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Comment by Volrath89 | Hacker News Reader

I've been a .NET dev for almost 8 years now and I agree with the general positivity sentiment in the comments, but...

As many senior devs I also want to retire early from tech. But unlike many, even if I spend hundreds of hours in leetcode, mock interviews, etc. I'm not sure if my work experience would be even considered for an interview at FAANG. Of course I could interview at Microsoft, but it's the only one. Google, Amazon, Facebook, they don't use/hire C# devs at all.

I'm guessing the only path is to learn some Java and sell myself as a C#/Java dev in order to be able to at least get an interview. Any former dotnet dev here that has successfully transitioned into a FAANG position that wants to share advices/experience?

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Fuck FAANG, just focus on being good at what you do/delivering value, there are plenty of very well paid senior roles out there for dotnet devs not at FAANG companies.

As an aside, I'd be surprised if any of those companies hired specifically based on programming language, surely Are you good at programming is more important than the specific language you have experience with? If you have learned one, you can learn others.

I have come across very few companies that offer both, well paid roles and interesting products with .NET for the past few years. .NET is my preferred environment but I had to move away from it.

While you are correct, it's not difficult to get hired regardless of the tech stack you work with if you are competent. However, if you care about the tech stack as well (and it is .NET), then the task becomes much harder.

What did you end up moving to and how did you do it?

I’ve been noticing what you’ve posted for awhile in regards to interesting opportunities and .NET, or lack there of.

Not sure how to make the switch to something else though.

I have moved on to developing Clojure and later Go. I still want to go back to .NET with C# once the opportunity is there.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of fun working with other languages and I have learned a great deal. If nothing else, then I feel these experiences made me a better C# developer. It's just that I feel underwhelmed by what the other languages have to offer.

I live in Europe. Here there are not "plenty" very well paid senior roles, especially not for .NET

Also take into account I'm looking for some serious amount of money in order to work there for 3-5 years and then retire.

Or maybe a US company that hires remote and pays well? Until now they all prefer to hire in the same timezone so I've had no luck so far (and I haven't seen a remote salary as good as a faang one)

> I live in Europe. Here there are not "plenty" very well paid senior roles, especially not for .NET

You should move to Scandinavia!, or how about Poland? Also, Ukraine (when things calm down)

Why Scandinavia? I live in Sweden and senior developers around here make less than half of what it seems like junior developers make in the US, and that's before taxes.

Salaries in sweden are good! But if you arent satisfied go with cool company and a consultancy broker eg. Nikita (I recommend them warmly - they are very honest!) and start making some greens!

I didn’t write Java professionally before joining Google. I interviewed in Python, there’s a much wider gap between those two languages than between C# and Java. I’ve also worked with people who used to write C# since it’s kinda common in line of business finance stuff.

Forget the hundreds of hours in leetcode. If you actually want to work for one of those companies, get in touch with a recruiter and see if there’s a role that suits. Ask for prep time later if you need it.

I really dont think an interviewer is gonna care if all your experience is in C# rather than Java. The language itself is basically the same thing.

Former .NET dev. Until recently most of my experience was with .NET. Got into a FAANG level company last year, but I had transitioned out of .NET into doing Python and JavaScript before that.

You can certainly get into FAANG as a .NET dev, but I do think there is still a stigma. Not so much the .NET tech stack itself, but the types of companies that .NET typically get used at.

I think if you don't land FAANG job out of the university you will not get a FAANG job after 8 years of experience in other places.

Not my experience

It's probably an order of magnitude harder, especially because after university you have many CS concepts fresh, and after 8 years you have totally forgotten about inverting a binary tree...

But I think it's possible. Most FAANG now are just another big corporation and they are always hiring for all levels of experience. Especially since so many developers seem to retire early I think its doable

DuckDuckGo is looking for a senior .NET dev right now.

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