Soft Skills Engineering

Episode 308: FAANG to startup and Google interview prep


Listen Later

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

  1. I’m currently working at a FAANG in Europe, and seriously underpaid. I recently got an offer from a US startup (Series C funded) to work remotely. Two big pluses: I’m gonna get a 2 times pay bump, and I can finally work remotely (and travel across Europe since they support work from anywhere, now that COVID restrictions are relaxed, something I wanted to do for years). Two problems: Their tech stack is Ruby on Rails, something that no “big” companies use so I may not be considered seriously because of last X years of working on a not-so-famous tech, and current tech environment screams of a recession, so I’m safer at a big company than some startup. Do you think 2.5 years in a FAANG provides enough of credibility to take care of both of these problems if things go south? Any other factors I should consider when moving from FAANG to a remote startup job?

  2. So I’ve been working at this big-tech company for around 4 years and working as a mid-level engineer. I recently got approached by a Google recruiter for L5 or Senior engineer position. I’ve led a few projects in my current company, but I don’t consider myself a “senior” level. That and the fact that I’ve worked majorly in Frontend and the role I’m gonna be getting interviewed for is Full-stack (interview rounds seem to be focused on Distributed systems mostly).

    I’ve two questions:

    • Is this some dirty trick in recruitment I gotta be aware of? I hear about downlevel a lot, but never “uplevel”.
    • If say I do prepare like crazy and pass the interviews, do you think I may not have any luck with the team matching Google does? Like no team may wanna hire a “junior” senior?
    • Love the show! Keep it up.

      ...more
      View all episodesView all episodes
      Download on the App Store

      Soft Skills EngineeringBy Jamison Dance and Dave Smith

      • 4.8
      • 4.8
      • 4.8
      • 4.8
      • 4.8

      4.8

      266 ratings


      More shows like Soft Skills Engineering

      View all
      Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman by Scott Hanselman

      Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman

      377 Listeners

      Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers by se-radio@computer.org

      Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers

      272 Listeners

      .NET Rocks! by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell

      .NET Rocks!

      246 Listeners

      The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source by Changelog Media

      The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

      282 Listeners

      Thoughtworks Technology Podcast by Thoughtworks

      Thoughtworks Technology Podcast

      42 Listeners

      Talk Python To Me by Michael Kennedy

      Talk Python To Me

      590 Listeners

      Software Engineering Daily by Software Engineering Daily

      Software Engineering Daily

      626 Listeners

      AWS Podcast by Amazon Web Services

      AWS Podcast

      203 Listeners

      Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats by Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski - Full Stack JavaScript Web Developers

      Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

      984 Listeners

      CoRecursive: Coding Stories by Adam Gordon Bell - Software Developer

      CoRecursive: Coding Stories

      189 Listeners

      Kubernetes Podcast from Google by Abdel Sghiouar, Kaslin Fields

      Kubernetes Podcast from Google

      181 Listeners

      Practical AI by Practical AI LLC

      Practical AI

      189 Listeners

      The Stack Overflow Podcast by The Stack Overflow Podcast

      The Stack Overflow Podcast

      64 Listeners

      The Real Python Podcast by Real Python

      The Real Python Podcast

      140 Listeners

      The Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz

      The Pragmatic Engineer

      52 Listeners