7 ms·

What makes it unachievable? The process is very straightforward. Every friend of mine that wanted to work at FAANG has been able to and you really just need to

What makes it unachievable? The process is very straightforward. Every friend of mine that wanted to work at FAANG has been able to and you really just need to spend a couple weeks/months practicing.

josephh 5y ago
visa issue.
darkwizard42 5y ago
The process is straightforward to become an Olympian too, you still don't see people doing it every day. You can run every damn day if you want, but I'll bet dollars it would still be difficult to run a sub 3:00 marathon for most people. Working at FAANG is easily regarded as one of the higher end jobs in the SWE world (from comp and prestige) and does generally require you to be in the top % of people who know how to code. That much is fairly indisputable so unachievable is a good way to put it for most folks (even if they are into programming already)
- clownpenis_fart 5y ago
  good job parotting the propaganda about working in the advertisement webshit mines being considered a prestigious job
- iooi 5y ago
  I think this is half the problem when people interview at FAANGs -- they think it's like preparing for olympics and you truly have to be in the top 1%. It's really not. There's thousands and thousands of engineers, from mediocre to truly great. With the right preparation, a lot of it just comes down to getting lucky with who interviews, how they're feeling that day, etc -- luck. You might find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8RxkpUvxK0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8RxkpUvxK0
  - darkwizard42 5y ago
    I mean, you can say the SAME thing about getting into an Ivy League school. Your application and skillset is likely similar to THOUSANDs and yet still, you have to prepare like it is the Olympics AND have luck. No one lucks their way into FAANG, you still have to answer the questions well and contrary to much of the HN crowd, these are not easy questions for most folks EVEN after studying... You can't get in without both luck and preparation. That part I won't deny, but most exclusive things in life involve that bit of luck since everyone starts to hit the "threshold" of qualifications pretty fast
    - filoleg 5y ago
      >I mean, you can say the SAME thing about getting into an Ivy League school. No, you cannot say the same thing about Ivy League admissions, at least not at the current point in time. Ivy League has a massive supply of qualified candidates to fill the demand (aka the fixed number of seats they have) many many times over. Tech companies don't have that luxury. They have a lot of candidate supply, but the "qualified" candidate supply is much more difficult to come by. Ivy League admission officers admitted multiple times in public interviews and public statements that there are a lot of people that would qualify and succeed at those schools just fine, but the schools have very limited numbers of seats, so they have to have the bar be set higher and higher in order to accommodate truly the "best" (based on whatever metrics they use to determine the best). With FAANG? They are desperate to hire good engineers. As someone who interviewed candidates at one of them, for every single interview I went with the mindset that I want to hire that person, as long as they demonstrate they are competent enough to do the job. There is no such thing as "limited" number of spots (as it is with Ivy League admissions). If every single candidate we interview is qualified, we will hire every single one of them, we won't be artificially raising the bar just to accommodate a specific X number of people because we cannot fit more. We can. Of course, my specific team cannot hire 50 people, but if all 50 candidates are competent, we will try to set them up with one of our sister teams or any other team in the company that desperately needs engineers, and there are tons of those teams. The real problem is that a lot of those people we interview tend to not even be able to do fizzbuzz, and I am not exaggerating. I used to think that people said that statement as a joke back then, but after interviewing enough candidates, I realized that they weren't kidding. TL;DR: they aren't similar, because Ivy League has a fixed number of seats available, and even if every candidate is qualified, they can only accommodate a predetermined number of them, so they have to artificially raise the cutoff metrics. For every candidate my team interviews, we can easily hire every single one of them if they are competent, without artificially raising the bar just to have a fixed number of hires.
throw1234651234 5y ago
I am an architect at a "prestigious" midwest consulting firm without a formal IT background. It would take me 6 months of prep to pass a FAANG interview, and that's from a starting point of knowing virtually everything I don't know. AND I am only talking about the algorithm and behavioral parts of the interview and working on the assumption that I will pass any general questions on system design, ML, etc. Other than the CS degree, you are also make a 130+ IQ assumption here.
- Xeronate 5y ago
  Even if it took 6 months, is that such a big deal for what is probably a large pay raise and potentially the opportunity to work on cooler and more impactful things with better coworkers? And for the record the idea that 130+ IQ is necessary is ridiculous. I can assure you I'm well below that.
  - throw1234651234 5y ago
    Point by point: 1. IQ is going to be in the 120-130 range for MIT and other FAANG target schools (https://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx https://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx and factor in the GPA necessary and those correlations). If you are NOT from those schools, you are less competitive and have more to catch up on (like me). Whatever you say, either you had a lot of study free time or your IQ is higher than you think, as IQ translates directly to learning speed, especially on computer-related tasks. 2. Big deal. For a young student out of school? No, it's the rational choice, though a lot of people out of school/college NEED to work to keep the bills paid. For older people - dedicating a good 3-4 hours a day is going to lead them to underperform at work (at least it would for me), so it's kind of a big risk. The pay increase is also "debatable", arguments like COL, vesting, decrease in quality of life due to commute, relatively-high (by non-FAANG) standards salary, taxes, etc come up. And that's without mentioning potential kids.
void_mint 5y ago
"In my bubble it has been achievable so it must be achievable for everyone" There is a reason that most people do not work at FAANG.
vxNsr 5y ago
One of the more “hn” comments I’ve seen lately. Assuming every person in the world is an ivy league graduate, with a high IQ, and A+ coding talent is a little bit out of touch with reality.
- Xeronate 5y ago
  I just don't think those are the requirements to get a job at FAANG. I went to a mid sized public school in the midwest that isn't even in the top 100 US schools, my IQ is definitely average, and I seriously didn't understand sorting algorithms when I first saw them in my intro to programming class. With time and practice anything is possible. And I want to echo a point filoleg made. You don't need to be the top 1%. It's not like Ivy League school acceptance where they are artificially throwing people out. FAANG is dying to hire. My team has been trying to hire multiple people for months and we have gotten exactly 0. Every hiring manager goes into interviews wanting to say yes and the requirements are extremely clear and manageable for anyone willing to put in the time.
  - vxNsr 5y ago
    My understanding is that for any given age the average IQ is 100. Are you seriously suggesting that you would score 100 on an IQ test? I highly doubt that considering that your manager is so motivated to hire but simply can’t.
    - vxNsr 5y ago
      Put another way, the modal IQ on HN is likely higher than 100. So I have a hard time taking someone seriously when they claim they have an avg IQ and think getting into FAANG is easy. That just means they have no clue how much smarter they are than most.
RobRivera 5y ago
this is spoken so casually and without any consideration for the underlying privileges one requires in terms of education and lifestyle to enable such study that I must now laugh

What makes it unachievable? The process is very straightforward. Every friend of mine that wanted to work at FAANG has been able to and you really just need to spend a couple weeks/months practicing.

josephh 5y ago

visa issue.

darkwizard42 5y ago

The process is straightforward to become an Olympian too, you still don't see people doing it every day. You can run every damn day if you want, but I'll bet dollars it would still be difficult to run a sub 3:00 marathon for most people. Working at FAANG is easily regarded as one of the higher end jobs in the SWE world (from comp and prestige) and does generally require you to be in the top % of people who know how to code. That much is fairly indisputable so unachievable is a good way to put it for most folks (even if they are into programming already)

clownpenis_fart 5y ago
good job parotting the propaganda about working in the advertisement webshit mines being considered a prestigious job
iooi 5y ago
I think this is half the problem when people interview at FAANGs -- they think it's like preparing for olympics and you truly have to be in the top 1%. It's really not. There's thousands and thousands of engineers, from mediocre to truly great. With the right preparation, a lot of it just comes down to getting lucky with who interviews, how they're feeling that day, etc -- luck. You might find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8RxkpUvxK0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8RxkpUvxK0
- darkwizard42 5y ago
  I mean, you can say the SAME thing about getting into an Ivy League school. Your application and skillset is likely similar to THOUSANDs and yet still, you have to prepare like it is the Olympics AND have luck. No one lucks their way into FAANG, you still have to answer the questions well and contrary to much of the HN crowd, these are not easy questions for most folks EVEN after studying... You can't get in without both luck and preparation. That part I won't deny, but most exclusive things in life involve that bit of luck since everyone starts to hit the "threshold" of qualifications pretty fast
  - filoleg 5y ago
    >I mean, you can say the SAME thing about getting into an Ivy League school. No, you cannot say the same thing about Ivy League admissions, at least not at the current point in time. Ivy League has a massive supply of qualified candidates to fill the demand (aka the fixed number of seats they have) many many times over. Tech companies don't have that luxury. They have a lot of candidate supply, but the "qualified" candidate supply is much more difficult to come by. Ivy League admission officers admitted multiple times in public interviews and public statements that there are a lot of people that would qualify and succeed at those schools just fine, but the schools have very limited numbers of seats, so they have to have the bar be set higher and higher in order to accommodate truly the "best" (based on whatever metrics they use to determine the best). With FAANG? They are desperate to hire good engineers. As someone who interviewed candidates at one of them, for every single interview I went with the mindset that I want to hire that person, as long as they demonstrate they are competent enough to do the job. There is no such thing as "limited" number of spots (as it is with Ivy League admissions). If every single candidate we interview is qualified, we will hire every single one of them, we won't be artificially raising the bar just to accommodate a specific X number of people because we cannot fit more. We can. Of course, my specific team cannot hire 50 people, but if all 50 candidates are competent, we will try to set them up with one of our sister teams or any other team in the company that desperately needs engineers, and there are tons of those teams. The real problem is that a lot of those people we interview tend to not even be able to do fizzbuzz, and I am not exaggerating. I used to think that people said that statement as a joke back then, but after interviewing enough candidates, I realized that they weren't kidding. TL;DR: they aren't similar, because Ivy League has a fixed number of seats available, and even if every candidate is qualified, they can only accommodate a predetermined number of them, so they have to artificially raise the cutoff metrics. For every candidate my team interviews, we can easily hire every single one of them if they are competent, without artificially raising the bar just to have a fixed number of hires.

throw1234651234 5y ago

I am an architect at a "prestigious" midwest consulting firm without a formal IT background. It would take me 6 months of prep to pass a FAANG interview, and that's from a starting point of knowing virtually everything I don't know. AND I am only talking about the algorithm and behavioral parts of the interview and working on the assumption that I will pass any general questions on system design, ML, etc. Other than the CS degree, you are also make a 130+ IQ assumption here.

Xeronate 5y ago
Even if it took 6 months, is that such a big deal for what is probably a large pay raise and potentially the opportunity to work on cooler and more impactful things with better coworkers? And for the record the idea that 130+ IQ is necessary is ridiculous. I can assure you I'm well below that.
- throw1234651234 5y ago
  Point by point: 1. IQ is going to be in the 120-130 range for MIT and other FAANG target schools (https://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx https://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx and factor in the GPA necessary and those correlations). If you are NOT from those schools, you are less competitive and have more to catch up on (like me). Whatever you say, either you had a lot of study free time or your IQ is higher than you think, as IQ translates directly to learning speed, especially on computer-related tasks. 2. Big deal. For a young student out of school? No, it's the rational choice, though a lot of people out of school/college NEED to work to keep the bills paid. For older people - dedicating a good 3-4 hours a day is going to lead them to underperform at work (at least it would for me), so it's kind of a big risk. The pay increase is also "debatable", arguments like COL, vesting, decrease in quality of life due to commute, relatively-high (by non-FAANG) standards salary, taxes, etc come up. And that's without mentioning potential kids.

void_mint 5y ago

"In my bubble it has been achievable so it must be achievable for everyone" There is a reason that most people do not work at FAANG.

vxNsr 5y ago

One of the more “hn” comments I’ve seen lately. Assuming every person in the world is an ivy league graduate, with a high IQ, and A+ coding talent is a little bit out of touch with reality.

Xeronate 5y ago
I just don't think those are the requirements to get a job at FAANG. I went to a mid sized public school in the midwest that isn't even in the top 100 US schools, my IQ is definitely average, and I seriously didn't understand sorting algorithms when I first saw them in my intro to programming class. With time and practice anything is possible. And I want to echo a point filoleg made. You don't need to be the top 1%. It's not like Ivy League school acceptance where they are artificially throwing people out. FAANG is dying to hire. My team has been trying to hire multiple people for months and we have gotten exactly 0. Every hiring manager goes into interviews wanting to say yes and the requirements are extremely clear and manageable for anyone willing to put in the time.
- vxNsr 5y ago
  My understanding is that for any given age the average IQ is 100. Are you seriously suggesting that you would score 100 on an IQ test? I highly doubt that considering that your manager is so motivated to hire but simply can’t.
  - vxNsr 5y ago
    Put another way, the modal IQ on HN is likely higher than 100. So I have a hard time taking someone seriously when they claim they have an avg IQ and think getting into FAANG is easy. That just means they have no clue how much smarter they are than most.

RobRivera 5y ago

this is spoken so casually and without any consideration for the underlying privileges one requires in terms of education and lifestyle to enable such study that I must now laugh