
Ask HN: What is the hiring pipeline in top tech co's for the more experienced? - superpops
If you have ever worked for a large well regarded tech company, I&#x27;d like to hear a bit about how hiring and interview selection is done for more experienced people.<p>When I graduated college, working for a high paying tech company was never in my mind for the immediate future. I chose to play the long game- start out in small, low paying local business that need qualified people more immediately. So it came as a shock to me to learn that the high paying tech companies would rather optimize hiring for newbies than for more experienced professionals.<p>I know there is a huge pipeline for new grads at those companies. They need to grow talent organically and from that POV having 1 more year experience really doesn&#x27;t matter.<p>But after a while you won&#x27;t qualify for the new grad pipeline after that time, so it gets harder to join since the bar is higher. What is that bar like then? What experiences are expected out of a developer of 5 years? Or 10, or 15? Because as one gets more experience, the number of possible paths your career can take grows exponentially.
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Espressosaurus
I've been through the interview process at several of the majors now, and
there are some critical differences from when I was a new hire: a clear
emphasis on the entire product life cycle, a probing for you doing
requirements gathering for everything you're asked to do, and many behavioral
questions where they ask you about times you have done X or Y, and then
they'll drill into the situation, why you made the choices you did, how you
structured your solution, and the resolution (did it work or not). When I was
a new grad, there was much more emphasis on knowledge and coding type
questions because I had not yet had those experiences.

For what it's worth, I didn't make the cut as a new grad. I did as an
experienced engineer.

