Comments by "iorekby" (@iorekby) on "The 5 HIGHEST PAYING Tech Companies (for software developers)" video.

  1. These interviews are just about some of the toughest interviews in the world IMO. The acceptance rate is insanely low. You really have to know your stuff back to front. Put it this way: Would you be comfortable writing code for up to 1 hour just off the top of your head? That's often part of the interview for these companies, they ask you to code in real time while they watch you. I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm just saying you need to be exceptional. I personally know people with PhDs in CS, who have coded professionally for a few years, who have failed to get past even the first part of an interview for Google or FB.
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  2. @robno Bingo! I think it was Josh who made a video along the lines of "$60k in Arkansas is more than $100k in Silicon Valley" because of the cost of living differences. I personally know one person from Ireland who left the Valley atre 8 years of working there, took a 30% pay cut to come back to Ireland but had far, far more money as a result. Plus, people who code in the Valley/Bay Area for big companies are usually the best of the best. A taxi driver and a F1 driver both drive cars for a living. The taxi driver makes a lot less than an F1 racing driver though, because the F1 racing drivers are elite. I sometimes think people who have just gotten in to coding don't realise it when they watch these videos: Sure the money is mouth watering, but many of the people coding in these big companies in SV/Bay Area are the top 1% of engineers. People with PhDs in CS and 10 years of professional coding experience who've struggled to land jobs at those companies, let alone self taught coders who have only just finished some JS tutorials on CodeAcademy.
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  3. They do seem to have a solid staff turnover, and a lot of former employees seem to be glad they left. Plus $200k seems a lot, but say you are at Google HQ... you lose about 75k in income tax. You can lose about 16k in 401k contributions. That leaves you with about $109k a year. The average cost of living in SF/SV for a single person is about $5200 a month, or about $62500 a year. And that's just living, it's not spending money on hobbies etc... So you'll end up with just over $40k a year to play with. Which you'll hardly get to spend as you'll be in work all the time because you work at a big tech company after all. Until you get burnt out /leave the cult after 2 years.
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  4.  @wilburtmoreno469  Well, you have the right attitude at least! The key thing it seems for these interviews is know your algos and your preferred language back to front. Clement's channel has some good stuff on this.
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  5. I had a quick check for 5 FB Principle Engineers on Linkedin. They all had a least 10 years professional coding engineering experience prior to working at FB. And not just at some small IT department or in a small tech company. They all had 10+ years in big companies, including Nvidia, Google, VMWare, IBM and Amazon. They also include a PhD in CS from the University of California and a Masters in CS grad from KIT. And here is the common factor: All had at least a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering from good universities Sure, you don't need a CS or EE degree to be a programmer. But to be an elite engineer at a top tech company? I'd say it's essential.
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  6. No such thing really and language popularity is always in flux. You might spend the next 3 years learning Python, but by 2023 people might be using Python less. Try not to play that game. Instead, focus on 2 criteria: 1) What language do you enjoy using the most? 2) What language can you use to learn deeper concepts about Computer Science/Engineering? For some that might be Python. Or JS. Or C++. Or Swift. Programming is tough going sometimes, so working with a language you enjoy will help keep your motivation up.
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