throwaway_sp11

This is a useful tip to keep in mind. Thank you!

I don't understand, why do you say that?

Thank you for the feedback. I regret wording my OP that way, but I can't edit it anymore.

It makes a lot of sense to split it up like that. My early experience (throughout college) was some full-time roles (that I quit e.g. to accept a FAANG internship, which I think I would be foolish not to), some project-based work, and I list all of that as regular work experience. It's clear to me now that this causes some confusion.

I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this to me as someone who is on the other side of the process, and I'll incorporate this knowledge in my resume (which, it looks like, I need to fully rework).

Other commenters have also pointed out that I have a skewed view of what counts as "professional experience, which is something I'll fix. My high school & college work included more than editing HTML, but it was still junior-level and I understand it's a tough sell for that to count as work experience.

Know that I really appreciate your detailed analysis and the information is really helpful to know - thanks for taking the time to type this up.

Thank you so much for the perspective. This is all hugely useful to me.

I'm just not comfortable with my manager knowing that I'm looking around.

Sorry, I think I worded my initial post badly. 3.5 years is at FAANG, that's my current role. I'm close to a senior promo. Before that, failed startup, and before that, shorter stints as a student. I've already been made aware in this thread that this history needs to be sold in a much, much better way.

I didn't see it that way, but the consensus in this thread is that I'm absolutely stretching. Which is very good to know and something actionable to fix. My roles have been getting longer with time, the short stints were when I was a student, e.g. I quit at a job so I could accept a big name internship, which was an opportunity I couldn't miss.

My problem is that I don't even get the initial calls.

Thank you for the suggestions and the reality check. It all makes sense.

I think my original post was misleading, but I can't edit it anymore. I currently work at FAANG, 3.5 years there, mid-level but expecting a senior promo soon.

Yes, unfortunately I'm not in the US. Here's a random sample of the positions I applied to:

https://www.stimulus.com/jobs/1539721e-7c7d-4f45-a5b0-17e5c0...

https://app.beapplied.com/apply/grlyqh9t6e

https://www.ashbyhq.com/careers?ashby_jid=7dcbfb52-f465-46b2...

https://brave.com/careers/?gh_jid=4822139

https://careers.liveflow.io/?ashby_jid=335a93bc-2cb0-4f6c-bd...

I understand. This is something that hasn't crossed my mind, but is a great point. I'll try to rework my resume according to that. I provided some context on the number of positions here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34610342

I tried to give some context in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34610342

Ok, that is truly useful feedback. I didn't consider it like that.

My current role is 3.5 years. 1.5 years was a startup, start-to-finish. In the end it failed, so it's not like I left voluntarily. Before that I was a student so I picked up junior and project-based jobs to finance myself.

I've applied mostly to full-stack and back-end positions. JS, Python, etc. It's a good point about remote-centric job boards. My trouble is that other positions usually have a "Are you authorized to work in X country" as a question, and if I answer "no", I think it goes in the bin directly.

I finished a 4-year CS undergrad at a university, although I do consider myself 90% self-taught.

To answer your questions:

1. Not only FAANG, I was a first eng hire at a startup, did some consulting work, etc.

2. It's 5 positions excluding internships.

3. I'd say I have some experience, I did competitive programming back in the day and the usual LC-style questions are not a big problem for me. I used to land jobs without doing any prep at all. Although I'm sure I've gotten a bit rusty.

4. I applied to some higher seniority jobs, but I'd say that's not the majority.

5. A startup would be great, I love wearing many hats, but I've been applying to what I considered mid-level companies with a larger engineering workforce, processes in place, etc.

Thanks!

Thank you for the offer. I dropped you an email. About posting the resume publicly, I worry that it's hard to anonymize properly and still get the point across. Although I might do it if I run out of things to try.

I will, if the parent commenter is OK with it. I'm happy to help others in a similar situation.

Just friends in the field. They say it looks good.

Thank you so much for the offer, I'll drop you an email.