Victor Chen

A few years ago, I wrote a post on Quora about interview process for Principal Engineer role at Amazon. In that post, I shared my own experiences as the recruiter owning that hiring process, as well as tips from other Principal Engineers who had been through the process. Even today, I get weekly emails and messages from senior engineers who saw that post and want to learn more about the Amazon interview. We often end up talking about more than just Amazon. We discuss career development and interview skills in general. I really enjoy those conversations! Since 2017 (when I wrote the Quora post), Amazon has created several helpful resources to prepare candidates for their interviews. Here below are those "official" interview prep materials. I hope you find them useful. Feel free to share them with your friends who are getting ready for job interviews. The Original Quora post: https://lnkd.in/gGVBsJfn Amazon Interview Prep Repo: https://lnkd.in/gnnanGCz Now that you have a starting point, in coming weeks, I plan to write about the "softer skills" that are hard to measure but can really make a difference in interviews. I will expand on those topics. I will breakdown topics like "technical leadership assessment in interviews", authenticity, dealing with ambiguity, "active listening during interview", and other topics. I will write about 'interview preparation' itself! DM, email me on what other 'non-obvious' topics you want me to write about? PS: I'll try to keep my writing practical and broadly applicable, even though my experience is mostly with Amazon. 😀 #interviewing #careeradvise #careergoals #careertransition #interviewpreparation #interviewtips #principalengineer #amazon #amazoninterview

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I’ve worked at Google, Hike, and Amazon in the last 8+ years of my career, and I’ve grown a lot in this time, but If I could start over again… These would be 17 things I wish I could tell myself as a junior engineer in my 20s: 1. Consistency beats occasional bursts of work. Staying steady will get you further than short sprints of effort.  2. Anyone can learn to code, so don’t stop because things feel tough now. Keep pushing it gets easier with time.  3. Surround yourself with others who are also growing. Growth is contagious when you have the right circle.  4. Take on projects that stretch your abilities. The real learning happens outside your comfort zone.  5. Freelancing is more than just coding; you’ll need to understand business too. Be prepared to wear both hats.  6. When sharing your screen, take the lead. It shows confidence and keeps the session moving.    7. Git is your best friend, so get comfortable with it. It will save you from endless headaches.  8. Learn how to learn quickly. Adapting fast is the key to staying relevant in tech.  9. Mistakes are part of the game don’t stress over them, just learn and move on.  10. Be action-oriented. Start somewhere, even if things aren’t perfect, and figure it out as you go.  11. Ask questions fearlessly. There’s no such thing as a silly question, and it’s how you grow.  12. Take time to fully understand the problem before jumping into code. This will avoid a lot of rework later.  13. Good coding practices and clean design patterns prevent messy, unmanageable code. Simple processes also scale better and break less.  14. Reading documentation is an underrated skill. Master it, and you’ll solve problems much faster.  15. Basic design knowledge goes a long way; you never know when it’ll come in handy.  16. Work at a startup at least once in your career. You’ll learn things no other environment can teach.  17. Don’t compare your career with others. Everyone’s journey is different, and comparison only slows you down.  

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I’m convinced that SF 🇺🇸 is the place to be right now. Innovation is constantly happening. The talent density is incredible, with ambitious people surrounding the city, all driven by a shared sense of pushing humanity forward. People work extremely hard—pulling 100-hour work weeks —for the problems, they’re passionate about solving and catching a rocket? Sure, that inspires me a lot. In India, there are a lot of really ambitious people, but the ecosystem doesn’t have the same relentless drive. Working 70-hour weeks is seen excessive, and there’s a “crab mentality” at its core. It’s more about “not working” or not being “all in.” This is especially true in startups, where the only advantage is sheer speed, and where things need to be shipped quickly to get ahead. But in india, people too lazy—they want fixed hours, coming in and leaving at certain times (and this applies even to those under 25). There’s little talk of changing the world or pushing the human race forward. The urgency to build and innovate simply isn’t there. They are not builders, they are consumers. As Sam Altman said that - human potential is getting lost solely because they are in a bad company, or in a bad country that doesn't support their dreams. Right now, SF has it all: talent, innovation, hustle, AI—everything in one place. This is the time to be there.

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Learning resources for software engineers looking for their next job: 1. Follow Alex Xu and Sahn Lam on LinkedIn. They have lots of great infographics for fundamental concepts and systems design. Scroll through their recent posts and dive deeper in anything you don't understand. 2. Follow Neo Kim on LinkedIn as well for more systems design content. Neo's content seems great for mid-level and senior engineers. For example, here's a post where he lists a bunch of systems engineering case studies: https://lnkd.in/g2R2Pqai 3. Follow John Crickett for content about building your personal brand, improving your coding skills, and developing soft skills as a software engineer. He and I have chatted a few times in comments and he also seems like a really genuine guy. 4. Follow Steve Huynh for advice on managing your career. In the last few days, he's written about soft skills, navigating job offers, and dealing with complexity as a SWE. Lots of really good advice to be found here. 5. For Leetcode preparation, check out Navdeep Singh. He created neetcode.io, which is a fantastic resource for organizing Leetcode studying. It has a free roadmap that you can use to find which data structures and algorithms to study first (as well as which problems to practice). --- Hi! I'm Jonathan, a software engineer based in Ann Arbor, MI. For the month of November, I'm trying to help laid off software engineers land on their feet and find a new job. If that's you, send me a connection request and let's chat.

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Well said. The alarmism around AI replacing software engineers often overlooks the complexity of our role. While AI tools like Devin are impressive, they are assistants, not replacements. 𝟏. 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝟐. 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝟑. 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬. 𝟒. 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧-𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. AI will definitely reshape our workflows, but it won't replace the need for skilled engineers. Instead, it may allow us to focus more on high-level problem-solving and innovation. Arvind Telharkar 👏

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Distinguished Engineers (E9) at Meta make $4m/year. That's 16x the Bay Area median ($255k) Let's break it down [output = input x leverage] We all have 24 hours in a day, so there is a cap on [input] But hey, let's say they manage to have 2x-3x more focused time, so their [input] is 2x-3x There is still 5.3x-8x to go And that's [leverage] Here is the [leverage] they have: 1️⃣ Writing Every piece of text they write is clear to everyone, and they write a lot, for a lot of people 2️⃣ They create something from nothing And that something has clear value to the business 3️⃣ They influence other Engineers around them They are often described as having a "Midas Touch" in terms of their ability to uplift and develop other Engineers around them The best indicator is that the Engineers in their teams get promoted faster 4️⃣ They are well known and have an impact beyond Meta, promoting the brand 5️⃣ They have industry-leading experience in some areas There are rumoured to be <50 E9s at Meta

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SWEs, please learn from my mistakes. Someone should, it cost me over a million dollars. I’ve been interviewing for over 6 months for Android roles in the Bay Area, applied to 100+ jobs, received 100+ rejections, and done 20+ technical interviews. Coding ability is essential, but there are other factors one must consider in the interview process that will obfuscate your true value from interviewers. At the end of the day, it’s about how competent you appear to that other person. Without further ado, Here are my top 5 Dumb Interview mistakes, their lessons, and their costs: 1. Mistake: Getting the time complexity of an algorithm wrong. Lesson: In technical interviews, demonstrating your approach, knowledge, and problem-solving process can be as important as reaching the solution itself. Cost: $300K/year (Meta) 2. Mistake: Showing up prepared for a different interview than the one that was given. Lesson: Always clarify interview details ahead of time—ask the recruiter questions at least two days before if no guide is provided Cost: $250K/year (DoorDash) 3. Mistake: Not being prepared for technical questions during a manager meeting Lesson: ALWAYS be prepared for a technical interview, at EVERY stage. Cost: $250K/year (X) 4. Mistake: Running code in an unfamiliar IDE, and it failing (I was prideful and optimistic) Lesson: Check if you’ll use your own IDE, and make sure you’re comfortable running code in it to avoid awkward mishaps. Cost: $150K/year (Assembled) 5. Mistake: Not reading all of the given material on the company Lesson: Show genuine interest in the company—doing your research and engaging with their materials can make a big difference. Cost: $200K/year (Wealthfront) Total Potential Cost: $1.2 Million/year These sound like common sense lessons, they are, but there is a difference between hearing a lesson and understanding it in practice, which is why I included the costs. Anyways, I hope that you remember these lessons the next time you interview! (I am still looking for Android roles in the Bay Area, by the way)

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Are you a STEM graduate and/or an alien with extra ordinary ability with significant contribution to the US economy and have been stuck in decades long queue for the US Permanent Residency? Have you ever considered filling EB1A Permanent Residency petition, which is 10 times faster than the other employment-based visa petition categories? Have you been told that You can achieve EB1A only if you have won prizes like Oscar or Pulitzer and/or are PHD’s with published scholarly articles with X number of citations. If you fall into anyone of the above-mentioned categories, then read on. At https://lnkd.in/gqftFCAb, we are here to break the myths and help the individuals with Extra Ordinary Ability to highlight your professional achievements and create a pathway to your US immigration Journey. Read my article on “Navigating US immigration as a high-skilled immigrant” via https://lnkd.in/gm9a9nZ8. #EB1A #AliensWithExtraOrdinaryCapabilities #USGreenCard #immigrantstories #immigration ____________________________________________________________________________  I'm Ankit, a Health IT leader and an EB1A Discovery Coach. For various EB1A Visa Tips and tips, you can visit my website https://lnkd.in/gqftFCAb If you are ready to explore EB1A Visa and would like to set up a discovery session to identify the steps you can take towards your EB1A Journey, then you can set up a discovery session with me via the URL below. I am looking forward to collaborating with you on your EB1A discovery journey. https://lnkd.in/gcMxuQk9   You can follow us on our social media handles: YouTube Channel Name: EB1Advisory Instagram: @EB1ADVISORYSERVICES X: @EB1Advisory Disclaimer: The services provided by "EB1 Advisory" and "Ankit Agarwal" are for informational purposes only and do NOT substitute legal advice or opinion. Please contact your immigration attorney for legal inquiries. 

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Hard skills can be learned on the job, but soft skills must be groomed over a lifetime. Algorithm design can be learned on the job by working alongside people who do it every day, but effective communication or mentorship isn't as easy to pick up.

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A software engineer at Apple commented on my post about Referrals, saying my referral at Visa isn’t worth much since I’ve been at the company for only 1.5 years. This is the same person who asked me for an informational call earlier. I had no words. On another post of mine about not getting selected in the H1B lottery, a senior software engineer at Microsoft called me stupid for having wasted my father’s entire PF on my education. When I called him out, he promptly deleted his comment. Again, I was left a little speechless. Rather than everyone having an opinion on what people should post about on LinkedIn, I think they should be more concerned with how they respond to someone else’s post. Don’t you think so? You can disagree with people on LinkedIn without disrespecting them. Is that so bizarre an idea? It’s so simple, and yet I find professionals unable to do so on a professional platform! I often wonder if that’s how they talk to their colleagues as well? Whether linkedin writers post a selfie with each post, or write a generic post, or write 5 lines as a post or an essay (like I do), or post a picture with “agree?”, I often see people making fun of them in a post of their own with a selfie posted as a parody! Whether someone chooses to talk about a sensitive issue or about a vain one, it’s no one’s business. Whether or not they are adding value to the platform, is no one’s business (as long as they aren’t scamming)! Whether someone posts memes or tech news or case studies is no one’s business. LinkedIn is an equal opportunity platform and a democratic one! So, yes, you get to utilise it in a manner which makes sense to you, but the only thing you should keep in mind is how you’re treating others on this platform. Yes, the right to disagree with a post is your prerogative, but to be disrespectful while making an uneducated comment is no one’s entitlement. What makes a person professional is not whether they are posting a selfie or not. It’s how they respond to another person’s post, especially when they disagree. It’s disheartening to see people passing judgements, name calling, mocking someone, liking their own hateful comment! It’s hilarious, but hurtful if it happens to you! Any comment you write is visible to your entire professional network as well as your entire potential network. You are only hurting yourself by being disrespectful. It’s not hard. It just requires a moment’s pause. It’s a small world, and if nothing else, then at least consider the possibility that you may be called to an interview with or work in the same team as someone whom you insulted today in an egoistic manner on a public platform just for a few likes. It might help change your perspective. :) P.S. I’m Shreya Mishra, a student turned TPM at Visa. I talk about my experiences as an international student & professional in the U.S., and I also call out trollers from time to time! Follow along to keep learning with me! 😃

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When I left Apple, I got a 50% pay raise, and unknowingly left millions of upside on the table… After getting laid off from my first full time job in tech, I was very excited and relieved to land at Apple, a company I had long admired. It was my first job in BigTech and I learned a lot about company culture during my time there. My salary there was a bit smaller than my prior role. But, on the perks/benefits side of things, the company was very generous. Google was just emerging from the garage phase of life, so the whole BigTech compensation arms race hadn’t really started yet. My former director from my first job recruited me to the company she had joined, which was a younger public tech company that seemed to be doing pretty well, and had survived the dotcom bust. She was looking for a tech lead for the web team, which was working on the corporate web site, the marketing lead-gen system and the customer support portal - lots of stitching internal systems together in the database layer. After going through technical interviews with the team members, she made me an offer - one I seemingly couldn’t refuse. It was 33% more salary, 50% more bonus and more stock options annually. Topping that off, she wanted to support my growth as a team lead and eventually provide an opportunity to try out management. So, I decided to go. There were many reasons for me to make the leap - fantastic manager, growth opportunity, and compensation. But, the main point of this post is that compensation can be tricky to gauge head-to-head. If I had only gone for the compensation, it would have been the wrong decision. It turns out that the Apple stock options I left behind would have been worth multi-millions by the end of the vesting schedule. After I left, the stock split and then split again after a short time and continued to go up quickly in value. Stock compensation in a public company with a solid track record is almost as sure as cash. No, it is not certain, and you have to make your vesting cliffs. But, it is vastly different from pre-IPO shares. And, if you get RSUs that are vesting quarterly or monthly, that is basically cash compensation. The good news is that I took that 50% pay raise and used it to start building wealth. I did not change my standard of living, but instead increased and diversified my stock market investments, maxed out my retirement accounts (401K and IRA) and started on an accelerated pay-down of my home mortgage. Had I finished 5 years at Apple, I likely would have been financially independent early in my career. Instead, I had a very fun job for a few years, got the career development I was looking for, and learned financial discipline.

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Learn to cook! It will help you survive away from home

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"Are you worried about ageism?" I asked a friend this recently as we talked about job searching. It's a common concern in tech companies to be concerned that your employability declines once you reach a certain age. It's debatable what age that is, though in California people over 40 are considered a protected class similar to women and minorities. Here are a few tips to mask your age on LinkedIn 1. Eliminate the year off of your education. While not everyone goes through college at the same age, a large majority do, and your age can be inferred from your year of graduation. 2. Remove some of your historical job experiences. Even though you might be proud of your full job history, no one really cares what you did more than 5-7+ years ago. Eliminate your earlier roles to focus attention on what you've done recently and not your age. 3. Reconsider listing your years of experience in an executive summary. This may draw too much attention to how experienced you are. For me, I think the cutoff is 15 years, perhaps a stretch for 20 or down to 10 years. 4. Remove old recommendations. Linkedin did a big push some years ago to encourage recommendations, people may have some. Still, recommendations from 5-7+ years ago, while they may be wonderful, aren't as helpful as recent recommendations. Get some fresh ones for your profile and hide the older ones from view. What tips do you have to combat ageism as you search for jobs? #hiringtips #ageism

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More bad news for OPT and H1B workers. Canada has paused their program for at least 3 years due to the massive amount of tech workers coming in after US tech layoffs. That leaves very few employers open to hiring any kind of Visa workers. If you have a job don’t quit. If you don’t find a company like Amazon or Microsoft who can shoulder the cost and burden of bringing you on. Also be prepared to beat out all citizen workers for your spot. I teach Amazon loop classes which will help you ACE the soft skills but I can’t do much on tech tests. For that lean on the open source community on blind, leetcode, and levels. For affordable loop classes shoot me an email. [email protected] Understand I can’t promise anything but if you want to stay give it your best shot. #h1b #opt #visa

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Here's a bit of an unexpected update from my side: my recent job offer from a leading tech company was unexpectedly retracted. After completing four rounds of interviews and even saying no to other opportunities, the hiring manager let me know that they no longer need to fill the position. It’s a bit of a shock and certainly disappointing. I had already stopped my job search, so now I'm gearing up to start over. It's a big setback, but I’m determined to keep pushing forward. I'm sharing this on LinkedIn to maintain transparency about the ups and downs of my career path. If anyone has leads or can connect me with potential opportunities, I would really appreciate it. I’m keen to explore any new roles that are out there. Also, I’d love to hear from others who have gone through similar challenges. What strategies did you find helpful to overcome them? #careerjourney #careergrowth #softwareengineering #classof2024

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Hot take: Google might be losing out on many amazing engineers because of their interview process. For the last few years, we have seen many inconsistent launches at Google. Once a pioneer in software engineering (still is), something feels broken. First, it started with the poorly handled layoffs where many veteran googlers were laid off without any proper notice or smooth transition. Then, there were some high profile voluntary exits from the company across various core teams (Eg. Core flutter devs). Some of them went on to publicly criticize the culture changes over the years. After that came the AI catch up and mishaps. Google looked like it's falling behind OpenAI and Microsoft. Google Bard launch was rushed and didn't go well with users and investors. Most recently, the AI image generation issues happened. Amidst all this, there have been a series of redundancy/branding issues (remember Google Meets, Google Duo and Google Hangouts, all doing similar things?) and big product shutdowns (Stadia, Domains, etc.) These are a few things I could recollect at the top of my mind. The question to ask: Do Google's hiring practices have an impact on these culture shifts? I often come across some really good engineers who never apply to Google (because of their hiring process) or give the Google interview and fail to crack it but are able to crack other FAANG like companies. I have also seen many Googlers who actually crack the interview after 2-3 attempts or more. Why is this the case? 1. The interview process is long. You'd normally be given 2 weeks to upto 2 months of "prep time", because let's face it, almost no one can solve a Leetcode hard question in 30 mins without proper practice. 2. Then, you have multiple rounds, solely focusing on DSA style questions. You might be asked to write clean code in a Google doc based editor. So, you have to memorize syntax and code refactoring patterns too. 3. There is a team matching phase after you clear the interviews, which takes extra time. So, often, you will be giving a general interview and not team specific. Who are the people who stand the best chance to clear this process and actually join? [Continued in comments]

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