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If you can pass Amazon's interview you can pass any other fang's interview which will give you the same CV prestige with probably less hassle. The only people I

If you can pass Amazon's interview you can pass any other fang's interview which will give you the same CV prestige with probably less hassle. The only people I know who went to Amazon picked it just because it was the only fang they passed at and they didn't want to bother doing another round of interviews or wait for the cooldown period. Sure, other fangs have similar internal politics nightmares - but Amazon seems to be consistently the worst.

decafninja 5y ago
How common is it for a candidate to be able to get offers from multiple FAANGs? I would imagine it isn't common, though I could certainly be wrong. The FAANG engineers that I know personally all seem to have cracked FAANG with a lot of difficulty, and claim that odds are they would fail if they had to re-interview for the same position.
- rejectedandsad 5y ago
  Common among the cognitive elites, but the rest of us are lucky to get one. For me, Amazon was the one. And the fact that people think the bar is lower (and therefore I’m stupid) has made me cry myself to sleep before.
  - ZephyrBlu 5y ago
    Damn dude, I've seen you talk like this a few times over the last few months. You gotta chill a bit. Your intelligence doesn't determine your self worth.
  - kiadimoondi 5y ago
    I'll second what ZephyrBlue said: - you aren't defined by who your employer is - your intelligence isn't defined by who your employer is - you can't control what other people say or think about you - you're worth a hell of a lot more than what you do or what you make per year (emotionally, intellectually, spiritually) - life is random, do the best you can and don't hurt yourself doing so At the risk of sounding morbid, we're all just apes on a flying rock trying to figure out what existence means to us. Reach out if you need help, there's nothing wrong with that. Stay safe my friend.
  - jokethrowaway 5y ago
    Getting into the FANG interview process doesn't seem that complicated, recruiters reach out to most developers / graduates on LinkedIn. Passing it requires learning a specific set of skills. I would say the bar is pretty much the same for all FANGs. If you were able to pass Amazon you could have passed Facebook or Apple. I see people that apply to multiple FANGS tend to pass some of them. Once you put in the work to learn those exercises (which is a lot, don't get me wrong), failing them or passing them becomes a matter of luck (the right set of exercises, the right interviewer). As to how this translates to intelligence - I personally don't care if a candidate is able to pass a FANG interview or not (I've seen plenty of bad employees who were FANGs or ex-FANGs and plenty of geniuses as well), but I definitely will think of them as being driven individuals who achieved what they set up to do. Incidentally the best employees who made a difference in the companies I've worked at were, incidentally, never ex-FANGs, just talented individuals who decided to put in the work.
    - rejectedandsad 5y ago
      > If you were able to pass Amazon you could have passed Facebook or Apple I don't know, I failed Facebook several times and never got an interview at Apple. Getting an interview at most companies isn't that hard, but with Amazon on the resume I'm out of the game for companies like top trading firms and Stripe, Airbnb etc. I think I simply don't have the intelligence to do so. I'm sure some people have the ability to get offers after doing thousands of leetcode problems but I've never met them - everyone I know that's successful has only done a handful and passed their interviews without any trouble. I've put in the work, but I've gotten nothing out of it. It's hard not to be discouraged by that.
      - decafninja 5y ago
        Curious as to why you think having Amazon on your resume is a dealbreaker to some companies? Is this something that is known? Amazon is probably a better name to have on your resume than the vast majority of other companies out there. I'd imagine you'd instantly be considered higher at first glance than someone with say, JP Morgan, or Lockheed Martin, or IBM, or any number of no-name startups on their resume.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
asdfman123 5y ago
I failed Amazon like three times in a row (along with other smaller companies). This last year I expanded my search and got into Facebook and Google, despite failing Amazon again. Plus there are lots of smaller companies that are as prestigious within the valley as Amazon. I mean, if you had to hire someone, would you really consider ex-Amazon superior to Uber, Snapchat, Microsoft, some random startup, etc.? If I were hiring someone I might actually discriminate against Amazon because I'd be afraid of absorbing some of their culture.
- astrange 5y ago
  Amazon's culture is nothing compared to the stories I've heard about Microsoft's Mac software teams. I can't repeat them all but supposedly they weren't allowed to read any sample code including Stack Overflow questions.
  - sgerenser 5y ago
    I find that really hard to believe. What would be the motivation behind that policy, and how would it be enforced?
- decafninja 5y ago
  I'd rank Uber, Snapchat, Microsoft, etc. at least on par with Amazon in terms of resume brand name recognition/prestige. They're also probably at least as difficult to get into. But "random startups" that no one knows about? Probably preferable to have Amazon.
brutus1213 5y ago
I am not sure why but I always assumed Amazon was easier to get into than Google, Facebook and Netflix. Microsoft/LinkedIn is probably same difficulty as Amazon. Just anecdotes and people I know I guess.

decafninja 5y ago

How common is it for a candidate to be able to get offers from multiple FAANGs? I would imagine it isn't common, though I could certainly be wrong. The FAANG engineers that I know personally all seem to have cracked FAANG with a lot of difficulty, and claim that odds are they would fail if they had to re-interview for the same position.

rejectedandsad 5y ago
Common among the cognitive elites, but the rest of us are lucky to get one. For me, Amazon was the one. And the fact that people think the bar is lower (and therefore I’m stupid) has made me cry myself to sleep before.
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago
  Damn dude, I've seen you talk like this a few times over the last few months. You gotta chill a bit. Your intelligence doesn't determine your self worth.
- kiadimoondi 5y ago
  I'll second what ZephyrBlue said: - you aren't defined by who your employer is - your intelligence isn't defined by who your employer is - you can't control what other people say or think about you - you're worth a hell of a lot more than what you do or what you make per year (emotionally, intellectually, spiritually) - life is random, do the best you can and don't hurt yourself doing so At the risk of sounding morbid, we're all just apes on a flying rock trying to figure out what existence means to us. Reach out if you need help, there's nothing wrong with that. Stay safe my friend.
- jokethrowaway 5y ago
  Getting into the FANG interview process doesn't seem that complicated, recruiters reach out to most developers / graduates on LinkedIn. Passing it requires learning a specific set of skills. I would say the bar is pretty much the same for all FANGs. If you were able to pass Amazon you could have passed Facebook or Apple. I see people that apply to multiple FANGS tend to pass some of them. Once you put in the work to learn those exercises (which is a lot, don't get me wrong), failing them or passing them becomes a matter of luck (the right set of exercises, the right interviewer). As to how this translates to intelligence - I personally don't care if a candidate is able to pass a FANG interview or not (I've seen plenty of bad employees who were FANGs or ex-FANGs and plenty of geniuses as well), but I definitely will think of them as being driven individuals who achieved what they set up to do. Incidentally the best employees who made a difference in the companies I've worked at were, incidentally, never ex-FANGs, just talented individuals who decided to put in the work.
  - rejectedandsad 5y ago
    > If you were able to pass Amazon you could have passed Facebook or Apple I don't know, I failed Facebook several times and never got an interview at Apple. Getting an interview at most companies isn't that hard, but with Amazon on the resume I'm out of the game for companies like top trading firms and Stripe, Airbnb etc. I think I simply don't have the intelligence to do so. I'm sure some people have the ability to get offers after doing thousands of leetcode problems but I've never met them - everyone I know that's successful has only done a handful and passed their interviews without any trouble. I've put in the work, but I've gotten nothing out of it. It's hard not to be discouraged by that.
    - decafninja 5y ago
      Curious as to why you think having Amazon on your resume is a dealbreaker to some companies? Is this something that is known? Amazon is probably a better name to have on your resume than the vast majority of other companies out there. I'd imagine you'd instantly be considered higher at first glance than someone with say, JP Morgan, or Lockheed Martin, or IBM, or any number of no-name startups on their resume.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

asdfman123 5y ago

I failed Amazon like three times in a row (along with other smaller companies). This last year I expanded my search and got into Facebook and Google, despite failing Amazon again. Plus there are lots of smaller companies that are as prestigious within the valley as Amazon. I mean, if you had to hire someone, would you really consider ex-Amazon superior to Uber, Snapchat, Microsoft, some random startup, etc.? If I were hiring someone I might actually discriminate against Amazon because I'd be afraid of absorbing some of their culture.

astrange 5y ago
Amazon's culture is nothing compared to the stories I've heard about Microsoft's Mac software teams. I can't repeat them all but supposedly they weren't allowed to read any sample code including Stack Overflow questions.
- sgerenser 5y ago
  I find that really hard to believe. What would be the motivation behind that policy, and how would it be enforced?
decafninja 5y ago
I'd rank Uber, Snapchat, Microsoft, etc. at least on par with Amazon in terms of resume brand name recognition/prestige. They're also probably at least as difficult to get into. But "random startups" that no one knows about? Probably preferable to have Amazon.

brutus1213 5y ago

I am not sure why but I always assumed Amazon was easier to get into than Google, Facebook and Netflix. Microsoft/LinkedIn is probably same difficulty as Amazon. Just anecdotes and people I know I guess.