2. Work at non-FAANG companies for several years and develop strong software engineering skills: attention to detail, deep knowledge of one language, writing and maintaining unit tests and integration tests, giving and receiving code reviews, being oncall, sitting in on requirements meetings with customers, spending months implementing features, seeing some of them fail in production or fail with users, and deploying and owning a small service and being the go-to person on the team for it. This takes several years. Almost nobody can get a FAANG job without this experience.
Grinding leetcode is something to do for 2-3 weeks before your FAANG interview to brush up on algorithms. Leetcode cannot give you software engineering experience that FAANG interviewers look for.
It's really good that you recognize your bad social skills. You can improve them with effort.
I'm not sure. Programming is more within reach than FAANG is. Don't look at "getting into FAANG" as equivalent to "able to program". They are not at all the same.
I don't make FAANG money, but I make really good money. It's not enough to retire at 40, but it's enough to have a pretty nice life.
I have the same goals. I've been reading every "how to be a CEO" book I can find and I've written to every Fortune 500 asking to be their CEO. I have no interest in what any of these companies do. I have so far not received a single reply, so I guess it's time to make a post whinging about that on HN.
Sounds like you have the wrong motivations for a career in software engineering. No offence but I wouldn’t want to work with someone who is purely in it for the money and people can easily suss out that kind of attitude. If you don’t have passion for the job it’s going to be hard to succeed in your goals
Not a lot of employment options like that anywhere and in any field, outside of being an executive, pro athlete, or other one-off / superlative opportunity.
And even if you're not an E6 or "Principal" or something, the Big Name on a resume opens doors later.
Why do you think that leetcode was the core problem here? You got fired for performance reasons at a less competitive business. You spent thousands of hours learning the wrong thing.
There are many ways to retire early. Entrepreneurship, investing, hitting the jackpot at a startup. This FAANG focus may actually be detracting from your goal.
EDIT N> I see I might have misunderstood your post. You've been working on leetcode while at school and at your first job? Therefore the gap between the end of your first job and now is not five years? Okay, that's great! So ignore this part...
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Think of the opportunity cost of not making (I assume) decent money as a programmer at the start of your career. With five years of programming experience on the job, you might have been able to land a team lead or high-level individual contributor role, with all the compensation and marketable skills that come with. Extra disposable income invested in low-risk equities like index funds over the last five years would have had a huge return.
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Or, for that matter with a few years experience on real projects at real shops, you would have the skills that might actually get you into FAANG now.
This is actually making me a bit angry at Leetcode for possibly misrepresenting the utility or importance of their product.
Given all that you've said, I would suggest getting out there and getting any programming job that isn't losing you money to build up your finances, resume, and network. You had one bad experience -- don't let it define you. People get fired because their manager had a fight with their partner the night before. There's a huge amount of random noise, and FAANG, leetcode scores, even performance reviews are not a particularly strong reflection on you or good estimators of your future prospects.
This school -> leetcode -> FAANG pipeline simply isn't how the real world works. Sorry!
EDIT> Social skills are learnable to at least a competent level, and the number one way to get contacts is to work more jobs. I used to be too shy to hand out my business card -- now it's super easy. A friend of mine is neuro-atypical and has massive social anxiety, but has worked as a bartender in the past -- all just scripts and social "macros".
EDIT2> Good Luck! Don't give up on programming, but take care of yourself, and maybe take a break. Maybe work on a coding project that you find interesting but that has no goal or ulterior motive.
EDIT N+1> It was typical when I graduated to do anything and everything to get 2 years of professional experience, and then to go for your desired job. The experience outweighed any other concern w.r.t hiring. So I definitely wouldn't give up after one bad experience. Also, I suggest you recalibrate your expectations to work up to FAANG by getting jobs at other companies first. It's almost certain that real on-the-job experience will count for much more than scores on some programming site.
Friend told me that they had serious social anxiety. Also they're on the spectrum. One on one they seemed quiet when we first met, but not pathologically so. However, when we're out and about they tend to not speak to anybody, whereas I'll say 'hi' to my neighbours. In small groups, they tend to be super-quiet and to self-medicate with alcohol.
So, I was really surprised to find out that they had worked as a bartender. I can't give specific recipes, but there are forms to a lot of small-talk. That's what I mean by "macros". Of course, misfiring can lead to the hilarious/awkward interactions like "Happy Birthday! Thanks, you too! Doh!"
Things like looking at areas of the face that aren't eyes sporadically can help with making at least intermittent eye contact, if that's uncomfortable for you.
This seems to get better with age, although not to go away. You just develop more habits and skills. As I said, I used to be too shy to hand out my business card at first, but it just becomes a habit. You can practice it.
On the one hand, viewing social skills as skills to be learned can help, but it can also lead to IMO anti-social behaviour like PUA. If other people see you as trying too hard or being formulaic, that's a turnoff. With PUA, there's a nasty undercurrent.
Sorry, I don't have anything more concrete. Maybe this -- take small steps to get out of your comfort zone, almost like desensitization training. Don't do it all at once so you don't freak out, and don't beat yourself up too hard if you get embarassed about how you think others are reacting to you. If people are actually shitty to you, then hang out with better people.
After COVID, I think I'm going to try to do some standup comedy. The thought of bombing in front of an audience is terrifying, but also kind of delicious. I love those incredibly awkward scenes in TV shows or movies where you're dying inside for the characters. Maybe you can just go meta on awkward/embarassing situations and pivot from awkward to hilarious.
EDIT> What about framing the problem as writing scripts / playbooks for a chatbot, except that chatbot is you. Do little teeny tests, bit by bit, expanding your comfort zone / social envelope.
You took away the wrong lesson from his post. But if you are autistic (I get a feeling you are, as so am I) , you should look for institutions who help autistic adults learn social skills. These are dependant on your location, and up for you to find, I'm afraid.
I don't think it's for you or anyone else to determine what the appropriate take away from something is unless I made a purely a logical error. The person mentioned a variety of points and the most unique and helpful one was the one on social skills. Many other people have suggested all the other points the author has mentioned already and I have considered them.
I am interested in your story as well though. I am not autistic, but I think I have the similar defects that could be resolved with similar solutions. Could you give me an example of such an institution?
Trust me, you sound quite autistic. Seek help, therapy assists in seeing yourself from different angles, and realise life and yourself in ways you haven'tbefore. It helped me become a whole pperson, and move in a better direction.
Non-FAANG/Leetcode money is very good too. Check out http://levels.fyi or AngelList and you'll probably find a few that have different recruiting methods.
If you have the grit to stick it out, you could consider working with legacy code too.
Have you ever built a product yourself? I will be honest with you, I just use the python standard library for algorithms. I don't even remember what kind of sorts there are. They don't matter much in the grand scheme of things. What matters is whether you can build and ship something. This is how Valve evaluates applying engineers too, by the way. Finished project list first.
I have no credentialist upbringing.
There are other things that are limiting me. I have no network and bad social skills.