How to get a job at one of the “Big 4”(Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google)
I hope most of you heard about Glassdoor. The company scanned its massive database in order to find the companies with the most satisfied workers.
The reviews included:
- employees' opinions on some of the best reasons to work for their employer;
- downsides;
- advice to management;
- whether they'd recommend their employer to a friend;
- ratings on how satisfied they are with their job overall;
- key workplace attributes like career opportunities, compensation and benefits, culture, and values.
Taking in consideration all the above facts most of the companies received overall ratings on a scale of one to five, with the five representing the most satisfied employees(ratings are limited to one decimal space).
The “Big 4” ratings are:
From the provided ranking it turns out that both Google and Facebook have the same number of points so let’s take a look at both of them.
Google
Have you ever heard a word “Noogler”? Noogler is the affectionate term that Google uses to refer to new employees.
First of all, let me tell you some facts about this company(I believe it won’t rather surprise you):
- Google was ranked number one for the sixth time on Fortune 100’s list of best companies.
- Around 3 million people each year apply for jobs at the company each year. Therefore the probability of getting job at Google equals around 0.002%,making it more difficult to get hired by Google than it is to get admitted to Harvard.
What it takes to become a Noogler?
There are a lot of people that work hard for several years with the dream of someday attaining a job at Google. Lots of them complete a PhD in Computer Science at prestigious universities but still don’t get this position. On the other side there are a lot of students(a little bit better than average) that pass the process of recruitment. Usually they get an internship at Google and later an offer itself. It’s possible to get an offer without internships as well.
What are the steps to get a job at Google as a Software Engineer?
The easiest way to get to Google is to be referred by one of the engineers that work there. If you don’t have any friends or friends of friends that work at Google you should somehow find a person that will refer you!
Also you may apply online and wait for a response from one of the recruiters. But be aware that chances are relatively low.
If you know someone who works Google than Google assumes that there is a higher probability that you are one of the ‘better engineers’.
After you have been referred and one of the recruiters have contacted with you she/he will schedule your technical interview with one of the Google engineers. The interview will take 45 minutes at most. The engineer will go through a coding exercise with you, and they will be able to see you write your code live.
Be prepared for technical questions involving coding or algorithms in your best language, and more specific questions to your background. For coding questions, you will be asked to produce clean, efficient code in a reasonable amount of time. If the interviewer gives you hints to improve your code, take them and run with them. It is good to adjust and work through the problems with the interviewer to show your thought process and problem-solving ability.
It will help to review core CS concepts (algorithms, data structures) as well as subjects pertaining to the scale of their environment, as part of your interview preparation. Also, take a look at the coding practice links below for some ideas on the types of problems they may ask:
During the interview you will be asked to solve 1 or 2 problems(depends on the interviewer) and discuss time and space complexity. You may be also asked how to improve your solution.
If you perform well there are 2 scenarios:
- If you perform really well you will be progressed straight to the onsite interview.
- If there is any doubt you will get an additional interview(exactly the same as previous) to verify you skills.
Otherwise you will get a typical rejection mail.
How does the onsite interview look like?
You will be asked to fly to their office. Google will take all the expenses. Most probably, you will fly to another country for a few days(3-4) where you will have some time to accommodate, go sightseeing and then you will have full day interview in their office.
The onsite interview consists of from 4 to 5 technical interviews 45 minutes each where you will be asked to solve from 1 to 2 coding questions(may be a bit harder than during the first 2 stages) on whiteboard or Chromebook. If you have more than 3 years of experience than you will have 5th interview which is system design interview. Also, you will have an hour lunch break with 1 of the Googlers.
That’s it. After a month you will get the full precise feedback about your performance and an offer if you did really well.
Facebook
Facebook has almost the same process as Google. You have 2 video interviews with Facebook’s engineers(or 1 if you are good enough for them to move straight to the onsite interview).
Then they will schedule an onsite interview for you. Exactly the same process except one thing. Facebook asks much more behavioral questions than Google(there is no behavioral questions at all in Google) but on the other hand the algorithmic questions asked by Google are more difficult. It shows that Facebook pays more attention whether you will fit to the company’s culture or not.
Questions:
1.What would you choose: job at Facebook, job at Google or education at Harvard and why?
2.Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
3.What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
Comments
2. No, unfortunately I have not. My friend works at Mozilla, thought.
3. It's hard to say but there are a few things that I do not like most. For example I hate when your interview is extra hard (almost Google like) but company and job you are applying is quite shitty. Also I do not like when person who's interviewing me is way worse from me - I do not think that your future boss should be less skilled than you (maybe boss is not a good word - person who will be your PM/Senior dev or something).
I didn't apply to any company mentioned above. I don't think I have an experience to even get practices there.
The hardest process I guess would be to write code live next to interviewer because It's really stressfull for me when someone is watching what im typing all the time and judging me.
Yep, once I've applied for internship in Google, no answer.
In my opinion, coding task in the most difficult, because theoretical questions you can know by hart from your experience, while in coding part you need to be really creative.
Yep, once I've applied for internship in Google, no answer.
In my opinion, coding task in the most difficult, because theoretical questions you can know by hart from your experience, while in coding part you need to be really creative.
No, never, but I had a friend who worked for the company. I learned only one interesting thing: if you are doing some kind of project that you were hired for, then at the end of the project you may be fired.
The easiest part is to convince the company that I am better than others. The most difficult thing is to have all the knowledge in order to compete with other candidates for the workplace. I think the interview itself is not hard, it is harder to get a refusal. Especially those who consider work in Google - a dream.
I would prefere job over another school as I think that you can learn more at work rather than at school but I am not sure if I like to work for any of those companies. Work there seems to be very stressful and you need to prove everyday that you are a genius.
2. Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
No, I haven't and I don't know anyone who has.
3. What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
The hardest for me is coding task and stress about writing something wrong especially when can ask you about everything.
I haven't applied to any of those companies.
I think that going through all those CS related questions about algorithms and data structures or coding under the pressure could be very hard. You have to be really good to go through this.
No, I never applied to this companies.
For me, the hardest part of interview it’s an interview with engineer, I don't like to talk a lot about myself and often my answer is consists of several sentences when the interviewer want to hear big story. On the other hand if interviewer ask me to tell something about programs that I write I can talk very long. The easiest part of all interviews is a test on paper/computer, because if you know how answer the question – you make it fast, if not you just skip it. Second hardest thing is code analysis because you can’t navigate on paper as fast as on computer.
No, I have never applied to “Big 4” you’ve mentioned, mainly because I didn’t believe they would answer to my application.
I think the biggest challenge when applying to such companies is fitting to the firm’s culture and expectations on soft skills. I believe this often the decision making factor in such companies, where applicants have similar skills and knowledge and companies are looking more for soft skills and character traits that fit their needs best.
Yes, I applied for the Google internship.
Different tests were held at different times, one of the most interesting were interviews and with people who worked in various job positions and were told about their experience and personal feelings in the workplace in these companies.
I have never submitted a CV to these companies but I hope that someday I will have such an opportunity and I will do it.
I think that each interview is very difficult and stressful, but the hardest thing seems to be the solution to the task that the employer will ask me during the interview.
I would choose work for Google for a note in my CV. I don't think that for companies like "Big 4", name of your diploma have a value. After that I would opened my own company or went to a small company with high salary :)
2.Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
Good joke buddy :) If serious, I have never applied to the "Big 4".
3.What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
I think the most difficult thing is to show that you can control your stress and work under stress, and also show good skills.
2. No, I have not.
3. The hardest part for me was a mental part. Sometimes interviews can be stressful and you need to show how you can deal with it.
Unfortunately, I have never tried to get into such companies, probably because I know how difficult the recruitment process is. They are practically not looking at your skills only and exclusively on the knowledge of algorithms in which I am not the best.
I have never made an application in any of these companies because I think everything has its time. First of all I have to finish my study and get some experience in any IT job.
In my opinion the most difficult part of the recruitment process is conversation face to face with the boss because they have a lot of experience and they know what kind of question to ask to know everything about apprentice.
I'd like to join Google team. It's prestigious brand, I'd earn a lot of money and experience here. But... I like my job and company now... I don't really know if I would be able to leave my current job, I really like atmosphere here and I'm sceptic about Google's atmosphere rumors.
2.Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
I've never applied for a job in those companies.
3.What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
The hardest process for me is talking about my experience. I have basicly none beside half year working in corporation. I don't like to talk about achivements cause I think I don't have many for now :/
Your boss won't be less skilled that you do at first. The main idea of coming to a company like Google/Face/Twitter, etc is to become better than your manager(IMHO).
Maybe you should try to apply to one of the companies? :)
Could you tell a little bit more about your experience and why you applied only to Google?
2.Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
Not yet, but maybe one day i will be confident enough in my skills to do so, for now my chances of being employed by any of them is very low.
The hardest part of the interview is balancing your answers, there is a fine line between creative solutions to unusual problems and straight up unprofessional behavior.
I agree, mostly your work experience doesn't matter for them.
a. I would choose a job at Google, so I can put this in my CV. I would not choose education at Harvard because I am not smart enough to finish it.
2. Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
a. No, and I will probably never do this because I would not pass any part of the interview process.
3. What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
a. The live coding, because you are stressed out and you will most likely do a stupid mistake only because someone is looking at your code.
I would definitely choose work over studying because I will learn more and also get paid. From these two I will propably choose Google because I heard more good reviews about their working environment.
2.Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
No, I haven't work in IT yet so it t would not make sense to apply for such high jobs. Maybe in future I will try to get there even though it's really hard to get hired.
3.What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
I think that coding would be most problematic. I kind of a social person so I am not worried about that.
To be honest, I have never applied to one of the companies mentioned above. I know that it's very hard to get this job so I'm still learning now. I'm sure that I will send my CV but I'm not ready yet. I know about deficiencies and I will try to destroy them.
I think that the hardest part of whole interview process is coding (especially in time). I like to think about my solution, make some research before coding... situation with interviews are often hard because you have some time to implement some functions. It's very stressful situation for me.
No i have never applied to those companies and I think that i will never will. This is because it not fits my personal work experience and skills.
The hardest part for me would be technical interview. I always get nervous in such a situations and it is easy to say something stupid that would disqualified me.
No, I haven't. I had only one interview in my life. I passed it, and I'm still working in the same place for more than three years. I was thinking about applying to one of these companies in the nearies future, but I don't have that much algorithmic knowledge yet. Many courses on the internet teach you all the concepts required by most of the well-known companies like these you mentioned, so maybe in the future I'll try to get a job there. I'm not sure yet.
Definitely onsite interview. It takes place in their field, depending on the company there are different people there at the meeting. At my company, we have 3-4 people at the interview meeting, and I can see how stresses are our candidates. I think I was the same. You sit in front of many people who are going to challenge you. It's hard and scary for me.
No, I've never applied for any of those companies. I think I have too few experiences and knowledge, for now, to be working there. Also, the recrutaction there is very hard and requires thinking outside of the box. I hope, I will have a chance to take part in such a process.
I would not like to choose any of them, becouse I think it is too stressfull. Eventually I can choose Google, (becouse it have the best rate in "Big 4" ratings), but only for a short time to get an experience. Work isn't everything. Here is good video made by guy who left google and why he did it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcojyBV4QJ4
2. Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
No I haven't applied and I don't plan on it.
3. What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
I think it can be a part related to algorithms, owing to the pressure of time.
Job interview is not so hard if you are confident. That's the secret.
At this point I don't interested in neither job at Google or Facebook, because I'm not fan of products that they make. Of course I use the, but I will be glad to get rid of my facebook page, if this can be possible. For both companies the main profit is data that user generates, and they don't provide information of how the sell this data to user.
But Harvard sounds interesting, I think I would choose this option.
2.Have you ever applied to one of the companies mentioned above?
No I didn't, as for now, I don't ready for another relocation.
3.What do you think is the hardest part of the whole interview process for you?
For me the hardest part is always algorithmic questions. You can be able to solve the task, but in stress situation you just can fail.