These companies are generally looking for people with a good number of years experience in a domain. It also helped that I had a consulting background and had h

These companies are generally looking for people with a good number of years experience in a domain. It also helped that I had a consulting background and had helped closed deals in the past. The interview was mostly about making sure I mixed well with other people. There was a coding challenge, but not leetcode style. I had to write a program that solved a real world sort of problem. A surprising number of people do fail this, even though naive O(n2) solutions can still pass. The transition was a bit of a shock. They just threw me in the water. Like many of you, I have impostor syndrome. Being put forth as a expert on a system I knew little about was very awkward. It took about 6 months for me to be comfortable with what I am doing. I do not spend all day on Zoom like others in the comment section. Instead, I deal with a smaller number of high value deals. That distinction in probably key to whether the job is better or worse than SWE.