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Well, there are also counter-examples to your thinking. Brian Acton was rejected by Facebook, then went on founding WhatsApp and eventually selling it to the sa

Well, there are also counter-examples to your thinking. Brian Acton was rejected by Facebook, then went on founding WhatsApp and eventually selling it to the same Facebook for $19B. "Life altering amount of money", wouldn't you agree? Probably one of the most expensive rejections in history.

decafninja 6y ago
That's an extremely, extremely, extremely, unlikely edge case though. You're more likely to get simultaneous offers from all the letters in FAANG while also simultaneously becoming a 1MM+ subscriber Youtube star than you are of repeating Brian's story (or even a fraction of it).
- dnautics 6y ago
  well there is the story of when Google acquired youtube at the all-hands meeting the CTO addressed the engineering department and asked them how many of them had been rejected by google, and half of the people there shot their hands up. Probably they had a better windfall, and "Google could have saved more than a few billion"
  - decafninja 6y ago
    On a similar vein, I recall a story that said most Googlers thought they probably wouldn't pass the technical interview if they had to go through it again. Does match with what my friends who made it into FAANG say as well - none of them are confident they'd be able to do it again with any certainty.
    - neverminder 6y ago
      There's a story, mentioned many times here on HN, where Google (I think) hiring team were given their own anonymized CVs and they rejected all of them. It's a perfect example to describe the staggering level of hypocrisy at those companies.
  - newbie578 6y ago
    Source please? I would love to read more about this. Couldn't find anything on Google.
    - dnautics 6y ago
      Private communication, sorry. Source considered 95% reliable.
- mdgrech23 6y ago
  I think a major take away here is the interviewers weed out ppl who don't know complex algorithms off the top of their head but you don't really need that to make a successful app anyhow.
draw_down 6y ago
Haha! Yes, if you think you're about to build the next Whatsapp, you definitely should not waste your time studying for tech job interviews. We're all temporarily-embarrassed rockstar founders here at HN.
pragmatic 6y ago
Yes, but he would have to work on something else. It’s not like he would have built WhatsApp at FB.

decafninja 6y ago

That's an extremely, extremely, extremely, unlikely edge case though. You're more likely to get simultaneous offers from all the letters in FAANG while also simultaneously becoming a 1MM+ subscriber Youtube star than you are of repeating Brian's story (or even a fraction of it).

dnautics 6y ago
well there is the story of when Google acquired youtube at the all-hands meeting the CTO addressed the engineering department and asked them how many of them had been rejected by google, and half of the people there shot their hands up. Probably they had a better windfall, and "Google could have saved more than a few billion"
- decafninja 6y ago
  On a similar vein, I recall a story that said most Googlers thought they probably wouldn't pass the technical interview if they had to go through it again. Does match with what my friends who made it into FAANG say as well - none of them are confident they'd be able to do it again with any certainty.
  - neverminder 6y ago
    There's a story, mentioned many times here on HN, where Google (I think) hiring team were given their own anonymized CVs and they rejected all of them. It's a perfect example to describe the staggering level of hypocrisy at those companies.
- newbie578 6y ago
  Source please? I would love to read more about this. Couldn't find anything on Google.
  - dnautics 6y ago
    Private communication, sorry. Source considered 95% reliable.
mdgrech23 6y ago
I think a major take away here is the interviewers weed out ppl who don't know complex algorithms off the top of their head but you don't really need that to make a successful app anyhow.

draw_down 6y ago

Haha! Yes, if you think you're about to build the next Whatsapp, you definitely should not waste your time studying for tech job interviews. We're all temporarily-embarrassed rockstar founders here at HN.

pragmatic 6y ago

Yes, but he would have to work on something else. It’s not like he would have built WhatsApp at FB.