graduating means you have to study algorithms, advanced math, etc. almost no jobs here outside or research and academia require knowledge about algorithms. Companies just want an experienced node/python plumber ASAP.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
I can second that sentiment in Canada as well - I'm not even aware of what the good paying jobs would even be - there's none with FAANG fame, and every job has a hard wall with a laundry list of 5+ years of experience with a dozen web technologies that you can only climb over with the appropriate connections.
- chrisandchips 7y ago
  As a canadian, I disagree with how strict you’re describing the issue to be. There are a fair amount of big and well established companies that are not going to penalize you for lacking the five years and connections. With that said, they’re almost all in Toronto, but that’s a different issue ..
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    Yeah, I didn't want to get too regional, especially when it seems to be a single exception (possibly Vancouver as well?). As I understand it Toronto is almost like a different world, especially when compared to Western Canada, like using New York or Silicon Valley to describe all of America.
0xfaded 7y ago
Step 1: Move to SV. I'm sorry, I'm Australian and studied and worked in Australia. I spent 4 years in SV, and now founded a startup in Europe. Even after the Covid issue has played out, I'm convinced SV will still be where a passionate technologist can optimize their impact and lifetime earnings. There's just nothing that can compare to being surrounded by so many smart people who share your interests. I've heard stories about the dotcom crash, and how it was awesome because everyone who had no business being there left. You just had the geeks that wanted to build stuff for the sake of building stuff, and it turns out there was still plenty of money floating around after things got going again. Europe has laws which makes hiring people risky and expensive. And even if you do become a top earner, expect to pay 50% in taxes (+ 25% VAT). It's hard to fathom individual engineers would be able to save enough to have the sort of financial freedom to bankroll a company while still in their 20's. But don't worry, there are government grants for you! Just be prepared to spend 1/3rd of your time dealing with paperwork and hourly reporting of what you did on a day by day basis, all for 50k here, 40k there. I feel these grants are designed to be demoralizing and the startup equivalent of unemployment benefits. And then you realize that almost all R&D in Europe, from startups to multinationals, is subsidized by EU funding schemes and mountains of paperwork. Don't underestimate how good SV has it with the "I like you and your idea, here's $1m and come back next year and tell me if it worked". </rant>
- the_af 7y ago
  > Step 1: Move to SV. What about... - I don't want to move to SV, I'm not that young anymore. - I don't want to move outside my country, or - specifically to the US and SV, which are not a particularly good place to live in anyway, or - even if I wanted it, entry to the US is stressful and not that easy, or - I have friends/family ties where I live, and those are important to me There's plenty of reasons why your step 1 is bad advice for a lot of people.
  - vikramkr 7y ago
    No pain no gain. If the US and SV opportunities aren't a type of gain that's compelling to you then of course you dont need to worry about it. But if they are, then you need to make your own luck by making those sacrifices. Things about family ties and wants and stress are all part of the work you put in to make your own luck. Being American is a pretty great gig, for all the stuff you keep hearing on the news. There's a reason silicon valley is silicon valley, New York is New York, and so on. Theres a lot of luck that comes from being here. My parents left behind their entire support network in india to set out on their own, navigated the complex immigration process (granted, easier 20-30 years ago than now), and made those sacrifices, and it more than paid off. And I got lucky by just getting to be born here. Things like "you dont want to move outside your country " are completely valid, and part of why american immigration works is because immigration is such a hard thing for people to do (leaving everything behind) that it self selects for the people willing to make those sacrifices. The one valid one you mention is the difficulty of immigrating. That can be a straight up barrier in the way of a motivated person that would be a useful addition to this country and should be removed. This is the country of immigrants. We should keep that part of our culture alive.
username90 7y ago
> Let me stop you right there. Maybe that works in SV but in most of Europe(the world?) you aint getting in to any well paying job at a big tech company without a degree from a prestigious university or previous experience at equally big and famous companies. I did exactly that though, I joined Google in Europe a few years ago.
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Google Europe in which city?
  - username90 7y ago
    I moved to Zurich.
    - ChuckNorris89 7y ago
      How do you find life there? From some acquaintances who moved there to work in tech I heard integration/dating/making friends is very difficult as a foreigner especially if you come from $UNCOOL_COUNTRY and the real estate market is terrible, with cramped and expensive apartments in a poor state and buying is even more difficult if you're not a swiss citizen which is a difficult citizenship to get.
      - philangist 7y ago
        If this is the case Zurich sounds exactly like New York (other than the difficulty of buying property for non-citizens). Might just be the feeling of alienation that arises from living in a big city as an outsider.
        silexia 7y ago
        Zurich is a city of 300,000 people or so, New York is a hundred times larger.
      - muro 7y ago

ghaff 7y ago

Do you seriously believe that anyone who is reasonably intelligent can just waltz into a high paying job at Apple or Google by sending them a resume? If so, I'd respectfully suggest that is... probably not the case. (Not that I have firsthand experience. I've never applied to nor been interested in those big tech firms.) ADDED: I'm sorry, but the people on this thread who are arguing that if you can't get a $200K+ job at Google, you're obviously not even trying have some serious blinders on.

paulcole 7y ago
> Do you seriously believe that anyone who is reasonably intelligent can just waltz into a high paying job at Apple or Google by sending them a resume People who have waltzed into a high paying job at Apple or Google by sending them a resume believe exactly this. It’s one of the many problems with any sort of unsolicited financial/job seeking advice. Actually the problem with advice of any sort. It’s almost 100% wrong.
- ghaff 7y ago
  I'm just very aware of how lucky I've been on a couple of different occasions (ADDED: Specifically from an employment perspective). During the dot-com bubble bursting, my company was having big layoffs and I landed a new job based on an informal lunch meeting with someone I knew that I had literally a couple of days after being laid off. (Some other leads I was investigating in parallel prior to getting an offer produced not so much as a nibble.) Then, probably only a month of so before that employer shut down (somewhat after but somewhat related to the 2008 downturn), I contacted someone I knew at another company--which resulted in an offer and I'm still there. But none of that provides much in the way of insights for someone else beyond a generic "have a network that knows you do good work and is in a position to hire you."
  - jimbokun 7y ago
    > "have a network that knows you do good work and is in a position to hire you." Which is an extremely important insight.

fenwick67 7y ago

So, 1 make money, 2 save it, 3 congrats you have lots of money. Thought-provoking.

icedchai 7y ago
Yeah, step 2 sounds easy, but is actually the hardest. I know plenty of folks who had well paying jobs, but quickly blew it all on boats, multiple luxury cars, investing in their cousin's hot startup, etc.
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Sounds like Dinesh from SV :)
- lucaspm98 7y ago
  Lifestyle creep is incredibly hard to resist when everyone around you is caught up in it. My compromise has been to allow myself reasonable splurging on a few hobbies that prioritize experiences over consumerism while keeping the rest of my life as minimalist as possible.
- tiborsaas 7y ago
  Sounds horrible, poor guy.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

> Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. You mean, a remote job in a place with low costs of living. Otherwise, this algorithm doesn't work for people with families. I've been on the job market just before COVID-19 hit. The costs of living in tech hubs are absolutely ridiculous. If it's not housing, then it's something else. For instance, you could afford staying in London with a spouse on a tech salary (the other salary would go straight into savings). But not with daycare, which quite literally costs more than housing.

username90 7y ago
Kids are not luck though, people have all the power to decide not to have kids until their finances are better.
- OkGoDoIt 7y ago
  Sounds good until you’re both in your mid 30s and realizing that it’s now or never.
  - username90 7y ago
    I said how to do it without being lucky, not how to do it when you are no longer in your 20's.
- Balgair 7y ago
  Through true, that's a bit of a coarse statement. Should children wreck your finances? A lot of countries are spending a lot of money to reverse that sentiment right now. Yes, they are currently expensive, but blaming people for having children isn't going to fix anything. What about health aspects? One should never overestimate their fertility. Rates of birth defects rise as humans age (not just women, men too). Complications at birth also rise. Older grandparents have less time to enjoy their progeny. Older parents have health issues that prevent them from spending as much time with new grandchildren. Each family chooses when it is right for them to add a new member. Finances play into that, of course, but they should not dominate the decision like they do today. Top Tier economies are seeing the results of this myopia. Many European countries are schilling out big bucks to bump their birthrates and help with these financial concerns. Places like Switerland have had their fertility rates under replacement since the 1970's. Data is a bit wonky, but it seems these policies have helped the problem from a continued backslide, though not ended it.

pyb 7y ago

I've heard of people who did this and went on to retire. OTOH I don't know of any engineer who left Big Tech to take advantage of their financial security to do something _highly impactful_. In other words, the "Google mafia" was a lot weaker than the "Paypal mafia". The problem is this : most creative engineers don't have the mindset to mindlessly study for algorithms interviews, only to then have to spend years in constrained engineering roles.

username90 7y ago
> most creative engineers don't have the mindset to mindlessly study for algorithms interviews, only to then have to spend years in constrained engineering roles. I agree with this, but then they can't really complain about luck when they had the option to fix it. It was a choice they made and now they have to live with it. It is fine to gamble, but then you shouldn't complain about the outcome if you lose.

hysan 7y ago

> Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. No need for a famous school, specific degree etc. It requires intelligence, if you don't have that then you need luck. Sorry but no. Like everyone else has pointed out, this is so far from the truth that I’m actually in awe that someone would write this. There is a ton of luck involved with getting a job at a good tech company. First being something straight up mentioned in the article - knowing the right people. The chances of a regular hard working person getting past even the initial resume filter takes luck. It takes luck for a referral to find the right hiring manager’s desk. Get past that and then depending on the company, there’s always the chance that someone interviewing you is having a bad day or maybe the team “fit” isn’t there. There are a ton of obstacles that come down to luck because it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. Edit: Since many people are using anecdotal data and survivorship bias as proof that this is true, how about a counter point. I interviewed at a FAANG before and didn’t get the job. Later on, I met someone who works at that company who was able to look me up. I had passed their bar. Not with flying colors but well enough that you would generally get an offer. Why didn’t I? Because that specific team that interviewed me had a skillset need that I didn’t have. But there’s no way of knowing that prior because the job description doesn’t point that out. It’s just how their (and most companies’) process works. So like I said, luck.

solidasparagus 7y ago
You got rejected twice - so keep applying. Getting into a big company is mostly a matter of perseverance from what I've seen.
- hysan 7y ago
  Perseverance can help, but what you say doesn’t discredit what I’m pointing out - that you just might not have Lady Luck on your side. Again, anecdotal data. I did keep trying at other big tech companies. I did get a good job where I was hoping to save money, build a career, etc. Exactly as OP planned. You know what happened? COVID-19 led to mass layoffs less than a year after I got hired. Now I’m back to square one. I’ve barely recovered the savings I spent moving, which as others have already pointed out, is a prerequisite to OP’s advice. Sometimes luck simply isn’t on your side. To say that all it takes is intelligence and hard work is simply not true.

gullywhumper 7y ago

Step 1 reminds me of one of my favorites from the Onion: According to a Gallup report published Tuesday, over 95 percent of the nation’s grandfathers began their careers by walking straight into a place of business, saying “I’m the man for the job,” and receiving a position right there on the spot. https://www.theonion.com/report-95-of-grandfathers-got-job-by-walking-right-up-1819576285 https://www.theonion.com/report-95-of-grandfathers-got-job-b...

mettamage 7y ago

Alright, can you get me a phone screen? Sorry to ask the question so directly, but I have applied since 2014, and I can't get to the phone screen. I'd love to be a frontend engineer, UX engineer, creative engineer (I've seen this role at Google, it looks awesome) or a full-stack engineer. I have: A bachelor in information science (2012) A bachelor degree in psychology (2015) A master in game-design where I learned about Unity3D and C# (2016) A master in computer science where I learned about cache eviction in GPUs to perform rowhammer via a JavaScript advertizement (2018). I have done quite a few side projects (not willing to disclose here, email is in my profile). And I have some work experience as a coding bootcamp instructor (1 year, I trained 50 people to become junior web developers at companies like IBM, Capgemini and a top 5 Dutch bank) and a freelance web developer (6 months) and a freelance iOS developer (also 6 months). I graduated in 2018 and after freelancing for a bit, I took a sabbatical in 2019 (setting up a bar in Thailand with family and friends). When I started looking for jobs in earnest in 2020, Covid started to hit. I'm practicing algorithms as we speak, I'll be ready in 2 weeks to a month from now. So far I'm facing no difficulties, this stuff is hard work but it's a lot easier than my security courses. Also, algorithms are actually quite fun. There are a few things there that I really want to learn such as a hyper attention to detail. I'm currently training the skill to write a program flawless without bugs from the get go, complete with the fastest time complexity immediately. I know I can get to this level because I'm noticing that for a lot of algorithms just by playing around one can see the best time complexity for it (I find optimizing for the right space complexity a bit harder). I hope you'll help me with this. If not, and I don't get to a phone screen, well that is my (and many people) their biggest issue. Passing algorithms is not the issue, getting a chance to be interviewed is. I'm a 100% sure I'd rock at the job, as I'm sure that many other people would who didn't get the chance for a phone screen. I'm from The Netherlands and would love to work in Zurich. I see you work in Zurich as well, I've been to Switzerland quite a few times, it's amazing. Google teams that I find interesting and want to know more about: - Google Doodles - Project zero (though I don't think I'd be able work there since people have a super big track record regarding the security work they do) - Google Creative Lab - Google Health - Google Stadia - Google Cloud Platform - Google Brand Studio (though I don't think I'd be able to work there since it's more about people who can shoot beautiful movies)

7y ago