lowiqengineer

It's funny/depressing to think all of my depression stems from not being able to do these problems fluently.

> Stop worrying about owning a house

A lot of my friends are already putting money down on houses and are making hundreds of thousands in options trading on principal that I _don't have_. I'm falling behind permanently and even maxing out my 401k (which I didn't do last year because I don't anticipate living to 65 but decided to this year) won't get me closer with a low principal.

> Coffee and seltzer water

In my experience seltzer water ends up making me even more hungry. Is this typical?

FB and GOOG provide more stock and more refreshers. I think its hard to say AMZN engineers have come out ahead consistently.

I only have about ~40 stocks up from about 35 before the refresh cycle (unvested) and that's unlikely to go up if I get promoted (if you have too many they don't give you more). Googler and FB refresher values are significantly higher.

>You have the opportunity to leverage that and either get promoted from within or change jobs.

I think the real problem is I'm not capable of doing so, at least according to the fair labor market.

> Are you really struggling making $150K straight out of college? You graduated from a state school (as did I) you probably don’t have that much debt.

I don't have any debt, I just have a really pathetic savings rate and a really low net worth compared to nearly everyone I know, including folks that didn't do "the grind" that I did. I'll probably not be able to retire or own a car, much less own a house someday.

The perspective is inverted. From the perspective of a Harvard/Stanford/CMU/MIT undergrad working at Amazon is failing, which is nothing to say of IBM or Cisco (this is what I've understood after talking to several). I'd wager that the median new grad TC for Harvard CS students is at least twice that.

> Lots of teams in Google have restrictive travel policies and never see the pointy end of a plane.

Which ones do and don't? Because all of the ones I've heard of have pretty loose ones compared to my organization.

And yes, Amazon doesn't cheap out on real estate because we own so much of it. It's honestly remarkable how it's done. But I was under the impression everyone knows they pay less.

It's total compensation including everything. My base is only around $109k or so. I'm not in California or NYC and I joined out of college so base isn't as good as industry hires.

I fully understand shaming $150k, new grads at Google make $180-$210k.

I know several people making $350k at companies like Lyft two years out of undergrad.

I've always passed interviews that focused on behavioral aspects, I've frequently struggled in algorithm focused loops (bombed 2/4 in my Google onsite because, again, I'm intellectually inferior). Besides, until recently G didn't include any behavioral loops.

> "compared to a very small subset of people I have failed"

Compared to nearly everyone at elite universities I have absolutely failed. I'm sure some of them will become the Jeff Bezos of 2050 as well - it's irrelevant that it's still a small number. I don't want to be compared against somebody that works at Cisco or IBM for instance for the work and mental anguish I've put in.

I think G's ones are supposed to be. They claim themselves to be the top 1% of intelligence.

No disagreement on the good recommendation as a signal, but I doubt that'll matter to the HC if I can't pass 3/5 rounds at the minimum.

The only thing to see looking inward is a void.

I see too many people talking about their Tahoe Google offsites (jbd@ on twitter claims a bunch of her coworkers just work from Tahoe during ski season) or their Colorado skiing weekends.

Anyways, hypocrisy doesn't mean I'm wrong, and I think its valid to be mad that I'm seen as inferior daily.

> These companies you aspire to do behavioral interviews, and I’m guessing you’re failing them.

Don't know why people say this. I'm usually pretty good at behavioral interviews. The problem is the algorithmic interviews (again, this is where my IQ fixation comes from).

IDK man, compared to most everyone else I seem to have failed life at this point given that I have zero accomplishments and little financial security.

You're $100k off - I make $150k a year. I'd be more satisfied with a quarter million a year to be clear.

Haha, you don’t but I do know you from the Pythonista list.

I've studied hundreds of hours, failed HC for full time once and I've concluded that I'm mentally incapable of doing so (I blame my parents due to the slight heritability of IQ).

"Just move" is something someone without any empathy for other people's circumstances would say - most people aren't capable of "just moving" as if the only concern is choosing an employer.

Levels.fyi is good, but it's still polluted with TC's from multiple regions in the US (California + NYC have higher base and higher TC by 15% due to taxes). In addition, promos always happen at the low-band and aren't negotiated. There's very likely some intersection between high-band L4 and low-band L5, and I'd be there when/if I promo. The only way to get out of the band is to get a high raise during evaluation season, but this maxes out at 10% or so for "top tier" performance evaluated only once a year.

*The net effect is "pay for performance" isn't really a thing.

The only way for me to do a significant compensation bump is to do what's called a "dive and save", but this is very rarely done for L5's and is significantly more common for L6's. I got an offer for about $200k a year ago at a hedge fund, but that wasn't eligible for dive and save because of my level and I'm (clearly) too mentally defective to pass a Facebook or Google loop.

Of course. I'm well aware that I'm considered mentally defective (or maybe just garden variety low IQ) by the hiring committee. That doesn't really change my observation here.

Last I checked Alibaba was 3rd in the international market and Oracle cloud was growing. Steve might be referring to Oracle getting 3rd place.

Trips to Europe or to random conferences in first class? Trips to _any office_ for "face time"? Massages? Bonuses of any sort, including peer bonuses and holiday gifts? Refreshers? Society thinking that you're "smart" for passing the loop? You're rewarded just for being alive at Google, but I get nothing but scorn and condescension.

Fun fact for you - if I get promoted this year at Amazon to L5, I'll _still_ make less than a new grad at Google. It's extremely depressing to the extent that I can't get out of bed in the morning, but I'd wager that inferiority complex probably helps on the product side to empathize with customers.

A "couple dicks"? It's endemic, dude. You can't be given everything you could ever dream of and _not_ end up like this.

By comparison, I have nothing. zilch, for my hard work. Neither do most people working on core tech at AWS. That's why they empathize with their customers (I'm guessing).

The answer to why this is, I’m beginning to realize after talking to dozens of Googlers working at Google as acquaintances, friends, former coworkers, HN comments and twitter personalities is - Google has an active disrespect if you’re not part of their in group. If you haven’t passed their tests, you’re basically an object of derision - a mark, an object just used for incrementing a CPM metric, or an incompetent, low-class buffoon who doesn’t deserve to have their jet setting luxury lifestyles. And unfortunately, everything trickles down from that.

> I show up with a problem ("hey, this thing keeps getting corrupted because X and Y") and suddenly it's because I'm "from" G or FB or something and I "want unreasonable things" from their stuff. So, my request is invalid, thank you drive though.

No, the answer is they're trying to deliver impact for the customer and Rachel is instead asking them to invest time in a solution that doesn't bring them any closer to that. I'd imagine most of them would be fine with fixing the root cause, but for some fucking reason everyone from Google or FB feels the need to reinvent every wheel in order to peacock and show that their IQ is the highest.

With that said, at my "normal people" non-bourgeoisie company the 3P libraries are all converted to the internal build system. If there was a fuckup of this magnitude, someone would just create a branch and bump the version number with the fix. Problem solved.

With all due respect, your accomplishments even before college (since you went to Cornell) were far more significant than my own (and almost definitely more significant than mine will ever be). I’m not sure how I can use the help of a therapist if the cause is just a lack of actual accomplishments.

I think it's fine. I just think since I make 80% of what an equivalent Googler makes, I'm probably valued at 80% or less as a human.

Realistically I don't think many people care deeply, but the folks I'm being surrounded by definitely didn't go to Ivies. I think they're just fine and I don't mind working where I work, but it's clear to me that I'm not regarded highly (or as intelligent) as a person by society. The worst part is I feel stuck and trapped by my own inherent ability as a person.

I work at a FAANG (albeit the least respected one) and yes, I do feel this way.

Pretty remarkable that the "elites" are still demanding pity (or at minimum asking people to discuss their "disillusionment") but there's nary a peep for people like me who didn't have the privilege of membership in elite institutions.

What do I get? All I see is constant disrespect from society and from places like HackerNews. Where's the sympathy for a state school grad like me struggling to get a top job, or struggling to be taken seriously?

I wonder why the "at Google" is necessary for the title. I'd be very surprised to see an organization not use some sort of design doc before building things - the only thing that would be different is the scale and scope of them.

Of course, you won't see a "Design Docs at Amazon" on the front page of HN for...some reason. Gee, I wonder why?

I noticed you named the engineers that worked at Google, but not the top contributor, Gyuho Lee. Is that because he works at AWS?

Unless they're part of leadership they usually do, yes.