Discussion on "How I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe"

Andrey Goncharov · 2021-08-30T10:35:55.082Z

Yet another story of how an ordinary guy from the middle of nowhere in Russia managed to get multiple FAANG offers. This time, in Europe. I'll tell you a little about my background, share several tips and tricks that helped me to land the interviews...

Wow, that was incredible! And at the same time, overwhelming. Any advice on how to address the feeling of such, based on your personal experiences when applying to these FAANG companies?

Your story is so inspiring. I literally held my breath reading about the facebook interview and I was so happy you got an offer. : )

Could you maybe share the CV that got you interviews with all these companies?

I know it's so late but congratulations! Stories like this give me hope.

Thank you, Andrei. Your experience is very helpful. Especially when the process goes not the way you would expect. In particular you wrote [amazon] "while the majority of the time went into the behavioral part of the interview. I thought I did well... and I was wrong". Same story here. What was hard to digest is the unknown of what exactly went wrong with the behavioral questions. For technical part you know where you stumble right away. For behavioral you doubt yourself to the core. For that situation did you manage to realize what had gone wrong and fix it for later interviews?

Hi Evgeny, thanks for reading! Nope, I never figured out what went wrong that day. I guess that's why it is popular to have dozens of interviews lined up.

Awesome article, Andrey. Loved your style of writing, I felt I can relate to you.

The tips about applying to different regions is new info for me. Good stuff.

Also, I didn't expect the process to take that long. 3 months seems like a long time for completing the hiring process for a company.

I have a question, what kind of prior experience to this did you have with Leetcode style questions?

Cheers 🍻

Thank you, Alex! Happy I could help, even a little bit.

Also, I didn't expect the process to take that long. 3 months seems like a long time for completing the hiring process for a company.

Most FAANG recruiters not only expected me to prep for their interviews but even encouraged me to do so. From my experience, it is quite normal for them.

I have a question, what kind of prior experience to this did you have with Leetcode style questions?

No experience.

Andrey Goncharov

Most FAANG recruiters not only expected me to prep for their interviews but even encouraged me to do so. From my experience, it is quite normal for them.

Basically the time you spend preparing for the interview is like a small internship 😂

No experience.

That's impressive. Getting up to the level of FAANG only after a few months of preparation considering you had a full time job as well. Hats off, dude 🎩

Truly amazing Stroy Andrey, Engaging all the way till the end. i am also thinking to migrate to Canada , your story really boosted my confidence,

thank you so much for sharing such an insightful journey!

Congratulations on your new role at Facebook!!

Hi Shashi! Thank you and good luck!

Great post, Andrey Goncharov

I’m just curious about the your skillset, we all know that each one of those FAANG works in a completely different tech-stack, did you feel that tech you’re experienced had any influence during the process? Or they were completely agnostic in that sense?

Thanks and congratulation on your new job!

Hi Rafael! Thank you! Answering your question, most of the companies mentioned were tech-agnostic. The only ones who tested my knowledge of a particular area (React) were Uber, Booking, and JP Morgan.

Good to know! Thanks Andrey Goncharov

Truly inspirational. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Loved it. Specially all the memes. Glad to have you here Andrey

I like to immigrate, preferably to Canada. But UK will be great as well.

This is amazing Andrey Goncharov!

Thanks for adding in-depth experience.

All the best for your new beginnings. ✨

Wow, that was incredible! Thanks for putting everything together.

Great tips and experiences.

Congratulations on your new job!!

Andrey Goncharov. This is amazing. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Awesome and engaging read Andrey! Congratulations on your new role at Facebook, I hope you will love London.

Oh, wow! It was great reading about your experiences and super motivating. Well done to you! 👏

Also, thanks for linking various resources in this article.

wow thanks for noting this all down Andrey, very helpful indeed.

What keeps bugging me... Why are the interviews like this?

Meaning, it comes down to a bit of luck, a lot of just stamping some basic solutions (you'll likely never use in your job) into. your head and give those as an answer?

and yet if you fail those, your level is not high enough?

At least this is what FAANG interviews sound like to me... And from what I read above,

In all honesty i just never got past middle tier companies, so my experience with these are 0. yet can't see to understand why one should need to learn basic answers from their mind over actual real world experiences?

Not to work you down, i'm sure you are a great dev, without having done all the leetcode stuff. And I want to end by congratulating you on your new job!

Thanks for reading! AFAIU, FAANG can accept a high rate of false negatives when they turn down someone who could do the job as long as it helps to minimize the false positives. It takes a long time to get acquainted with the process on the inside as there are so many internal tools. So it even makes sense to a certain degree. I, personally, learned a ton while doing Leetcode over those two months. I like thinking that it helped me to have a different perspective on some tasks I faced later at work. On the other hand, I see where you are coming from. It makes a lot of sense. I think, ultimately, the question does not matter as much as the interviewer. Some interviewers seem to have binary judgment. You either know a solution or you do not. However, some other interviewers give you small hints along the road and try to figure out how your brain works and how fast you can grasp new concepts. I truly loved being on a call with the second type of interviewers! I would say that the problem might be not with the process itself, but with how the process is approached. Thank you for your kind words!

Andrey Goncharov That makes sense, agreed it's also a thin line between who is interviewing and effort vs outcome.

Thank you for this amazing write up

Chris Bongers thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

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How I got multiple FAANG offers in Europe

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