I’ve done a whole lot of engineer recruiting and interviewing (while working as a very senior-level IC) for a number of big tech companies, including a large Seattle-based one.
It’s weirdly bimodal—if you’ve got a “standard” resume and credentials, your inbox is already filled with recruiters spamming you. If you have a different history (and the awesome but unusual position of founder/enterpreneur is an example), the standard recruiters won’t know how to deal with you, and the senior talent recruiters (those seeking Staff and Principal engineers) won’t let you into their filters without some effort.
Everyone will assume you like doing what you’ve been doing—so somewhat hardware/firmware focused, which is more niche than you may actually be looking for. Don’t put too much thought into your resume, but do be clear in the intro paragraph what your range of desired domains looks like, and highlight your non-tech-keyword strengths (success in product solving, technical product direction, etc.).
After that, hit up LinkedIn pretty hard (OMG it’s an embarrassing site, but it is where a whole lot of hiring happens) - it should be easy to connect with recruiters at big and small companies, and just ask if they’ve got a few minutes to talk about what their company/team does and how you might fit. Some of them will give much better feedback before a formal application and interview, some will just say “here’s the link to apply”, but you probably won’t be ghosted very often.
Also, browse the big company job sites (almost always jobs.whateversite.com) to see if you can distinguish at all among their thousands of twisty little job postings, all alike. Pick 1-3 (at random if necessary), and apply. Your goal here is to just get to an interview, just to see what it’s like and practice. If you get an offer, and the salary/title is anywhere close to reasonable, take it (it’s easier to look for a job when you have one), but don’t sweat that until you’ve done a number of interviews and talked to a few recruiters to hear what they claim their company is like.
Tactically, for a self-taught programmer (which describes me, too, but it was before software ate the world, so a different set of challenges and expectations), focus on your speed and smoothness of understanding and thinking through options to approach the leetcode/hackerrank excercises, not on quantity (edit: literally say out loud what you’re considering before you start, and verbally identify what seems to be the “hard part” of the problem, and online include some inline comments about approach and any options considered and not taken. pretend you’re pair-programming with an invisible friend who CAN’T read your mind). If the medium ones are generally easy for you, and you can tackle some hard ones without spoilers, you’re fine. Be prepared to talk about how you ensure that code is maintainable, tested, well-factored and why—that’s a topic they’ll look for in interviews if you haven’t worked on big multi-developer products before.
I’ve done a whole lot of engineer recruiting and interviewing (while working as a very senior-level IC) for a number of big tech companies, including a large Seattle-based one.
It’s weirdly bimodal—if you’ve got a “standard” resume and credentials, your inbox is already filled with recruiters spamming you. If you have a different history (and the awesome but unusual position of founder/enterpreneur is an example), the standard recruiters won’t know how to deal with you, and the senior talent recruiters (those seeking Staff and Principal engineers) won’t let you into their filters without some effort.
Everyone will assume you like doing what you’ve been doing—so somewhat hardware/firmware focused, which is more niche than you may actually be looking for. Don’t put too much thought into your resume, but do be clear in the intro paragraph what your range of desired domains looks like, and highlight your non-tech-keyword strengths (success in product solving, technical product direction, etc.).
After that, hit up LinkedIn pretty hard (OMG it’s an embarrassing site, but it is where a whole lot of hiring happens) - it should be easy to connect with recruiters at big and small companies, and just ask if they’ve got a few minutes to talk about what their company/team does and how you might fit. Some of them will give much better feedback before a formal application and interview, some will just say “here’s the link to apply”, but you probably won’t be ghosted very often.
Also, browse the big company job sites (almost always jobs.whateversite.com) to see if you can distinguish at all among their thousands of twisty little job postings, all alike. Pick 1-3 (at random if necessary), and apply. Your goal here is to just get to an interview, just to see what it’s like and practice. If you get an offer, and the salary/title is anywhere close to reasonable, take it (it’s easier to look for a job when you have one), but don’t sweat that until you’ve done a number of interviews and talked to a few recruiters to hear what they claim their company is like.
Tactically, for a self-taught programmer (which describes me, too, but it was before software ate the world, so a different set of challenges and expectations), focus on your speed and smoothness of understanding and thinking through options to approach the leetcode/hackerrank excercises, not on quantity (edit: literally say out loud what you’re considering before you start, and verbally identify what seems to be the “hard part” of the problem, and online include some inline comments about approach and any options considered and not taken. pretend you’re pair-programming with an invisible friend who CAN’T read your mind). If the medium ones are generally easy for you, and you can tackle some hard ones without spoilers, you’re fine. Be prepared to talk about how you ensure that code is maintainable, tested, well-factored and why—that’s a topic they’ll look for in interviews if you haven’t worked on big multi-developer products before.