SWE Accelerator Podcast

Emily Chen went from failing her first coding competition to Google, Wall Street and Director of Product at Bilt. Here's how she broke into each field with zero experience.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=EmilyExGoogle&video=21jICVa-f5k

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Emily's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilycwx?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
👉 Emily's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iemilymoments?obrf=d3ptc2VrdDZyODYx

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
00:48 Failing Her First CS Competition
04:02 Why She Leans Into Failure
05:26 Do Early Experiences Define You?
07:53 "One of the Dumbest People on the Planet"
10:03 Hard Work vs Natural Talent
14:36 Premed to Google by 18
17:23 The Stairway to Software Heaven
20:34 Why She Chose MIT
25:44 Celebrating Failure as Identity
27:38 From Premed to Wall Street
41:39 Why She Held Onto Premed
43:40 Breadth Over Depth
48:06 Generalists vs Specialists
51:30 Why MIT Forces Soft Skills
53:30 The 80/20 Generalist Advantage
57:21 Big Tech vs Startups
59:34 Breaking Into Product Management
1:09:40 Following Interests, Not a Script
1:13:24 How to Break Into Any Field
1:16:15 Work Backwards From the Outcome
1:17:49 Her Biggest Career Regret
1:20:35 Is College Still Worth It?
1:22:06 Is New York the New College?
1:27:43 Where to Find Emily

He passed every Google interview round, then got the call. Years later, a secretive quant firm was paying him to do nothing. 
Mustafa breaks down quant non-competes, what quant really pays, and how to break in today.

Want a team of FAANG engineers + recruiters to help you land your dream software engineering job/internship at big tech guaranteed? Click here 👉 https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=Mustafa_Quant&video=77m6FzEGIog

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Mustafa’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-mustafa-arif-7075bb150?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
00:45 Paid a Full Salary to Not Work
02:17 What a Quant Non-Compete Really Is
03:59 Life During the Non-Compete Year
06:11 What the Non-Compete Actually Paid
06:27 Why the Year Felt So Isolating
07:55 Passing Every Google Round, No Offer
09:43 Why Google Was the Dream
11:04 Handling Rejection Out of Your Control
12:00 Apply Here to Get into Quant
13:20 Finding Quant After Google Said No
16:00 What He Knew About Quant Before
17:43 Software Engineering Accelerator 
18:36 Betting on the U.S. and MIT
21:15 Is a Master's Actually Worth It?
23:53 Could He Have Skipped the Master's?
25:22 Landing the Two Sigma Internship
27:08 Quant Data Science vs Research, Trading, Dev
28:40 Every Firm He Interviewed With
29:42 Funding MIT With a $90K Loan
32:00 Would He Still Recommend the Master's?
33:38 What a Two Sigma Intern Earns
35:04 The International Student Gamble
36:25 Do International Students Pay It Back?
38:38 Free 7-Day Software Engineering Workshop
39:07 The Return Offer and $300K Comp
41:23 Telling His Parents About $300K
41:57 Zero Lifestyle Creep on $300K
44:19 Inside Two Sigma's Machine
46:10 Why He Left Two Sigma
47:26 The New Role and $400K Bump
48:47 Who Quant Data Science Is For
50:52 How Quant Data Science Interviews Work
51:53 Choosing Your Quant Niche
54:00 Advice for Breaking Into Quant in 2026
54:39 Where to Connect With Mustafa

Lihong went from pre-law kid to Jane Street intern, IMC trader, and founder of Freeport Markets.
He breaks down how he prepped for quant interviews, handled competing offers, and why he left a $350K+ role to build in AI. Plus why Jane Street is seen as the top firm in quant, and why so many quants are leaving for AI labs.

Want a team of FAANG engineers + recruiters to help you land your dream software engineering job/internship at big tech guaranteed? Click here 👉 https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=Lihong_JaneStreet&video=qEp6mwNw68g

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Lihong’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lihong062?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

👉 Lihong’s Website: https://freeportmarkets.com/

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:00 Why He Wanted To Be A Lawyer
02:08 Humanities Kid Obsessed With Soviet Math
06:00 Did Math Help Break Into Quant?
07:10 Why Duke Over Cambridge And Columbia
09:45 Humanities Kid To Quant Trader
11:14 Apply Here to Get into Quant 
12:33 The Freshman Year Pivot To Trading
16:16 Ditching Law For Trading
18:25 Exploring Before Declaring A Major
20:31 Software Engineering Accelerator
21:24 Almost Kicked Out Of Duke
25:11 What The Duke Saga Taught Him
26:00 Landing The Akuna Internship
28:42 Interview Prep Strategy And Resources
30:58 How Many Prep Hours It Takes
33:33 Intern Pay At Akuna Vs Jane Street
35:17 How It Felt Earning At 19
36:53 Inside The Akuna Internship
39:36 Where Akuna Interns Ended Up
41:14 Second Recruiting Cycle And Jane Street
44:04 7-day Software Engineering Roadmap 
44:33 Why He Didn't Negotiate Offers
46:47 Why Jane Street Is Top Dog
49:25 Quant Brain Drain To AI Labs
52:30 Why Not Everyone Leaves For AI
53:48 What Jane Street Does Differently
56:20 Choosing IMC For Full-Time
57:27 IMC Pay And Salary Trends
58:26 Trading Semiconductors At IMC
59:28 Where Quant Is Heading
1:01:19 Why He Left To Found Freeport
1:05:11 Would He Ever Return To Quant?

Ex-HRT quant Olivia breaks down why most people never crack quant trading, the resume bar candidates miss, and why smart isn't enough.
From a perfect AMC 8 score to a $400K offer at 22 to getting fired within a year, she gives the real, unfiltered picture of what it takes and why even she couldn't sustain it long-term.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=Olivia_Ex-quant&video=cmnXNkby2SE

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Olivia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/su-min-l-011515118?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android 

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:06 Perfect AMC 8 Score Despite No English
02:05 Korean Math System vs. US Curriculum
04:15 Moving to America at Age 10
06:11 Learning English and Building a Mindset
07:59 Competition Math Comes Easy in the US
08:50 Path to Perfect AMC 8 and AIME
11:32 High School Peak vs. Later Decline
17:00 How High Schoolers Discover Quant Trading
18:50 College Admissions Process and Caltech Decision
20:55 Software Engineering Accelerator
21:47 Does GPA Really Matter for Quant?
24:37 High School Network vs. College Network
27:38Understanding the Quant Recruiting Cycle
32:13 Which Firms She Interviewed and Prepped For
37:43 Inside the HRT Interview Process
40:54 7-day Engineering Resource
41:24Getting the HRT Offer and Reaction
42:21 HRT Total Compensation Breakdown
43:25 Olivia's Parents Reaction 
45:16 Quant Salaries
45:42 The HRT Working Experience 
47:12 Highest Quant Salary 
48:25 Day-to-Day Life on a Quant Salary
51:20 What Quants Actually Spend Money On
55:25 Getting Fired From HRT After One Year
58:04 Immediate Reaction to Losing the Job
1:00:14 Understanding the Non-Compete Payout
1:01:55 What She Did During 18 Months Off
1:05:18 Deciding to Pivot Into Big Tech
1:06:30 Comparing Instagram Culture to HRT
1:07:55 Instagram Compensation and the Salary Cut
1:10:08 Getting Laid Off From Instagram
1:11:17 Chasing Fulfillment Over High Compensation
1:14:12 Reflecting on Two Job Losses in Five Years
1:15:41 Advice to Her 13-Year-Old Self

She wanted to be an actress, now she's a software engineer at Meta making $200K/yr at 23 years old, with zero CS experience.
Marilyn joins Aman to unpack her rejection, the layoffs she survived, and why she chose stability over passion. A raw, practical look at building a career in big tech.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=Marilyn_Actress&video=nO5Yzt3rLYM

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Marilyn's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mareomni
👉 Marilyn's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mareomni

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction 
01:40 Software Engineer at Meta, Aspiring Actress
01:54 From Classical Pianist to Computer Science
06:05 Why She Randomly Chose Economics
07:57 Discovering a Passion for Acting
10:58 Landing the Atlassian Internship
11:15 Coasting Through Her First Internship
13:25 The Devastating Return Offer Rejection
14:25 Freezing Up, Ghosting 12 Interviews
17:57 Grinding LeetCode to Land Meta
19:36 How to Recover From Rejection
21:19 Don't Attach Your Identity to Companies
22:41 Cracking the Technical Interview Code
24:34 Is LeetCode Overrated or Underrated
25:58 What Changed During the Meta Internship
29:33 A Manager Who Trained Her Like a Senior
33:09 Earning the Highest Rating, Return Offer
35:18 Meta's Layoffs Hit Close to Home
37:44 Why Big Tech Keeps Cutting Jobs
40:12 Losing Her Team's Culture Overnight
41:26 Posting Online and Facing Hate Comments
46:07 Should Engineers Post Content Online
48:34 Is Big Tech Actually a Scam
51:01 Do Perks Still Matter at Work
52:04 Why People Get Disillusioned With Big Tech
54:39 Recruiting Right After Layoffs Happen
56:24 Revealing Her Meta Salary at 23
59:27 Personality Determines How Money Changes You
1:00:04 Choosing Stability Over Her Acting Dream
1:02:38 Why Influencing Beats Acting for Stability
1:04:00 Should You Follow Passion or Logic
1:05:45 Finding Time to Build a Side Hustle
1:07:30 Becoming a Translator Between Tech and Creativity
1:08:45 Where to Find Marilyn Online

Zen spent 4 years inside GitHub watching the AI revolution unfold and what he saw made him walk away from the best job he'd ever had. 
He breaks down why software engineering is broken, what AI is doing to hiring, and exactly how to break into AI engineering in 2026.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=ZenGitHub&video=Gt2bKGJbd0U

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Zen's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@zenvanriel
👉 Zen's AI Engineer Program: https://aiengineer.community/join 

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:15 From $500/Month Tester to AI Engineer
02:30 Why Zen Studied Cognitive Science and AI
03:48 How He Actually Learned to Code
04:55 Is Software Testing Still a Valid Entry Point?
05:57 Why LinkedIn Got Him Into Microsoft
06:42 How Microsoft Found His Profile
07:34 What to Post on LinkedIn With No Experience
09:44 The Microsoft Internship Interview Surprise
11:34 Do Soft Skills Matter More in the AI Era?
12:13 The Azure Cert He Failed Three Times
14:58 Why AI Advice Is Always Generic
16:20 How to Find Mentors You Can Actually Trust
17:33 Inside GitHub During the AI Boom
19:04 How Zen Stays Up to Date Without the Hype
20:28 What the AI Culture at GitHub Really Looked Like
22:18 The PR Pushback Story: 6000 Lines Rejected
25:12 How to Find the Middle Ground With AI Coding
27:38 Will AI Actually Replace Engineers?
29:09 Why He Left the Best Job He Ever Had
30:36 The Moment AI Safety Became His Mission
31:34 The Problem With Agents Reviewing Agents
32:53 Why Accountability Is Everything in Engineering
33:15 The Paradox of Criticising AI While Using It Daily
35:02 Startup vs Enterprise: How to Use AI Differently
38:08 The AI Detox Before His Safety Lab Interview
39:15 Should Engineers Detox From AI Regularly?
40:55 How He Used Claude Code to Prep for Interviews
41:59 The Deepfake Hiring Story
45:18 How Interviewers Are Catching AI Cheaters
46:36 Why Struggling in an Interview Proves You're Human
47:39 What Interviews Will Look Like in Two Years
50:33 Why Internships Are the Cheat Code Now
52:01 Why Referrals Matter More Than Ever
54:22 How His Student Landed an AI Engineer Offer
55:45 What Even Is an AI Engineer?
56:49 The Step-by-Step Pivot Into AI Engineering
59:26 Top Skills to Be Competitive in AI Engineering
1:01:34 Do You Actually Need to Be Good at Math?
1:03:15 Is LeetCode Dead for AI Engineering?
1:04:18 Where to Find Zen Online

He sent 500 applications junior year and heard back from almost nobody. No internship. Just rejection while his friends posted Meta and Amazon offers on LinkedIn.

One year later: DoorDash, Apple, final rounds at Nvidia. $200K+ as a new grad. No big tech internship on his resume.

Pranav breaks down the exact system that flipped everything, the timing window most students miss, research maxing from scratch, and why he set a goal of 1,000 applications.

This is the blueprint.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=PranavDoorDash&video=R7lwx0zk-cs

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Pranav's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pranavinno
👉 Pranav's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranav-lende?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
👉 Pranav's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pranavinno?_r=1&_t=ZS-96xnEzhuNl6

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:45 500 Applications and Almost Nothing Back
04:11 No Junior Year Internship: The Death Sentence
04:56 Senior Year: DoorDash, Apple, and the Turnaround
05:23 What Actually Changed Everything
07:30 YC AI Startup School and the Wake-Up Call
09:13 Why the Room You're In Changes Everything
11:27 How to Manufacture a Competitive Environment
13:11 Hackathons and the Value of CS Schools
14:45 The Real Reason Top Universities Win
16:51 The .edu Email Hack for Research
18:46 The Exact Timing Window to Apply
20:55 New Grad vs Internship Recruiting Cycles
22:19 Why Research Maxing Closes the Gap
25:04 How to Email Professors and Actually Get Responses
28:14 How to Turn a Response Into a Research Position
30:45 Senior Year Recruiting: The Full Setup
31:48 LeetCode Is Make or Break — Here's How
36:10 The Pareto Problem Set Breakdown
37:29 The Offers: DoorDash, Apple, Nvidia, Quant
39:21 Why He Chose SF and DoorDash
41:21 Getting a 200K Offer and Telling Nobody
43:13 Why He Kept Recruiting After the Offer
44:50 Is the CS Market Cooked or Is That Cope
47:33 The Roommate Story: Proof Tenacity Wins
50:43 What's Next: SF, DoorDash, and Building Something

Sourish walked away from a $250K TikTok ML job with no plan, self-studied AI, and landed at one of Silicon Valley's hottest AI labs. 
Now he interviews candidates himself and he's exposing exactly what it takes to get in.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=SourishAI_TikTok&video=1kZDGkReE6w

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Sourish's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sourishk07 
👉 Sourish's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sourish07?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
02:30 Quitting TikTok With No Plan
05:57 The $250K Compensation Breakdown
07:10 What He Couldn't Say While Inside
08:15 Chinese-Only Culture At ByteDance
10:56 The TikTok Ban From The Inside
12:30 Life After Quitting: The Reset
14:26 Why Video Diffusion Changed Everything
16:51 When Job Hunting Actually Started
17:57 Second Recruiting Cycle Was Harder
20:15 Companies He Talked To
20:46 Why He Chose Luma AI
22:04 What Luma AI Actually Does
23:06 His Role: Optimizing The Inference Stack
23:33 Roadmap To Land At A Top AI Lab
26:14 How Long Should You Actually Study
27:23 Quit Or Study On The Side
28:14 How To Know When You're Ready
29:35 How To Get In Front Of Companies
30:26 Which Networking Events Are Worth It
32:20 What Startups Actually Ask In Interviews
33:10 How Many Interviews Before Luma
33:41 Why Experience Changes The Game
36:05 Breaking Down AI Company Types
41:23 Salary Ranges Across AI Companies
43:49 Highest Salaries He's Heard Of
44:31 What He Sees Interviewing Candidates
46:37 10 Years At Google Still Failed
47:43 The Harvard Candidate Who Got Caught Cheating
49:30 Should Interviews Go Back In Person
52:11 Philosophy On Learning Hard Things Fast
56:24 Are We Training Ourselves To Be Useless
58:01 Hot Takes: Are SWEs Cooked
58:22 Should You Still Major In CS
58:50 Big Tech Vs AI Startup In 2026
59:41 Is The Big Tech Dream Dead
1:00:09 Is LeetCode Still Relevant
1:00:31 The AI Belief He Got Totally Wrong

NeetCode just invested in the company trying to kill LeetCode. 
Aman sits down with Rounds founder Fardeen Khimani to break down why tech hiring is broken, which companies are ditching LeetCode, what's replacing it, and what every engineer needs to do to get hired in 2026.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=RoundsLeetcode&video=Ld3vyudRY68

Stop sending hundreds of applications into the void. Take one free technical assessment and have companies reach out to YOU: startups to Fortune 500s, $100K-$300K+ roles 👉 https://www.rounds.so/partnerships/aman-manazir

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Round's Website: https://www.rounds.so
👉 Round's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fardeenkhimani/

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⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
02:30 NeetCode Invested In His Competition
04:30 How Rounds Landed Fortune 500 Clients
07:41 Why Engineering Managers Hate LeetCode
08:55 The Cheating Epidemic Breaking Tech Hiring
09:21 What C-Suite vs Engineers Actually Want
10:30 Steel Manning LeetCode's Case
13:31 Why LeetCode Favors The Wealthy
17:30 Which Companies Are Killing LeetCode First
19:55 Meta, Google & Amazon Ranked
20:33 What's Actually Replacing LeetCode
21:53 The New Technical Interview Breakdown
22:48 Is LeetCode Completely Dead?
23:30 System Design, Behavioral & AI Rounds Explained
27:07 How To Prepare For The New Interview
27:55 Are Entry Level Roles Actually Cooked?
31:44 Why The Market Isn't As Bad As You Think
35:37 What A Successful Engineer Looks Like Now
37:30 Why CS Is Still Worth Studying
39:33 How To Actually Network (Do This Instead)
41:00 Startups vs Big Tech Hiring Differences
42:30 Big Tech Golden Handcuffs Warning
43:30 Where The Next Big Opportunities Are
45:28 The Story That Proves LeetCode Is Dead

She made $1.2M at Google, then quit with 4 offers in the worst market ever.

Ex-Google Senior Engineer Maddy Zhang breaks down how she escaped golden handcuffs, landed offers at OpenAI, Meta and Databricks, and what every engineer needs to know about promotions, AI engineering and surviving the AI takeover of SWE.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=MaddyZhang_GoogleEngineer&video=7JwZHBfYFdk

🚀 Get my free Software Engineering Crash Course – https://www.amanmanazir.com/7dayengineer

🎧 Listen to all episodes of the Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/AmanManazir

Listen to our new podcast, @TheEntropyShow: https://youtu.be/MDJQXbXPngg?si=vQqITmNzy3fhfcV1

I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

📄 Get my free resume template – https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume

🧠 Get my free LeetCode Roadmap – https://www.amanmanazir.com/leetcode

💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice – https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter

📕 All my free Notion templates – https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion

📝 Sign up for Notion – https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6

📷 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/

🐦 Twitter – https://twitter.com/amanmanazir

👉 Maddy's YouTube: https://youtube.com/@maddyzhang?si=5QlcdxOXkeWYTriM 
👉 Maddy's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeline.m.zhang?igsh=YmtjM2djN3Vid3Bj

—

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:35 Why She Left Google After 4.5 Years
04:01 Her $315K Google Salary Revealed
04:28 The Golden Handcuffs Problem
04:56 The Moment She Decided To Leave
06:44 What She Was Looking For Next
07:32 12 Companies, 4 Offers, Full Time Job
09:34 Internal Promotion vs Jumping Ship
11:00 How She Managed Energy While Recruiting
12:42 What A Code Freeze Actually Is
14:03 Why Referrals Matter More Than Ever
15:21 Wildest Interview Stories
17:45 What Is A Frontier Model Lab
18:04 Who AI Engineers Actually Are
18:43 AI Researcher vs AI Engineer Explained
19:19 Do You Need A PhD For AI
20:01 Skills Nobody Talks About But Jobs Want
21:00 How To Break Into AI Engineering
22:08 How To Actually Get Interviews
22:58 What The Interview Loop Looks Like
25:05 AI Assisted Interviews Are Here
27:30 Why Google Rejected AI Interviews
28:48 How Different Companies Hire Differently
30:06 Honest AI Engineer Salary Ranges
32:32 47 Rejections Before Her First Internship
34:04 How She Stopped Taking Rejection Personally
35:24 How Important Is That First Internship
37:08 The Waterloo Co-op System Explained
38:13 Does GPA Actually Matter
41:09 Her Manager Pushed Her To Promote Early
44:22 What To Do With A Bad Manager
45:40 How To Ask For Promotion Packets
47:04 How Reorgs Affected Her Career
48:09 Why Reorgs Happen And How To Survive
49:58 Will Software Engineering Exist In 5 Years
51:34 Advice For Terrified CS Freshmen
52:27 Is Google Still The Top Dog
53:43 Is LeetCode Dead In 2026
54:20 Hot Take: Is LeetCode Actually Valuable
56:35 Why People Hate LeetCode
57:54 Has She Ever Used A Linked List
58:03 AI Cheating Is Everywhere Right Now
1:00:36 Does Anyone Actually Get Away With It
1:03:02 Do Personal Projects Actually Matter
1:03:55 The Truth About Job Hopping
1:05:13 She Outlasted 80% Of Google's Workforce