5 ms·

Graduated in 2004 with a MS in CS and joined a company that I stayed with for 11 years. My titles were at various points Director and Fellow; I was the most sen

Graduated in 2004 with a MS in CS and joined a company that I stayed with for 11 years. My titles were at various points Director and Fellow; I was the most senior engineer who touched code every day. Interviewed at Google in 2015. I basically went through all the exercises in Cracking the Coding Interview, and spent a bunch of time relearning all the stuff in my Algorithms book that never really clicked when I was 20. I probably spent a month study all told, and I passed the interview to get hired as a Senior SWE. Had some graph questions, and honestly I've had to do a fair amount of graph related stuff at Google, so it's not a bad thing IMO.

david-gpu 5y ago
> My titles were at various points Director and Fellow > I passed the interview to get hired as a Senior SWE Maybe I'm unfamiliar with Google levels, but that sounds like a demotion from Director or Fellow. Did it feel that way?
- Jensson 5y ago
  A senior at Google earns much more than many directors at non-prestigious companies, it is only a demotion in your head. See for example technical director salaries at AT&T. https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/AT-and-T-Technical-Director-Salaries-E613_D_KO9,27.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/AT-and-T-Technical-Director...
  - rhexs 5y ago
    While AT&T doesn’t pay well, that doesn’t sound right for a director there. I know friends making about 140 who are relatively junior developers.
- QuercusMax 5y ago
  My previous position was more like L6 in terms of responsibility, but the pay was much better at L5 than I was getting before (but in a totally different market). I work with someone in BD now who used to be the CEO of a company, so I don't feel too bad :).
throw24012312 5y ago
"Studied for a month". What are you all, geniuses? I am a Chartered Financial Analyst, Google Cloud Certified Architect, Azure Certified Architect, all-A student, "Architect" title at work, and otherwise not too dumb - not humble brag, straight up brag. And yet, I am sure it would take me 6 months to prep for these interviews (while employed full time). Yet everyone is throwing around "lol a month". Trying to figure out if you are all top 1% brilliant geniuses or completely, completely full of it.
- unoti 5y ago
  I also spent months preparing for the interviews. People here also talk about being able to build complex systems "in a weekend". I tell myself it's OK if it takes me longer to prepare for certain things to do a good job; the important thing is that I do a good job.
- Jensson 5y ago
  If you are top few percent of software engineers in terms of talent then it wont be much work to get into FAANG. Top few percent doesn't seem like a lot of people, but this is a big forum, and people who are good at something are more likely to respond to a question than those who aren't.
- QuercusMax 5y ago
  I wasn't learning from 0, and I had been interviewing candidates all the time at my then-current position. It was really primarily review / drill. As far as if I'm a genius or not - I think I'm pretty smart but think the same about lots of people I've worked with. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA at frankly a pretty easy school (Kent State), where I definitely was one of the top students in undergrad. I've definitely worked with smarter people at Google.

david-gpu 5y ago

> My titles were at various points Director and Fellow > I passed the interview to get hired as a Senior SWE Maybe I'm unfamiliar with Google levels, but that sounds like a demotion from Director or Fellow. Did it feel that way?

Jensson 5y ago
A senior at Google earns much more than many directors at non-prestigious companies, it is only a demotion in your head. See for example technical director salaries at AT&T. https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/AT-and-T-Technical-Director-Salaries-E613_D_KO9,27.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/AT-and-T-Technical-Director...
- rhexs 5y ago
  While AT&T doesn’t pay well, that doesn’t sound right for a director there. I know friends making about 140 who are relatively junior developers.
QuercusMax 5y ago
My previous position was more like L6 in terms of responsibility, but the pay was much better at L5 than I was getting before (but in a totally different market). I work with someone in BD now who used to be the CEO of a company, so I don't feel too bad :).

throw24012312 5y ago

"Studied for a month". What are you all, geniuses? I am a Chartered Financial Analyst, Google Cloud Certified Architect, Azure Certified Architect, all-A student, "Architect" title at work, and otherwise not too dumb - not humble brag, straight up brag. And yet, I am sure it would take me 6 months to prep for these interviews (while employed full time). Yet everyone is throwing around "lol a month". Trying to figure out if you are all top 1% brilliant geniuses or completely, completely full of it.

unoti 5y ago
I also spent months preparing for the interviews. People here also talk about being able to build complex systems "in a weekend". I tell myself it's OK if it takes me longer to prepare for certain things to do a good job; the important thing is that I do a good job.
Jensson 5y ago
If you are top few percent of software engineers in terms of talent then it wont be much work to get into FAANG. Top few percent doesn't seem like a lot of people, but this is a big forum, and people who are good at something are more likely to respond to a question than those who aren't.
QuercusMax 5y ago
I wasn't learning from 0, and I had been interviewing candidates all the time at my then-current position. It was really primarily review / drill. As far as if I'm a genius or not - I think I'm pretty smart but think the same about lots of people I've worked with. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA at frankly a pretty easy school (Kent State), where I definitely was one of the top students in undergrad. I've definitely worked with smarter people at Google.