HACKER Q&A
📣 mettamage

Is it possible to get hired by FAANG as a European graduate in the US?


I have interviewed 100+ companies and got rejected by all of them because of lack of experience. According to the feedback, my data structure and algorithm skills seem to be fine. A year ago I started out on this journey. I need help.

I want to work at Google as a software engineer or creative technologist (collaborative culture, amazing pay, 20% time, focus on best-practices instead of "fail fast").

Despite that I applied for 6 years to Google (mostly) and Facebook (somewhat). I never got a phone screen.

I have learned that some Full-Stack Academy graduates do get a phone screen. Even if they didn't know coding 3 months prior. So less experienced people than me (see my profile) do get a phone screen.

Is it because I'm not from the US? Or am I potentially doing something else wrong?

  👤 mtmail Accepted Answer ✓
US companies need to sponsor a visa and that requires them to provide proof they weren't able to find an equivalent US citizen for the position. The visa has a cap limit per year, cost, paperwork, takes months to years. The big enterprise companies have dedicated staff and lawyers, and experience to deal with it but given equal candidates it's simply easier to hire from within the US.

International students currently residin in the US also have it easier. They're already on a student visa which can be converted.

Consider applying at their European offices, then after a year internal transfer with L1 visa. No cap limit, paperwork can be ready in as little as two weeks.

(I thought the 20% time was long debunked. "Realistically it's hard to do your day job productively and also build a new project from scratch. You have to be willing to put in hours outside of your normal job to be successful." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6223466)

👤 gaogao
How long ago did you graduate, and what's your current job?