Unemployed for past 10 months, any slightest chance for consideration into FAANG?
Hi, I'm from India. I have been unemployed since February 2024 following a layoff from my last job as a Full-Stack Developer (4+ years of experience). After that experience, I decided it was time to move away from startups and their unbalanced lifestyle. My goal is now to secure a role at a FAANG company (only in the U.S.) and nowhere else. I have savings that will last me about six months to support this transition.
Initially, I planned to focus on Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA), an area where I had very limited knowledge. After reading a few posts on LinkedIn (mainly from influencers), I mistakenly believed that three months of preparation would be sufficient for technical interviews. I now realize I was wrong. It's been 10 months, and while my DSA skills have improved to an "OK" level, I still don't feel confident. My System Design skills are also at an OK level.
I've been applying to FAANG and other companies, but I keep facing rejections. I suspect this may be due to the employment gap or the lack of big-name companies on my resume.
What I'm doing to bridge the gap:
- Working on side projects that demonstrate my skills in System Design, Databases, Programming Languages, Distributed Systems, and Microservices.
- Building a mini-startup that I can showcase on my resume, allowing me to highlight my Full-Stack development knowledge.
My goal:
I'm aiming for at least an L4 role at Netflix or a Full-Stack position at Google or Apple.
With this employment gap, is it bold or foolish to still aim for FAANG?
I’d love to hear any suggestions that could help me get shortlisted.
Discussion
(8 comments)- 2
10 days agoHelpful TarodactylTaro CommunityWith how rough the tech market is, I don't think you have the luxury to choose. You should probably aim for everything. Once you get a job you can transition to FAANG later. Going FAANG or bust at this point will only bury yourself deeper, especially since you have a 10-month gap.
- 1
10 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroQuick question: Are you currently in India or the US?
If you're already in the US from the prior job and you have some time left on a visa, then getting a US job is feasible (but tough).
If you're trying to jump from India to the US, this is going to be pretty much impossible.
- 010 days agoMid-Level Software Engineer [OP]Unemployed
I'm from India and yes I'm trying to jump to US after I got to know that one of the former senior android engineer who did the same with Meta, but I do wonder how he cracked the DSA & System Design in 45 days. It's been 4yrs since he has done that.
- 010 days agoMid-Level Software Engineer [OP]Unemployed
I do understand he might be having previous experience doing LeetCode or he might have put in more effort
- 110 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
If you're currently in India, I think a more feasible path is as follows:
- Get into a Big Tech company in India (ideally Bangalore)
- Establish yourself as a high performer in this India branch
- Request for a transfer to a US office
This strategy is way more likely to succeed as you have proven to the company over a long period of time that you can add meaningful value, making their decision to invest immigration resources into you a much smaller risk.
To make the direct jump via an interview (i.e. how to get shortlisted as you mentioned before), you would need some absolutely incredible accomplishment like building a side project with 500k+ users. I made a course on that path, but it will take a while, at least several months (and that's just to break 10k users).
- 010 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
With this employment gap, is it bold or foolish to still aim for FAANG?
I would say it's both. Instead of foolish, I would frame it as "overly aspirational".
To be 100% honest, your chances of getting into FAANG right now are close to 0. However, that's totally fine! Everyone's career is a marathon, not a sprint. As Helpful Tarodactyl mentioned earlier, you should find whatever job you can and work your way up. Some people take 8, 12, or even 15+ years to get into FAANG. Others never work at FAANG and have even better career paths (a lot of the early Robinhood folks I know did that).
Tactically, I think you are making a mistake a lot of engineers make where you are focused on passing interviews (system design, LeetCode grind) when you should be focusing on getting interviews. You should take at least 5 hours to look through your resume and LinkedIn and polish it up. Follow the advice here: [Course] Get More Interviews: Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer
After that, I highly, highly recommend the overall job searching course to set up the proper mentality and overall strategy. Please go through the entire thing: [Course] Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer
Best of luck!
- 010 days agoMid-Level Software Engineer [OP]Unemployed
you should find whatever job you can and work your way up
This is what I've done all my life moving from one startup to other, In the end either the startup runs out of money or I get burnout due to extreme stress working 14 - 16hrs a day. No proper mentorship from seniors(literally treating us like idiots without respect), broken higher-level management including the Founders.
Thought to aim for a mid-level product based companies but they too demand DSA & Sys Design skills almost equivalent to FAANG.
Have to bet on the next startup and it's structure to avoid the resume gap, looks like it is the only way. - 110 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
There are good companies outside of FAANG, especially for work-life balance (FAANG generally has pretty bad work-life balance, so it's not too hard to beat). When you get interviews, particularly behavioral ones, make sure to reverse-interview them to get a sharp read on work-life balance: "How possible is it to spot red flags about toxic culture during the interview?"
