1) I’ve had a career in tech for—holy shit, way too long. I’ve never had an interview that was terribly close to a FAANG-type one. I’ve also never had a hiring process take more than a week from interview to offer.
2) I don’t make FAANG money but I’ve consistently earned 2.5x+ median for a person my age in my area (I’m in like a 3rd tier US city, couple million people, several tech headquarters, a couple of which are household names)
3) FAANG interviews are a game. The point of how awful it is and how prep-necessary is to selection-bias the pool so the vast majority of candidates are suitable, to select for only those who want it bad enough (and/or have lots of free time), to make jumping to peer companies difficult to keep wages down (if that last weren’t the case, they’d find a way to stop doing it for people who’d already passed it one or more times—the process is expensive) and finally to build esprit de corps via hazing (hazing is very effective at that). Don’t take it personally.
2) I don’t make FAANG money but I’ve consistently earned 2.5x+ median for a person my age in my area (I’m in like a 3rd tier US city, couple million people, several tech headquarters, a couple of which are household names)
3) FAANG interviews are a game. The point of how awful it is and how prep-necessary is to selection-bias the pool so the vast majority of candidates are suitable, to select for only those who want it bad enough (and/or have lots of free time), to make jumping to peer companies difficult to keep wages down (if that last weren’t the case, they’d find a way to stop doing it for people who’d already passed it one or more times—the process is expensive) and finally to build esprit de corps via hazing (hazing is very effective at that). Don’t take it personally.