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by hnthrowaway0328 759 days ago
Got two jobs and refuted one offer. In the middle of 2 interviews.

I don't have any tricks. I'm just a bit luckier I think. I am quite unlucky in certain other ways that I consider this a necessary complement.

I'm a mediocre data engineer at best, but people usually look at years of service and automatically assume 6 years in some well known but non-faang companies is good enough -- well in most places it indeed is enough.

Neither do I practice LC -- I did have a few LC interviews but everyone agrees that DEs are inferior to other SWEs so they only gave me easy/medium. I prefer companies that don't give LC interviews TBH. I'm fine with SQL LC though.

The only thing I'm doing is coding personal projects using Python or Java or C so I brush up language skills, in this way at least I don't need to Google for list comprehension or enumerate loops. But I'm so burnout by my day job that I don't work on personal projects very often.

I don't love my old or new job. I desperately want to switch to a low level job, no hope as for now. I don't consider myself being success as I hate my job and don't know what to do next.

My company is not hiring at the moment so good luck to everyone who is seeking for a job.

2 comments

I wish I could give many tips, but I think right now the most important thing is to find connections so that you can skip HRs, and advertise yourself if you have strong personal projects.
How did you go about it? Did you only apply to jobs you where knew someone there?
No they mostly come to me. I did refresh my profile from time to time so that may help.

Other than that, I think having some concrete no BS examples from work really helps.

Thanks for your honesty.