This. There is certainly a Catch-22 here - to get hired by a Tech Giant, one ideally needs the knowledge of how to solve problems at Tech Giant scale, but that

This. There is certainly a Catch-22 here - to get hired by a Tech Giant, one ideally needs the knowledge of how to solve problems at Tech Giant scale, but that really only comes after being hired at a Tech Giant that has the kind of money and 'tribal knowledge' that's needed to teach one how to solve problems at Tech Giant scale (sorry, but your average community college or business really can't provide that!). On a much smaller scale, the same can be said about many professions, including the trades, but an electrical contractor will be less persnickety about giving a chance to an 'apprentice' than a Tech Giant that's really only interested in hiring employees who they think can on average contribute $1+ million in revenue to the company. If you still want to work for Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Amazon though, you can always apply to be a contract worker thru one of their vendors (coder/tester, security guard, delivery person, food service worker, etc.).