I know senior engineers at Apple who didn’t do a single technical interview. They got the role purely through networking like the OP did. Apple is pretty unique

I know senior engineers at Apple who didn’t do a single technical interview. They got the role purely through networking like the OP did. Apple is pretty unique in this regard among big tech - teams have a lot of leeway in how they hire. On the flip side, I’m fairly sure the hardware / system software teams have rigorous hiring processes.