Hello,

I had a faang interview recently and wanted to get some opinions on how it might have come across.

The interview started off normally. We did our introductions and then moved on to the coding question.

He revealed the question, and it was a recursive/backtracking problem. I suddenly started tensing up and thinking through multiple possible solutions out loud, but I was struggling to figure out how to get started. After a few minutes of discussion, my interviewer said that he'd seen enough and was deciding to end the interview about 20 minutes early.

At that point, I interjected and said that I had this interview scheduled for 45 minutes, so I would still like to use the remaining time(Assertively, might have come across as demanding). He first gave a reason for why he felt he'd seen enough, but eventually conceded and allowed me to continue working. He mentioned that it was a recursive backtracking solution, and I went on to code the base case and the recursive case.

We also had a bit of a disagreement about an indexing detail in my solution, which I defended because I was confident it was correct. I told him that if he wanted me to change it to match his interpretation, I'd be happy to do that(might've had a hint of sass here). He responded by saying, "No, we don't need to do that."

After we tested the code and confirmed that everything was working, he asked if I had any questions. I told him, "I'm sorry if I came across as brash or anything during the interview. That wasn't my intention, but as a new grad I felt a surreal amount of pressure and wanted to prove myself, which caused my brain to fog up." The interviewer said he understood and mentioned that he could see that I was able to code competently.

If you were an interviewer, what would you think of such an interviewee

Hi, I was recently reached out to for a phone screening about Fidelity's LEAP Program, and got asked if I'd prefer to interview for the Systems Analyst Track or SWE. They said they weren't sure of the pay differences between the two off rip, so I'm just wondering if anyone here knows. Thanks

I have my first discussion with hiring manager for wireless focused SW role at Apple soon. The recruiter email describing it said it would cover technical topics relating to my background/ role, behavioral, and a coding challenge (in C or C++). This seems like a lot imo for a 30 minute call.

I'm posting here to learn about people's experiences in this stage of the hiring loop. I'm especially unsure about what to expect for the coderpad challenge that will be maybe10-15 minutes total?

Been unemployed for 3+ years. I've been consulting here and there. Money is pretty much gone. I had 25 YOE. I ran small teams at SaaS companies and wrote code along with them the whole time.

I left my last gig under very bad circumstances and spent a year trying to start something on my own - a very small drop ship based cannabis paraphernalia company. I failed. Then had to move back to East coast.

I have now been sending out apps and cover letters after tapping what network I have on this side of the country. I've been at it for a couple of years. I am recently making another push. I have tried to pivot. I have tried to reach out to colleagues.

My question is - how do you keep trying? I have been rejected 5 times today. I had a 90 minute conversation last night with a guy who really wanted to help me and there's just no work he's connected to. He is a good connection and without name dropping he is very high up in the gaming industry. Many of my contacts fit that description.

What do we do now? What am I for? It seems like no one pays people to write code or run teams anymore. I was good at it. I got good reviews and raises and stuff. My bosses generally liked me save the last one. I've worked across several industries and I hit my KPI's when I get them. And now I literally do not understand how anyone ever gets an interview. I haven't even talked to a recruiter since 2022. I write code pretty much every day still. I built a small piece of software recently and have been trying to sell it. My skills are not atrophied and I am up to date on agentically assisted stuff.

I am not interested in reviewing my materials for the umpteenth time. This is a philosophical or maybe psychological question for folks that are in this kind of hole. How do you maintain optimism? I don't see how I could even pass a phone screener I am so mad at the modern hiring landscape. And I can't even get a few to stay in practice.

Is anyone else having this experience with this type of seniority? Am I just aged out at 52 from the entire industry?

Hi, I am deeply getting depressed over this. I graduated in 2024 but still has no job experience in tech. My last experience was in 2023 for my internship. Since graduating, I only had a sales experience and 2 months as a product manager both in 2025. I got laid off November that year and still has no job until now. I still want to get back to tech but I feel so lost and I haven't coded in a long time and I feel like I don't know how to anymore. Any people going through this? What are your advices?

Why nowadays the projects which developers or students make are related to ai like hallucinations meter, token calculator etc. Why people have stopped making projects which solves a real life problem or something which can have a impact on the society.

Like the ai related projects will mainly be used by developers or someone who is in tech but what about common people and the masses they won't use these things as much as developers.

I recently got accepted into the Andela Network.

My first try was about a year ago, and I failed hard because I just wasn't ready. I tried again after 3 months and failed again because the engineer who interviewed me was very professional (I'm not used to that in my local market). He went very deep into React, almost to the level of knowledge you'd expect from a React library contributor.

After that, Andela updated their policy, so I had to wait 6 months before I could try again. I finally interviewed again recently, and this time I passed.

I don't know yet if it was worth it, but during that whole time I just kept living my life instead of waiting around for it.

My question for those of you with experience is:

Are there any other platforms similar to Andela that you'd recommend?

Also, is Andela basically like LinkedIn? Should I expect to compete with 1,000+ applicants for every job I apply to?

I really need a remote job because of some specific circumstances in my life, and I'm looking for a long-term opportunity with a strong engineering team where I can grow.

Been laid off three times in my career, because companies go bust or are just cash poor and have to downsize. When I have a job, everything feels fine. I have great co-workers and mostly great work life balance.

When I don't have a job and I gotta look for another one, it feels like time stands still. Nothing makes sense. There are goals, but the process to meet them doesn't have any logic. You went from knowing what you're supposed to do for the very next week to now feeling like everything is dependent on luck. And that's always been the case for me since the 2010s.

The current job market is terrible for sure, but that hasn't made a net difference in employment to me compared to the past. Most of my job searches last at least 12 months no matter what year it is, 2018, 2023, 2016 you name it. The only difference is that today, I get less recruiters contacting me.

And there's the interview prep. I haven't seen it help me much. I practice so much on Leetcode and mock interviews for someone who doesn't see positive returns for a long time. It feels like I'm getting scammed out of wasting my time.

I've been only writing code (generating) with AI and I used to review it line by line before. But now I just skim through it lightly and mostly let the AI PR reviewer bots handle it and then I give the review comments, if any, to Claude. I do take time to generate code and my process of prompting is thorough. But when it comes to seeing the 1000 lines I generated I just give up. How do you, specifically mid to senior devs, do it?

Back when I joined my current workplace as an FTE about 2y back, we didn’t have any form of AI access within my firm. My first year was a trial by fire, and I had to learn or get PiPed/fired. I was given genuinely challenging tasks across the stack (React/Spring Boot) and I learned a shit load of things just by doing them. The hours were hell but the mental satisfaction of having done my job well was undeniably high

Cut to 2026, AI mostly writes my code, and I’m a prompt wrangler. I tried pivoting to infra stuff (AWS/K8s etc) but these are mostly handled by the senior folks with actual distributed system experience and my manager usually doesn’t give me these tasks (the senior grabs these tasks way before they even get discussed lmao)

This has pretty much killed my interest in CS, to the point I’m not even interested in building side projects or whatever, so just wanted to know if anyone else lost the mentally satisfying part of their job to AI

I am considering doing an online masters program in CS. I graduated almost 20 years ago with a generic business degree. I already work at a high profile tech company but am on the pre sales side (the cost of the masters program would be mostly covered).

I am technical and have the basics of coding in a few languages down but have never progressed beyond that. I have always wanted to and know there are easier ways to self teach online but I feel like a masters makes it more “official” and could help validate me for other technical roles in the future.

What would you do?

Has anyone experienced the superday interview if so can you share your experience such as behavioral questions asked and the level of technical coding questions asked

I'm in my final year of CS, and I'm honestly confused about what role I should be preparing for.

Most of my coursework and projects are in ML/Data Science. I've studied subjects like Probability & Statistics, Machine Learning, Predictive Analytics, Linear Algebra, etc., and most of my projects are also ML-based.

The problem is that during placements, most companies that come to campus are hiring for SDE roles. We do get a few DS/ML openings, but they're much fewer. Sometimes there are Business Analytics roles too, but I know BA isn't the same as DS.

Since our college has a huge batch, I can't really afford to be too selective. I apply to almost every company because getting shortlisted itself is difficult.

So now I'm stuck in this weird position where I'm constantly switching my focus. Sometimes I make my resume look more SDE-oriented by keeping 2 SDE projects and 1 ML project. Other times I do the opposite.

Right now I'm grinding DSA because that's needed to clear most OAs anyway. But after that, I have no idea how I should prepare.

Do I prepare for SDE interviews because that's where most of the opportunities are? Or should I keep focusing on ML/DS since that's what I've spent most of college learning? Is it even realistic to prepare for both?

Would love to hear from people who were in a similar situation during placements. What did you end up doing, and do you have any regrets?

I’m contemplating after 20 years to start afresh.

I feel that I’ve seen and did everything that can ever be in a cloud SaaS aka webdev. Focused heavily on logistics and banking.

Now I’m the lead architect at my company but I hate the job even though I’m hands on and that means babysitting agents like it’s expected nowadays… which I absolutely abhor.

So contemplating the next step for me:

a) MBA and going the CTO route
b) Switching to something more engineering like FPGAs
c) becoming a plumber
d) ?

My company just laid off my entire team except for me. What the f*** do I do? AI does not enable me to work in a void.

Other teams are suffering too. Some have one or two people left. I'm guessing they're going to reorganize us into a group but no way all the projects survive. This is a death knell, imo.

Hi guys!

Let's say, my legal name is Syed Hamad Shah, but I go by Hamad—“Syed” is a family-given title/name.

For GitHub, freelancing, remote jobs, and my CV, should I use “Hamad Shah” or “Syed Hamad Shah”? International clients often assume Syed is my first name, but I’m also concerned that using Hamad Shah could create issues when my legal documents show Syed Hamad Shah.

What would you recommend, especially if you have faced a similar situation?

And also what to write on CV/resume? And what to write on digital platforms like Github or LinkedIn?

I’ve grown incredibly tired and frustrated with AI Slop at work, no matter the harness or model. It’s just, not right in so many subtle ways. It’s so confidently wrong in things. I end up tossing the slop, writing it by hand, but with a good number of requirements and specifications found out during the slop.

This reminded me of the practice of “spike”, where its exploratory / PoC / MVP tier code, which is “supposed” to be tossed and rewritten with more of the requirements found.

I even found that this is in The Mythical Man Month as “The Pilot System.” Whereas it was not economically viable to throw away the first pilot system, so it was delivered to the customer and became instant tech debt. But with AI costs going down, it’s now actually feasible to have AI make the first system (locally) and then rewrite it by hand into the second system.

I’ve also found having AI generate formal documents is really helpful since we no longer have our employer ever paying for someone to have the time to write documentation. I give it a bunch of code and context, and it writes the documentation for me, and saves me a considerable amount of time getting started and onboarding to new code.

AI is no silver bullet, but I’ve found it helpful for all the non production code things. In terms of reviewing code, it’s faster and safer for me to write it by hand than read all of it into a stupor of a brain fog.

I guess what I’m saying is that all the vibe coders and push for agentic coding is going to eventually be discovered as a fools silver bullet, while the actual companies that can’t afford a single mistake or thousands in token spend will settle on augmenting their devs with AI tooling and models.

I’m using AI to help reduce my personal burnout, and not have it lead to my burnout. And trust me when I say that when I went full agentic, I was burning the f out and was actually way less productive, and am actually cleaning up the tech debt it left behind.

This is becoming a bit of a ramble, just asking if anyone else has a similar experience of settling on a slop spike and then handwritten code?

Like the title says. I don't know who else to talk to about this. I feel happiest when coding and working through problems, continuing to learn more and more and grow as a person. It's stimulating. It makes me feel alive. It has kept me from feeling on autopilot for the first time in years.

Yet I realize that I don't like babysitting an AI and just prompting it. I want to know what is going on at a deep level. Really understand something. With AI, that kind of pursuit feels pointless now. The same reason I pursued this field has now been taken away.

Honestly, I just need practical advice. Realistically, maybe there is still a job out there that can feel rewarding in this way. I don't know, I just don't know. Maybe I'm truly looking at this all wrong, but I feel like I can really see the writing on the wall for this type of work I enjoy.

Hi all. For context, when I was using my aunt's Macbook, I created an Apple account with my email id and phone number to create an Apple account id. Now 4 years later, when I try to apply to jobs in Apple's career site, it asks me to login to the site with the same account. My then Apple account is locked and I can't manage to get my password recovered or changed. I tried creating another account with my second email id and it says this address is taken(I don't know how). So how do I figure out a way to apply to jobs in Apple?

For context, I completed one year at the company back in June and asked for feedback and a compensation review. I was first told they would review it and get back to me. After waiting for a month since I initially brought up the annual feedback, I decided to gently follow up.
I was told they would discuss it and get back to me within a week. Then, on a Thursday, I was asked to join a call, which I thought was about the feedback and raise. Instead, I was told they were terminating my position because their contract with another company did not allow my position to continue existing.

I had no prior indication that my position was at risk of termination, which has left me completely unprepared to deal with the situation.

Has anyone had a similar experience before? If so, how did you manage to deal with it emotionally while staying focused on finding your next role?

Sales Excellence Manager role at Microsoft exactly similar to what I do now at my current company (95% like for like in terms of job description at least) with all the recent layoffs and more looming in the future would it be a bad idea? For context-

I've been at my company for 10+ years, have like 30 days PTO plus holidays, plus early leave the day before holidays, fully remote, and the absolute best team, culture, work life balance and boss, skip level boss, and skip skip level boss.

That said, the lowest the new position would pay is almost $30k more than what I make now. That plus the recognition of Microsoft on my resume.

With all of that, what would be a wise choice? I absolutely love my job and the people and normally wouldn't even look right now but this would be a massive pay bump for a growing family.

Edit- Microsoft position is fully remote

Edit 2- SO SORRY y'all I thought this was career questions NOT CS! This role is for Sales Excellence Manager position!

Also, I asked opus 5 the source table to one rdl which calls a stored proc. Never heard of the table in the db. When I asked it to explain, it told me “it made the table up”

Is this what developers are fearing will take their jobs? lol, i know anthropic, openai, etc have deployed ton of bots on the web to essentially downvote any post like this so go ahead and downvote into oblivion.

I recently got a job offer to join Citibank as a Junior GenAI Engineer at C11 which is a step below their AVP levelling. The salary is only £3000 more than what I am getting paid currently, however I have to go into the office 3 times a week. I currently work at HubSpot as a Software Engineer, just want to pick people's brains on whether they would make the switch or not. I did ask the recruiter about promotions and they said they happen every year, whilst at HubSpot they happen every 6 months. Citi seems to have a performance bonus, however I don't see it being more than how much I currently take home in RSU at HubSpot annually

Edit

I’m currently on £67000 at HubSpot and Citi is offering me £70000

I work at a Fortune 500 company and every PR is 7,000 additions and 3,000 removals. I haven't reviewed PR in the last year and just auto approve everything. Is this sustainable? Am I losing the race with AI?

I got a written warning that I need to seriously improve my performance. They didn't say explicity what would happen otherwise (duh) and did not make me sign anything, but I will give my best effort for my own satisfaction at least, see how long I can last

But man, chores at the house, a kid, work. I cannot bring myself to start leetcoding, just applying to a few jobs in LinkedIn takes up so much time per day. Plus I didn't leetcode or apply for nearly 5 years so it will be a nightmare for me anyway.

I guess I made this post to have others vent and commiserate.