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CS Career

acronyms

  • OA = online assessment
    • 1st stage in applying
  • HCOL = high cost of living
  • job name
    • SDE = software development engineer
      • Microsoft, Amazon
    • SWE = software engineer
      • Google
    • SRE = site realiability engineer
    • SE = security engineer || system engineer
  • LC = leetcode
  • money
    • RSU = restricted stock unit
      • give you stock over a period
    • TC = total compensation
      • total equivalence of money you got
  • YoE = years of experience
  • WLB
    • work life balance
  • FAANG
    • Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix Google
  • PIP = performance improvement plan
    • get PIPed = about to get fired
  • FTE = full-time employee
  • MTS = member of technical staff = SWE

Resources

Forums

  • Blind
  • r/cscareerquestions
  • r/csmajors

Websites

Job Searching Websites

Good posts or threads

Building portfolio

projects

Resume

Cover letters

Interview preparation

Mock Interviews

LeetCode

System Design

See System Design

DevOps

Interviews

Getting interviews

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/uczkay/

Online Assessments

CodeSignal

https://github.com/Leader-board/OA-and-Interviews/blob/main/Online%20Assessments.md#codesignal

  • 4 questions in 70 min.
  • grading
    • purely algorithmic & automatic
    • neet to pass all test cases in a problem to get a meaningful score
  • Q1 & Q2 LC Easy
    • brute force will pass
  • Q3 implementation style LC Medium
    • brute force will pass
  • Q4 LC Medium/Hard

cs-career-1.png

Behavioral Questions

Amazon Leadership Principles

  • Resources
  • Tips
  • Customer Obsession
    • customer is always the most important, even more important than profit
  • Ownership
    • everthing is your job, it's your job to keep everything running perfectly, even if it's actually not your job
  • Invent and Simplify
    • you need to have infinite ideas, never say never
    • the simpler the better
      • remove > add
  • Are Right, A Lot
    • learn from many sources to make your decision
      • past experiences
      • others' opinions
      • diverse set of perspectives
  • Learn and Be Curious
    • open to new things
  • Hire and Develop the Best
    • treat top performers differently
    • step out of comfort zone
  • Insist on the Highest Standards
    • never be satisfied
    • never enough
    • fixing the root cause
    • always seek to improve
  • Think Big
    • have impossible & over the top ideas
    • practical & realistic ideas are never big enough
  • Bias for Action
    • take risks
    • take quick & bold decisions
  • Frugality
    • be cheap
    • deliver with insufficient resources
    • "Invent and Simplify"
  • Earn Trust
    • related to "what mistakes have you made" type of questions
    • self-critical
    • admit you're wrong
    • share the failure
      • "Ownership"
    • "Insist on the Highest Standards"
  • Dive Deep
    • know every detail
    • find the root cause
    • "Ownership"
    • "Insist on the Highest Standards"
  • Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
    • "Ownership"
    • don't do it because your boss said so
    • use data to support your disagreement
  • Deliver Results
    • "Ownership"
    • "Bias for Action"
    • "Frugality"
    • take calculated risk to deliver the right result in time
  • Strive to be Earth's Best Employer
    • care about people
    • invest in people
    • "Hire and Develop the Best"
  • Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility
    • do the right thing
    • care not only about business
    • "Customer Obsession"

Q&A Section

Posts & Threads

TC

Check https://www.levels.fyi/

Offer Negotiation

knowledge

  • they have already invested thousands of dollars on you during the whole process
  • they will never walk away because of you asking too high or asking to delay the deadline
  • recruiters don't get rewarded from lowballing you

tips

  • deflect during call and do actual negotiations in email
  • ask for written offer, or write down discussed numbers and ask for confirmation in email

resources

LinkedIn

TC

offer negotiation

Company details

Security Engineer