[tidbits]

Absolutely. I was laid off after PPP ran out last year from a small (~20) company. Applied to a bunch of companies, went through a couple of interviews, no offers. Gave in and replied to an FAANG recruiter that had been emailing me and got the job. I like my team and work/life balance, but planning on jumping ship in the near future specifically because I don't want to work for FAANG anymore. As for how to deal with it, the money helps ha. But it does start to weigh down on you. I like to think I wouldn't have ever worked at such a company if not for covid.

[silicon2401]

How did you get a job at a FAANG and not elsewhere? The way people talk about it, getting a FAANG job is like the highest bar to aim for

[tidbits]

FAANG definitely has a high bar, but there are many factors that affect interviews. However, I think a big part of it is that they were willing to take a risk on hiring me since I had 3 years of experience and did solidly on the interviews. In contrast with the non-FAANG companies I applied to, they probably saw the obscure company I had been working at as a negative and decided to play it safe and pass on me. What further supports this theory of mine is that, around the 6 month mark at FAANG, recruiters started flooding my email, even though the difference in experience between 3 years of programming and 3.5 years is minor.