from Hacker News

Ask HN: Advice for a Senior Front End Developer Aspiring to Join FAANG

by 2bor-2n on 5/30/24, 11:56 AM with 8 comments

I'm a senior frontend developer with 8+ years of experience, currently working for a consulting company. I moved to the Netherlands two years ago and now aspire to join a FAANG company. While I am proficient in React, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I don't feel entirely confident in my skillset for big tech companies.

I would appreciate advice on the types of applications or projects I should build to improve my skills and make my GitHub portfolio more appealing to FAANG recruiters. What projects would demonstrate my capabilities and align with what these companies are looking for?

  • by daviddever23box on 5/30/24, 1:18 PM

    Oddly enough, the fact that you want to work for a FAANG company might make you less attractive as a candidate, though don't let that dissuade you from applying.

    Secondly, front-end development from a pure programming perspective is less stable (with the rise of AI-assisted development) than the ability to communicate with stakeholders; you may have a superpower that you are in fact under-selling.

    Open-source projects are probably your best opportunity to demonstrate your skillset, with NDA-free client projects your second-best opportunity.

  • by ActorNightly on 5/31/24, 8:43 PM

    FAANG is pretty easy to get into as long as you do the following

    * Grind out leetcode medium and can do those well

    * Know your way around some fundamentals - i.e if you understand how React works under the hood and can code in raw Javascript for some advanced features, you will be fine

    * Have industry experience where you demonstrate self motivation to solve problems, or show off your personal projects that actually get use.

    I used to work at Amazon, and have 200+ interviews under my belt. The three most common causes for non inclined decisions are

    - inability to reason through coding problems. Most of the time, getting stuck is really not even a big issue, the bigger issue is if I give you a hint, and you are unable to comprehend what is being said and then reason through it to arrive a at a solution

    - experience falls into "I show up to work, do what Im told, go home". I.e no critical thinking being demonstrated

    - any of the tech that you talk about is very superficial. For example, following common practices for training ML models with pytorch isn't you having knowledge of ML.

  • by cebert on 5/30/24, 12:23 PM

    Why do you want to work for a FAANG company?