I entered the professional workforce in the fall of 2008, as the recession was in full force. I had a college degree, but no experience or resume of which to speak - and frankly, didn't know very much outside of academia. I was lucky enough to land a job, but was laid off in fall of 2009. I was poor, sleeping on an air mattress, and in my early 20s, but determined to get a job as a software engineer, even if it meant taking a non software job for a while. This was before I knew that job-recruiters were a thing, or how to make connections with them, and before Linked-In had taken off. I made sure to apply for 10 jobs online, by going to companies "apply" pages, every-singly-day. I did this for two full months (weekends excluded). That's 400 applications. I only got 5 interviews, and only 1 job offer. That's 399 rejections.
I'm doing well now - but those were rough times for me. When my teenager feels rejected (e.g. not making the team), I always tell them that rejection is always a bummer, but not the end of the world. And I gently remind them of that story as a way of saying *"trust me, I'm not saying that as empty words; I do understand how it feels."
That is so similar to what happened to me, only I had graduated December 2006. So I had 1.5 years until it went south and got laid off. Luckily I had acquired a condo in that time at the market peak, so I had a place to lay awake at night and worry about how I'd pay the mortgage.
Pretty much the same situation for me back then too. But I wasn't in SW. So I did ~2000 applications before finding a job. Even in the late before-times, it would take ~6 month to ~1 year to get something lined up. SWland has it very easy when it comes to looking for work.
I entered the workforce at the same time. I don’t have kids so I can’t relate to that aspect, but I speak to lots of college students and career-switchers and like you, I always note that I’m coming from a place of knowledge. I’ve been mentoring a lot of recent grads over the last year and with the pandemic, the uncertainty in the job market is very reminiscent of 2008 and I know what it was like to graduate into a pit of “what am I going to do?” And the answer is usually, “it’ll be fine. Probably.”
Rejection is a strong word to use when some algorithm didn't find the keyword it was looking for. Not getting an offer after interviewing isn't really so bad either since it's a learning opportunity where you get to meet people and ask questions. Before covid it usually meant you got a free vacation too.
I did something similar last year after getting rejected by FAANGs and few more other tech companies.
- Google rejected 3 times.
- Facebook 2 times.
- Amazon(AWS) 1 times.
- Adobe 1 Times.
- Twitter, Github, stripe and others won't even consider me good enough for an interview.
- Dozens others companies, who do FAANG style interviewing.
I fear rejections, no matter how much I "try" to act normal. I was looking forward to working on some new projects and with talented team members, I never got that opportunity and its heart breaking. I been working on solving leetcode problems. But sometimes can't even solve Easy problems and its just so demotivating. Specially, when I get an automated rejection response without any additional feedback.
I have realized that maybe I'm not a rockstar coder that can come up with high performance code. I'm ok, I can figure shit out! and I think that's fine.
BTW actual feedback from an technical interview,
"I would encourage XXX to use some coding challenge practice websites to become comfortable with producing quick working code segments which would help him feel comfortable and produce code quickly in future interviews."
You think that’s unbelievable? I’ve literally had a company recruiter tell me that I should probably spend a few hours on leetcode and hackerrank before the interview.
That turned out to be predictive, because they rejected me mostly based on my inability to do well on those kinds of tests.
I got a life people. Between taking care of my son, wife and work, where am I supposed to find ‘a few hours’ to spend on something that is solely meant to do good on your company interview.
It could theoretically have been worth it because of increased compensation, but something in me just screams nooo whenever I consider it.
Small startup doing FAANG style interviews is like a small startup adopting microservices for their 3-developer team. More red flags than a Soviet May Day parade.
I'm trying to kickstart a job search website that allows you to find jobs with an interviewing style which you are comfortable with (in addition to a commute distance that you are comfortable with, seating arrangement, pay rate, work hours expectation, automated productivity monitoring, etc.)
My hope is to get enough developers to create (free) profiles that the website can put some backpressure on the industry, however small, to curtail some practices that engineers dislike. There is so much demand for software engineering labor, after all. I'm sure this won't make a dent in the large software companies that have their own internally-hosted job board + cachet, but any difference in a positive direction would be good.
FWIW, just from loads of recent experience, there are still quite a few teams that will hire you based on your demonstration of some real-world software development ability.
And I'll also add, that I really like your simple phrase "FAANG-style interviewing." It's more succinct than any I have been able to come up with: "Whiteboard + algorithms?" "Non-real-world Leetcode puzzles?" etc.
Not a critique, just an observation. I could be totally wrong.
> I would encourage XXX to use some coding challenge practice websites to become comfortable with producing quick working code segments
contrasts with
> I have realized that maybe I'm not a rockstar coder that can come up with high performance code.
What's your analytical process like? Do you take a moment to sit back and just think? Don't dive directly into the code.
My most successful candidates spend five to ten minutes thinking about my problem and talking themselves through it before writing any real code. They'll sometimes take notes with class diagrams or ASCII diagrams.
Do u feel u improve or just get less confident after a failed interview? I sometimes actually improve after a bad technical interview but if the interviewer is impatient/nasty it can really decimate my confidence and hurt the chances I'll try again soon.
Interesting to see the differences in people. I've had a long career with very few rejections, but it has a lot to do with the fact that I don't apply to places unless I am really confident I am definitely going to be the best candidate, and that's generally been true.
That said, I encourage folks on my team to interview regularly just to know how to value themselves and to see that there are other opportunities, and to just get practice interviewing and learning how other companies run the process.
My rejections:
- laid off from Red Hat post dot-bomb (I wasn't really trying to stay at the time) ~ 2003
- rejected for a sysadmin position at Blizzard in around 2003 or 4?
- rejected from a lot of PhD programs in Physics (I wasn't really trying that hard, see a theme, it's called cognitive dissonance!) ~ 2008
- fired from Quora (honestly really just ended up misaligned with my boss and career goals, they made the right call) ~ 2014
- rejected from Stripe with two personal referrals after the last stage of the interview. I was pretty bummed by this and had spent a month putting all my eggs in one basket to work there. This was 2014 so I also missed out on a nice bit of stock to be honest!
At my current company I feel like I finally had enough continuity to specialize a bit and become an expert in a field to feel comfortable with what ever may come next. I hope others can find that in their careers too.
It looks like it's pretty common to go interview just to "keep the skills sharp." What do folks think of this practice? I feel like I would have a hard time doing it while hiding my true motives. And what if they make an offer?
If you only applied to positions you knew where the best candidate - how did you not feel that the job would not offer you new challenges or the position is too low?
I tend to keep interviewing or lets call it networking. The position I did fit a 100% I ended up declining as they were mostly position I thought I would go downwards in my career and pay, even if it sounded interesting.
Glad you found that place of continuity - still trying to get there...
>I don't apply to places unless I am really confident I am definitely going to be the best candidate, and that's generally been true.
Same. I've been extremely lucky that the only layoff I experienced was on first job out of school and on the first day ("we hired too many people").
The worst rejection I experienced was for a consulting position with a Big 4 consulting firm 10+ years ago. I bombed the brain teaser/problem solving question in the last round (IIRC, why are manhole covers round?). I could tell the interview went downhill after that exchange. At the time I had no prior consulting experience therefore I really wanted to pivot into consulting with that opening.
Come to think of it, I have never asked any brain teaser questions like that in any of the interviews I conducted - maybe that's why. :)
>just get practice interviewing and learning how other companies run the process
I did it a few times but never felt the experience is comparable to looking for work "for real".
It works both ways. I've had jobs at FAANG and rejected an offer from a FAANG as well. I'm not that impressed with FAANGs anymore. I think one grows out of the need for validation after while. It's just business. I see interviewing largely as a sales function. Winning a sale with a prospect is a game of numbers. Of course your product (i.e. your skill set and track record) matters but there are many other confounding variables you have no control over. So stressing about any one job rejection is a bad idea. particularly when conversion rates are very low.
I get it, and I think we've all been hurt. But why keep this list?
I remember when I had a stellar year at a big corp. My manager said `nothing bad to report, wow`. I was ready for that S - a Special automatically meant a promotion.
A few weeks later, when the whole R&D got the performance letter, I received mine with a C. D usually meant `demitido`, or fired in portuguese. I couldn't believe it, and I kept that letter through many years, just as a reminder of how you can get screwed by things that are not in your power.
A few years later, when I saw the letter, I had a much better job, and was much happier. No good could come from seeing that letter from time to time, so I threw it away.
As long as these things are living in your life, they are consuming you. The sooner you let them go, the sooner you'll be free
There are many people that have a fear of rejection. A list like this helps to illustrate that it is okay to be rejected. You can be both successful, and have failed to nail an interview. The list seems purposely devised to help those who have that sort of problem, not as a list to remind him of his failures.
This is a very good comment. The fetishization of "failure" is a quite recent phenomenon that like many other communication workflows of the modern time has the implicit or explicit goals of making someone understood, commiserated, seen as naturally strong or "yes, I cried, but look how much stronger I am". A total waste of energy that to my eyes looks weak and entitled. Like when you read on, say, Twitter "my biology professor told me I had no chances of finishing high school, but now I have a PhD in molecular biology" - assuming it is true (and I many times doubt it is the whole story), are you really holding a grudge against a nobody in your life who said some words 15 years ago?
And that's why I use "failure" in quotes here and I never use the word in my life, except in some very specific contexts (e.g., machine failure). Anybody with ambitions in their lives gets rejected, dismissed and have things that don't work even if they cry in High Valyrian. Forget, move on, live large, not small.
I wouldn't do this and keep it around. We have all had rejections, particularly in these highly competitive times but the trick is to forget about them after doing a quick postmortem and learning any lessons. The reason is that psychologically we are wired to focus on the negatives and ruminate endlessly on it leading to self-doubt and a sapping of self-confidence. This is absolutely not good for long-term psychological growth and by extension, your life.
There is also the fact that "recruiting" methods are pseudo-scientific and do not reflect the candidate's ability (outside of very narrow specialized fields) at all. People also tend to make biased snap judgements if you display your failures/faults rather openly. Always project your strengths and don't advertise your faults.
PS: Read The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence by Baltasar Gracian trans. by Jeremy Robbins (aka The Art of Worldly Wisdom) for some pragmatic approach to life.
> People also tend to make biased snap judgements if you display your failures/faults rather openly. Always project your strengths and don't advertise your faults.
I believe one of the ideas behind this list is to help overcome the culture where you are supposed to hide your failures. Not a bad thing for a self-confident person, as the author probably is.
Of course for someone who feels so much depressed by their failures that they can't stop thinking about them over and over doing that might not be the best therapy.
The article/blog post itself seems a bit pointless, minimal content and comes along as more of a humble brag. However I guess it triggers discussion so it's not without value entirely.
I have experienced countless rejections. Tens to hundreds every time I switch jobs.
After just a few of these, you realize no one knows how to hire and just laugh at the absurdity of this profession.
It has that 'if I can do it, you can too' that people who don't know how the world works but base their life around what other people are doing/saying absolutely love, because it gives them hope.
The more people sharing 'started from the bottom now we here' without mentioning the likelihood of it happening, the more people love it. Delusional, yet simple self serving beliefs have a snowball effect without fail - I'd wager Western culture is almost entirely made up of them at this point, which has some interesting consequences.
I've been accepted to most of the positions I've applied mainly because I avoided FAANG companies for fear of rejection. I was getting regular emails from their recruiters but just kept deleting them.
One day I just decided to reply to the Google recruiter. I stupidly set up the interview ASAP at a time when I was out of the country with no computer or internet. So I went into the interview with zero prep. It was a disaster.
That experience made me once again ignore FAANG recruiters for a while until I was pressured by a friend to apply at Amazon. I crammed hard for that. I thought I aced all the on site interviews with optimal solutions and stupidly told my folks that I likely got the job (bad idea!). I didn't.
Finally took a stab at some tier 2 companies in NYC and was rejected by all. Some were really close others were just bad timing (WeWork during IPO fiasco).
I'm still chugging along working at some company with no name recognition. Yeah it sucks that all my peers work at FAANG and don't understand why I'm not trying to work at a more prominent company. Honestly it worked out better. I have a minimal commute, a decent home in an area with great schools, comp comparable to FAANG, and finally my work has a much greater impact at my company.
I have been working professionally for 3+ years in a single company. I've been lucky to have got this job without a test nor interview ( I was an intern there, and they offered me the job before my intern period was up). Recently, I feel bored there and tried to apply to another company. Currently, I am in the last stage of the test and it seems I will be able to pass it. But, I feel nervous to actually change my job, because this will be my first time changing workplace, and I don't know if I will actually be accepted there (there is a probation period of 3 months).
Reading this thread makes me re-realize that changing jobs was not an unusual thing. Thank you for sharing this.
> I don't know if I will actually be accepted there (there is a probation period of 3 months).
Depending on where you live 3-6 month probation periods can be completely standard. If you get the job, you are accepted there. The probation period is just a window in which you and the company can separate with less friction. In most places it's a formality that you shouldn't worry about unless you're extremely underperforming or doing something egregious at work.
Exactly same experience here. I made it. Changed my workplace for the first time after 2 years. It's something really nervous but if you think you need it, go for it. Your path is your responsibility. :)
I had to accept a huge volume of rejection, both doing in job applications (hundreds of applications) and online dating (thousands). All the while being alone during Covid-19.
My advice to those who might be reading is to find a mentor or best friend who you can update on your progress on a semi-regular basis. Those people helped me so much to remain positive and upbeat during the really disappointing moments of 2020. They can also give feedback on your approaches.
The other tip is to accept it's going to feel terrible, but to let the disappointment that you feel flow through you to help move on.
I’ve been rejected 5 times from Google. And yet every year like clockwork they email me again asking to interview. At this point I just say yes every couple of years and try again because why not. I think I do well enough to deserve a call-back but never good enough to get hired (I made it to the hiring committee though).
I "failed" my first four (edit: onsite) FANG interviews. 5th time was a charm, have been happily employed with a senior title at FANG for a couple years.
Not exactly new information to HN, but the job itself is quite a bit easier than the interviews (wrt to technical knowledge). It can be just as stressful though (I actually think stress response / teamwork is one of the main things FANG interviewers are looking for after a certain bar of technical competence is met, YMMV).
This isn't for everyone, but if it's something you really want to do, don't let the rejections get you down. You'll get in eventually :)
I’ve had that happen a couple of times. Do a video/phone call with an SME that goes really well... then it doesn’t.
The second time they were locking down a time I could fly somewhere and the whole thing went poof. Fortunately I was in a good job and it was no big deal, but it would have been very stressful if I was between gigs.
This is a very short list of rejections. In my opinion, anyone who wants to have a successful career these days ought to expect at least an order of magnitude more rejections than this over the course of their career.
I've been rejected quite a few times as well. This is in fact so inspiring that I will apply for another job that I most likely will be rejected from as well.
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a job I applied for (with the exception of my current job which I suspect was tailored for me and a colleague.)
Nearly every job offer I ever got I was reached out to by a recruiter.
It seems like, if I apply, I get blacklisted, but if I don’t apply a recruiter reaches out later and I often end up with an offer. This has happened with small and large companies. Sometimes even the same job but after a year or so. (Apple, most notably).
I don't want to sound like I am looking for pity here, but at what point, is it OK to give up? My first fail was back at 2009, a full interview cycle with Microsoft. After I was rejected by AWS a few weeks ago (also a full cycle interview, no offer), I realize that I have spent a decade, on and off, trying to get employed by big tech. Since I am not getting any younger, spent countless hours preparing, reading and re-reading Cracking The Code Interview, and I don't feel like I am getting any better or closer, I am looking for some closure. I believe perseverance is an important quality, but also, I don't want to spend another decade through all this. I have been always employed, in not so sexy corporations, but I have earned a living, raised my son, and supported my family, that still lives in a third world country, and without my support they would had been homeless years ago. Sometimes I feel like my efforts were more of an ego trip, just to show off how smart I am, that I was hired by Google. And that's where I am right now. I am unsure how to feel.
As a serial entrepreneur who has raised money a bunch of times, I have absolutely lost count of how many angels and VCs have rejected the companies I've worked for (or founded) and been a part of the process with. Now they just roll off my back.
Odd though how in other areas of life, rejections seem much more personal. I suppose there is a difference between a professional rejection vs a personal one.
Just got off a FB phone screen which I think I failed. Only got through one question, and even that required assistance from the interviewer. My understanding is that if you don't finish two problems, you're doomed.
Spent the past week basically taking time off from work to do leetcode problems nonstop. Too bad it didn't help.
Third time failing at FB. First time failed the phone screen in 2018. Passed phone screen last year but bombed the onsite. And now failed the third time on the phone screen.
Also failed at Amazon (onsite), Netflix (twice - once on the phonescreen, once on the onsite), Uber (twice phonescreen), Microsoft (onsite). Got offers from Credit Karma and WeWork...how I dearly wish those offers were from any of the other companies I had failed at...
[+] [-] daveslash|5 years ago|reply
I'm doing well now - but those were rough times for me. When my teenager feels rejected (e.g. not making the team), I always tell them that rejection is always a bummer, but not the end of the world. And I gently remind them of that story as a way of saying *"trust me, I'm not saying that as empty words; I do understand how it feels."
[+] [-] a_brawling_boo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Balgair|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] filmgirlcw|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jart|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 120bits|5 years ago|reply
- Google rejected 3 times.
- Facebook 2 times.
- Amazon(AWS) 1 times.
- Adobe 1 Times.
- Twitter, Github, stripe and others won't even consider me good enough for an interview.
- Dozens others companies, who do FAANG style interviewing.
I fear rejections, no matter how much I "try" to act normal. I was looking forward to working on some new projects and with talented team members, I never got that opportunity and its heart breaking. I been working on solving leetcode problems. But sometimes can't even solve Easy problems and its just so demotivating. Specially, when I get an automated rejection response without any additional feedback.
I have realized that maybe I'm not a rockstar coder that can come up with high performance code. I'm ok, I can figure shit out! and I think that's fine.
BTW actual feedback from an technical interview,
"I would encourage XXX to use some coding challenge practice websites to become comfortable with producing quick working code segments which would help him feel comfortable and produce code quickly in future interviews."
Unbelievable!
[+] [-] Aeolun|5 years ago|reply
That turned out to be predictive, because they rejected me mostly based on my inability to do well on those kinds of tests.
I got a life people. Between taking care of my son, wife and work, where am I supposed to find ‘a few hours’ to spend on something that is solely meant to do good on your company interview.
It could theoretically have been worth it because of increased compensation, but something in me just screams nooo whenever I consider it.
[+] [-] danjac|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arwhatever|5 years ago|reply
My hope is to get enough developers to create (free) profiles that the website can put some backpressure on the industry, however small, to curtail some practices that engineers dislike. There is so much demand for software engineering labor, after all. I'm sure this won't make a dent in the large software companies that have their own internally-hosted job board + cachet, but any difference in a positive direction would be good.
The website is here: https://sievejobs.com
FWIW, just from loads of recent experience, there are still quite a few teams that will hire you based on your demonstration of some real-world software development ability.
And I'll also add, that I really like your simple phrase "FAANG-style interviewing." It's more succinct than any I have been able to come up with: "Whiteboard + algorithms?" "Non-real-world Leetcode puzzles?" etc.
[+] [-] echelon|5 years ago|reply
> I would encourage XXX to use some coding challenge practice websites to become comfortable with producing quick working code segments
contrasts with
> I have realized that maybe I'm not a rockstar coder that can come up with high performance code.
What's your analytical process like? Do you take a moment to sit back and just think? Don't dive directly into the code.
My most successful candidates spend five to ten minutes thinking about my problem and talking themselves through it before writing any real code. They'll sometimes take notes with class diagrams or ASCII diagrams.
You don't have to have an optimal solution first.
[+] [-] joelbluminator|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codezero|5 years ago|reply
That said, I encourage folks on my team to interview regularly just to know how to value themselves and to see that there are other opportunities, and to just get practice interviewing and learning how other companies run the process.
My rejections:
- laid off from Red Hat post dot-bomb (I wasn't really trying to stay at the time) ~ 2003
- rejected for a sysadmin position at Blizzard in around 2003 or 4?
- rejected from a lot of PhD programs in Physics (I wasn't really trying that hard, see a theme, it's called cognitive dissonance!) ~ 2008
- fired from Quora (honestly really just ended up misaligned with my boss and career goals, they made the right call) ~ 2014
- rejected from Stripe with two personal referrals after the last stage of the interview. I was pretty bummed by this and had spent a month putting all my eggs in one basket to work there. This was 2014 so I also missed out on a nice bit of stock to be honest!
At my current company I feel like I finally had enough continuity to specialize a bit and become an expert in a field to feel comfortable with what ever may come next. I hope others can find that in their careers too.
[+] [-] foobarian|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] esel2k|5 years ago|reply
I tend to keep interviewing or lets call it networking. The position I did fit a 100% I ended up declining as they were mostly position I thought I would go downwards in my career and pay, even if it sounded interesting.
Glad you found that place of continuity - still trying to get there...
[+] [-] delaynomore|5 years ago|reply
Same. I've been extremely lucky that the only layoff I experienced was on first job out of school and on the first day ("we hired too many people").
The worst rejection I experienced was for a consulting position with a Big 4 consulting firm 10+ years ago. I bombed the brain teaser/problem solving question in the last round (IIRC, why are manhole covers round?). I could tell the interview went downhill after that exchange. At the time I had no prior consulting experience therefore I really wanted to pivot into consulting with that opening.
Come to think of it, I have never asked any brain teaser questions like that in any of the interviews I conducted - maybe that's why. :)
>just get practice interviewing and learning how other companies run the process
I did it a few times but never felt the experience is comparable to looking for work "for real".
[+] [-] WC3w6pXxgGd|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] sumanthvepa|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rapfaria|5 years ago|reply
I remember when I had a stellar year at a big corp. My manager said `nothing bad to report, wow`. I was ready for that S - a Special automatically meant a promotion.
A few weeks later, when the whole R&D got the performance letter, I received mine with a C. D usually meant `demitido`, or fired in portuguese. I couldn't believe it, and I kept that letter through many years, just as a reminder of how you can get screwed by things that are not in your power.
A few years later, when I saw the letter, I had a much better job, and was much happier. No good could come from seeing that letter from time to time, so I threw it away.
As long as these things are living in your life, they are consuming you. The sooner you let them go, the sooner you'll be free
[+] [-] StephenAshmore|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwmeaway_66|5 years ago|reply
And that's why I use "failure" in quotes here and I never use the word in my life, except in some very specific contexts (e.g., machine failure). Anybody with ambitions in their lives gets rejected, dismissed and have things that don't work even if they cry in High Valyrian. Forget, move on, live large, not small.
[+] [-] abdabab|5 years ago|reply
What made the year stellar?
[+] [-] rramadass|5 years ago|reply
There is also the fact that "recruiting" methods are pseudo-scientific and do not reflect the candidate's ability (outside of very narrow specialized fields) at all. People also tend to make biased snap judgements if you display your failures/faults rather openly. Always project your strengths and don't advertise your faults.
PS: Read The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence by Baltasar Gracian trans. by Jeremy Robbins (aka The Art of Worldly Wisdom) for some pragmatic approach to life.
[+] [-] nyanpasu64|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oytis|5 years ago|reply
I believe one of the ideas behind this list is to help overcome the culture where you are supposed to hide your failures. Not a bad thing for a self-confident person, as the author probably is.
Of course for someone who feels so much depressed by their failures that they can't stop thinking about them over and over doing that might not be the best therapy.
[+] [-] inertiatic|5 years ago|reply
I have experienced countless rejections. Tens to hundreds every time I switch jobs. After just a few of these, you realize no one knows how to hire and just laugh at the absurdity of this profession.
[+] [-] gwbas1c|5 years ago|reply
Pointless? No. I'm sure it's reassuring to anyone who doesn't understand the high amount of rejections when looking for a job.
[+] [-] alexashka|5 years ago|reply
The more people sharing 'started from the bottom now we here' without mentioning the likelihood of it happening, the more people love it. Delusional, yet simple self serving beliefs have a snowball effect without fail - I'd wager Western culture is almost entirely made up of them at this point, which has some interesting consequences.
[+] [-] nautilus12|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway892398|5 years ago|reply
One day I just decided to reply to the Google recruiter. I stupidly set up the interview ASAP at a time when I was out of the country with no computer or internet. So I went into the interview with zero prep. It was a disaster.
That experience made me once again ignore FAANG recruiters for a while until I was pressured by a friend to apply at Amazon. I crammed hard for that. I thought I aced all the on site interviews with optimal solutions and stupidly told my folks that I likely got the job (bad idea!). I didn't.
Finally took a stab at some tier 2 companies in NYC and was rejected by all. Some were really close others were just bad timing (WeWork during IPO fiasco).
I'm still chugging along working at some company with no name recognition. Yeah it sucks that all my peers work at FAANG and don't understand why I'm not trying to work at a more prominent company. Honestly it worked out better. I have a minimal commute, a decent home in an area with great schools, comp comparable to FAANG, and finally my work has a much greater impact at my company.
[+] [-] TrackerFF|5 years ago|reply
Getting rejected doesn't necessarily mean "No, we will never want you around here. Do not apply" though it might feel that way.
Sometimes there are just too many (great) applicants to choose from. But who knows, that pick could be you.
[+] [-] rd07|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beforeolives|5 years ago|reply
Depending on where you live 3-6 month probation periods can be completely standard. If you get the job, you are accepted there. The probation period is just a window in which you and the company can separate with less friction. In most places it's a formality that you shouldn't worry about unless you're extremely underperforming or doing something egregious at work.
[+] [-] alexizorba|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colmvp|5 years ago|reply
My advice to those who might be reading is to find a mentor or best friend who you can update on your progress on a semi-regular basis. Those people helped me so much to remain positive and upbeat during the really disappointing moments of 2020. They can also give feedback on your approaches.
The other tip is to accept it's going to feel terrible, but to let the disappointment that you feel flow through you to help move on.
[+] [-] plank_time|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwawaypqr123|5 years ago|reply
I "failed" my first four (edit: onsite) FANG interviews. 5th time was a charm, have been happily employed with a senior title at FANG for a couple years.
Not exactly new information to HN, but the job itself is quite a bit easier than the interviews (wrt to technical knowledge). It can be just as stressful though (I actually think stress response / teamwork is one of the main things FANG interviewers are looking for after a certain bar of technical competence is met, YMMV).
This isn't for everyone, but if it's something you really want to do, don't let the rejections get you down. You'll get in eventually :)
[+] [-] cweill|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Spooky23|5 years ago|reply
The second time they were locking down a time I could fly somewhere and the whole thing went poof. Fortunately I was in a good job and it was no big deal, but it would have been very stressful if I was between gigs.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] joelbluminator|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yosito|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] makach|5 years ago|reply
I've been rejected quite a few times as well. This is in fact so inspiring that I will apply for another job that I most likely will be rejected from as well.
You cannot win if you don't play the game.
[+] [-] dijit|5 years ago|reply
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a job I applied for (with the exception of my current job which I suspect was tailored for me and a colleague.)
Nearly every job offer I ever got I was reached out to by a recruiter.
It seems like, if I apply, I get blacklisted, but if I don’t apply a recruiter reaches out later and I often end up with an offer. This has happened with small and large companies. Sometimes even the same job but after a year or so. (Apple, most notably).
Does anyone else have similar experience?
[+] [-] webyacusa|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gsibble|5 years ago|reply
Odd though how in other areas of life, rejections seem much more personal. I suppose there is a difference between a professional rejection vs a personal one.
[+] [-] davio|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m33k44|5 years ago|reply
"More rejections to come!"
That's the spirit! Never give up :)
[+] [-] decafninja|5 years ago|reply
Spent the past week basically taking time off from work to do leetcode problems nonstop. Too bad it didn't help.
Third time failing at FB. First time failed the phone screen in 2018. Passed phone screen last year but bombed the onsite. And now failed the third time on the phone screen.
Also failed at Amazon (onsite), Netflix (twice - once on the phonescreen, once on the onsite), Uber (twice phonescreen), Microsoft (onsite). Got offers from Credit Karma and WeWork...how I dearly wish those offers were from any of the other companies I had failed at...
Needless to say, I feel horrible.