Rooftop Slushie is a global network of 
verified professionals who give career 
advice on how to join the world's most 
prestigious companies. Top tech 
professionals who offer assistance on 
our platform are currently working for 
companies such as Google, Facebook, 
Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and more. 
 
www.rooftopslushie.com 
 
 
All rights reserved. This guide may 
not be reproduced or used in any 
manner whatsoever without our 
express permission except for the use 
of brief quotations in a book review or 
blogs. 
 

© Rooftop Slushie.
    
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 
INTRODUCTION 2 
 
WHO ARE THEY? 3 
 
INSIDE FAANG 
 
What’s your company like? 6 
 
What’s your most memorable 10  
experience at the company? 
 
One thing you’d like changed at 13 
the company? 
 
How others view your company 16 
vs. your thoughts 
 
Where do you see your company 20 
in 5 years? 
 
Do you want to move companies? 23 
 
Promotions 26 
 
Misc. 28 

   

1 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 
After receiving insight into what is required to be a top candidate in FAANG, we 
wanted to take it a step further and learn what it's really like to work for these large, 
prestigious companies. 
 
For those who may not know, FAANG stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix 
and Google, a term coined to the tech companies dominating Wall Street at the time. 
Slowly FAANG has become a nickname for large tech companies many people dream 
to work for. 
 
While we have the opportunity to read about what it's like to work at companies like 
Amazon or Google, we are influenced by the media and pop culture. I'll be frank. My 
perception of what it's like to work in tech comes from watching Silicon Valley (the TV 
show).  
 
We reached out to the professionals on Rooftop Slushie to find out what goes on 
behind the scenes at these companies. We asked them about their workplace 
environment, how things get done in their companies, any crazy situations that they've 
experienced, and future outlook of the company. 
 
We hope you enjoy reading this information and it helps you on your job search! Visit 
www.rooftopslushie.com​ if you have further questions about company culture, 
resume feedback, or upcoming job interviews. 
 
Sincerely, 
 

Rooftop Slushie    

2 
WHO ARE THEY? 
 
 

shsl 
Software Engineer at Google 
 
Have worked at FAANG and IB companies on Financial Tech, Machine Learning for 
Finance as well as software for ML. Worked in Europe, Asia and Europe. Have 
conducted over 500 interviews across firms reviewing at least 10x the number of 
resumes. 
 
▶ Ask shsl a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/rCTaGBoFKE7t 
 
 

days 
Software Engineer at Google 
 
Studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto for my 
undergrad, and studied Computer Science at Stanford University for my masters. I am 
currently working at Google as a Software Engineer and have lots of connections at 
large companies (Facebook, Microsoft, etc). I have interned at Google and Facebook 
three times, and I received 9 full-time offers when I graduated from Stanford. I 
specialized in Computer Systems in school, but currently I'm mostly working on 
frontend at work, including web and mobile development. I'm also currently an 
Interviewer at Google. 
 
▶ Ask days a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/googler 
 
 

Mr.Mirror 
Software Engineer at Google 
 
Engineering at Google and previously at Facebook with about a decade of engineering 
and leadership experience. I've worked across Search ranking/quality, Google Now, 
Google Cloud, and Brain. Previously at Facebook I was a technical lead in the Applied 
ML group. 

 
 
▶ Ask Mr.Mirror a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/stiXfWhJvKky

3 
 Dios 
Engineering Manager at Facebook 
 
Engineering manager @ FB. 8 year tenure, 15 years of experience total. Very 
experienced with hiring, career development, level expectations, resume reviews, team 
logistics, and project planning. I've worked in the MPK, Seattle, Vancouver, and NYC 
offices. 
 
▶ Ask Dios a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/dios 
 
 

​zeJk27 
Machine Learning Engineer at Facebook 
 
I'm a professional with years of experience in machine learning at multiple tech 
companies. Feel free to reach out you need anything from interview, to career advice, 
to career development and daily work as a machine learner! 
 
▶ Ask zeJk27 a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/mlw 
 
 

ebcs21 
Data Engineer at Apple 
 
Seasoned Data Engineer, long time Amazonian. Have interviewed more than 150 
candidates for FAANG. Reach out for career advice, interview help and questions 
regarding tech culture across big tech companies. 
 
▶ Ask ebcs21 a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/NfnUqzsYGo0A 
 
 

USsx42 
​
Software Engineer at Yelp 
 
Software engineer and interviewer at Yelp. Worked at companies of all shapes and 
sizes, and interviewed at FAAMG for internships and full-time positions from a non-top 
10 CS university. 
 
▶ Ask USsx42 a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/jKcfsEVbfCbd  
 
4 
 ​NYxU44 
Software Development Manager at Amazon 
 
ex-Software Engineer, ex-Startup CEO, ex-Amazon TPM, current Amazon Software 
Development Manager 
 
▶ Ask NYxU44 a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/h3JLMhXdWKIS 
 
 

​A 
Product Manager at Amazon 
 
I am a Product leader in a FAANG company with several years of post-MBA proven 
x-functional experience across Engineering, Business Analytics, Strategy Consulting, 
Consumer Banking, Supply-chain, Marketing, and Internet. I have been heavily involved 
in hiring decisions including shortlisting, phone screens, onsite interviews, and 
extending offers. I am passionate about all parts of career-coaching including but not 
limited to resume/CV review, mock interviews, career-switch, expanding education, 
and navigating through the corporate ladder: all of which I have been doing as a 
freemium mentor from 12+ years through multiple professional counselling channels. 
 
▶ Ask A a question at https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/ask 
 
 

​AmznAnlyst 
Business Intelligence Engineer at Amazon 
 
I am an analytics leader with 10+ years of experience in analytics across different 
companies (EBay, capital one, HSBC). I currently work with Amazon based from 
luxembourg as head of analytics in the EU seller fulfilled prime business. 
 
▶ Ask AmznAnlyst a question at 
https://www.rooftopslushie.com/profile/isz44XIYTgd9 

 
   

5 
– 
What’s your company like? 
*You can click on the username to ask questions directly 
 
shsl​: Short answer, it's great. I've worked at other tech firms, banks 
and startups before but the culture here is definitely the best. Before I 
joined, a friend pitched the company to me saying it takes care of it's 
employees like its own babies. A year since joining, I can say for sure that it's 
true.  
 
ebcs21​: Working at Apple oscillates between two strong feelings - 
pride and frustration. You’ll get a strong sense of pride while wearing 
the Apple badge and mostly feel good about it. On the other hand, working at 
Apple can be incredibly infuriating because of how unoptimized most of the 
internal teams and processes are. You’ll spend a substantial amount of your 
time and effort to navigate these systems and processes, instead of 
focusing on your core job. 
 
USsx42​: It's pretty laid back! I grab coffee with different people 
around the company a few times a week, and regularly grab coffee 
for an informal "morning sync" with some other members of the 
organization. There's a big social culture at Yelp which everyone is free to 
partake in if they so choose, and I find that having friends across different 
teams and functions make my work life much easier! 
 
NYxU44​: Amazon is a great place to work if you are good at your job. 
We accomplish really big things with really small teams. For example, 
it’s not surprising for a team of 4 engineers to launch a project that 
generates $500 million in revenue. Politics is almost non-existent. You work 
with smart people. You can challenge virtually any decision and process and 
bring change.  
 

6 
The issues start when you are average or below average with respect to 
performance. It can easily become the most stressful time of your life 
because the system is designed to weed out low performers, and we are not 
nice or polite about it at all. Low performance doesn't mean the person is 
terrible, it just means lower than the Amazon bar - which is sky-high. That's 
why you’ll see a sharp contrast among people's experiences at Amazon, 
alternating between great and absolutely terrible. 
 
days​: Google has a very good work-life balance, and you rarely have 
to rush anything. The perks and benefits are very good, other large 
companies don't offer as good benefits and smaller companies are unable 
to offer due to their scale. On the other hand, since it's a very large company, 
everything moves slowly. To write a piece of code, you first need to write a 
design doc, receive comments, and attend meetings. The testing and 
launching process is also slow. You have to go through multiple reviews and 
approvals: you get pushed back all the time. 
 
A​: Amazon is a very peculiar company and is not for everyone. For 
the ones that fit, it can be like a drug to work here. Everything we do is 
for the customer, or we wouldn’t do it. We use the 14 leadership principles as 
our guiding tenets. It is a very challenging and fast-moving environment 
where tech, operations, business, and finance come together to innovate 
very rapidly. Leadership is tough, and always demands us to stretch beyond 
our goals. More than anything else (big infrastructure, cool internal tools 
etc.), the people are the secret sauce of the company - it’s very exciting to 
work with some of the smartest and most hard working people on the 
planet. 
 
Dios​: Great, although changing. Facebook is a place with enormous 
scale, which is fluid and meritocratic enough to let high performers 
truly exceed. On the flipside, we're active enough with performance 
management that it's hard to fly under the radar or coast. Of course, this is a 
good thing overall, but as a manager I've had to let go of some really great 

7 
people when they weren't keeping pace. With a company of many 
career-driven engineers, the bar is and has stayed very high. 
 
zeJk27​: Engineers have maximum freedom to determine what they 
would like to work on. Managers are just coaches, who can make 
suggestions and provide help, but can't demand the projects out of 
engineers. More freedom comes with more responsibility. To find the 'right' 
project, engineers need to take the initiative to 'discover' the problems that 
nobody else has seen and deliver a solution from end-to-end to make an 
impact. 
 
AmznAnlyst​: This completely depends on the role. I work in analytics 
at Amazon, and as the company is extremely data-hungry - I enjoy my 
challenging and demanding role. I have to brainstorm a lot with business 
teams on the kind of data they need, to either build business cases or solve 
complex problems analytically. 
 
Mr.Mirror​: Google is easily one of the best places in tech to work at - 
not just in terms of culture, perks and free food, but primarily because 
of the people, the opportunities and the tool-chain. 
People: you get to meet and hear from legends in the industry, you get to be 
a part of their teams or reach out for 20% projects. Whether it's distributed 
systems or ML, many pioneers of the industry are here. 
Opportunities: where else do you get to make an impact on 3+ billion people 
in the world? 
Tool-chain: the systems at your disposal are very powerful. Where else can 
you kick off a map-reduce job spanning thousands of machines to run your 
experimental code? 
 
Drawback: Lately though, the size of the company has made it bureaucratic, 
less nimble and slow. Google was a much better place to work at in the 
2000s and early 2010s. Now you may feel like a cog in the machine with 
limited opportunities to make individual impact or start something new. This 
is the only real drawback of working at Google - I've seen many folks recently 

8 
who work at Google for the connections, the network and an endorsement 
on their resume before starting something new or taking up challenging 
initiatives at a smaller company. 
 
 
 
Need more information? 
Ask our professionals on ​Rooftop Slushie 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

   

9 
– 
What’s your most memorable experience 
at the company? 
*You can click on the username to ask questions directly 
 
NYxU44​: Prime Day 2018 - when all hell broke loose. We bled a million 
dollars per minute, and it was an absolute chaos externally. CNN had 
us on front page, Twitter had us trending higher than trump. Internally, 
senior leaders asked calm questions in war rooms, got themselves up to 
speed; within minutes, we had a strategy in place on how to approach the 
issue and existing call leaders led the resolution. No panic, no changing of 
leaders, nothing. The composure demonstrated the quality of leadership of 
our senior and call leaders, and the level of trust we place in our teams.  
 
Dios​: I joined in 2012, when the company was 2% of its current size. 
Most of my stories are from that era: 
* Beer pong and keg stands. Lots of beer pong. We had tournaments. 
* High-fiving Zuck at the holiday party, before he had a security entourage. 
* Seeing a number of six-figure cars suddenly show up in the parking lot 
after the IPO. There was even a row where they’d park together. 
* (Related to the above point) A senior influencer getting in front of the 
company and threatening to "break the fu***** windshield of the next 
McLaren that shows up here.” 
 
ebcs21​: Definitely product launches during the iPhone seasons. There 
is a definite level of energy around these releases and people are 
generally looking forward to them, even though not everyone believes that 
the product is genuinely good. The presentations get streamed to office 
conference rooms and people stay back to watch it. The atmosphere is 
genuinely cheerful and fun during these times. 
 

10 
 USsx42​: Internally-held AWE (Awesome Women in Engineering) 
conference, which featured a lot of female-identifying leaders in 
product, design, and engineering. Not only was it an empowering 
display of diversity in the organization, but I also really liked that they made 
an effort to make it welcoming for allies in the space. Many workshops were 
catered to make the Yelp organization more welcoming to everyone, not just 
women. 
 
shsl​: A colleague of mine had an admit from a reputed college for 
higher studies. He was a top performer and if it were my previous 
employers, they would have tried to brainwash him into staying and rejecting 
the admit. Here, his manager tried to understand his aspirations and future 
career goals, and after realizing that higher studies were indeed the best 
option for him, suggested to accept the admit. 
 
A​: I remember one time where there was an error in the pricing of 
products which meant that some products were being sold at a huge 
loss, while others were not selling at all. The tech team identified that this 
was not a bug and everything was working as per design (and the design 
itself had flaws). It required 4 months of effort to a model re-architecture. 
Having incorrect prices meant that we would lose a million dollar every few 
hours, and I proposed a crazy idea to apply daily corrections to pricing using 
a very simple excel model which would reduce this bleeding significantly.  
 
The memorable part of this experience is that only within 6 hours of my 
proposal, I got the approval to go ahead with this (live in production for more 
than half a million products) from Directors/VPs across US and EU. 
Compared to bureaucratic experiences that I had in my companies, the quick 
decision-making process was absolutely amazing!  
 
days​: ​ ​This happened while I was an intern at Google. At that time, 
one of my project required an analysis on some data. However, I 
didn’t have any background in data analysis so it was very hard for me. I 
asked this question on the company's internal forum and a Quantitative 

11 
Analyst replied to me. He even set up a 1 hour meeting to answer all my 
questions. Thanks to him, I was able to finish my project and I was totally 
shocked at how friendly Googlers are in general. 
 
zeJk27​:​ ​Meeting distinguished scientists, engineers and other experts 
in person. You get to hear their ideas and ask your own questions. 
These experiences make you feel that what they have achieved is possible 
for you as well - they are human beings just like you. This thinking nurtures 
my professional growth, strengthens my professional network, and 
ultimately motivates my dream. 
 
AmznAnlyst​: The situation completely plays out in my head. I was 
having a conversation with my manager on work-life balance and the 
challenges of being in a function where everyone depends on me for insights 
and reporting for decision making. My manager just asked me what steps I 
was taking as a leader to ensure my work-life balance, and that’s when I 
realized Amazon takes ownership seriously. I planned and structured my 
work in a way so that I could manage my weeks +/- 10% around my contract 
hours. My manager was super supportive and actually values the structures 
I put in place. 
 
Mr.Mirror​: The first time I broke my product in production. It was the 
first time - I was young and naive and feared that everyone would 
blame me. Instead, I got to learn about Google's post-mortem culture. They 
don't blame individual engineers, they convert it into a teaching moment and 
ask you to write a document to help teach others how to not repeat that 
mistake again. 
 
Other than that the other most memorable moments have been the times 
I've been promoted. 
 
   

12 
– 
One thing you’d like changed at the 
company? 
 
*You can click on the username to ask questions directly
 
ebcs21​:​ ​Hiring strategy and consistent hiring processes. Different 
teams at Apple follow different processes and that results in 
processes prone to being played around with by hiring managers. A bunch of 
contractor turned FTEs use this process to get their ex-colleagues into Apple 
and recruiters don't mind because it closes their goals for the year. The 
result is a lot of teams with very bad engineering quality and shitty products. 
 
shsl​: Team wide reviews. There are tram wide reviews for every 
mid-sized change, and sometimes things get delayed trying to find 
slots on the calendar when everyone is free. While these reviews have a big 
advantage, sometimes things can move faster if we had an option to select 
a smaller set of folks for reviews. 
 
NYxU44​: There is still the occasional "Old Amazonian" who thinks 
they're smarter than everyone else and will treat others like crap. 
They're becoming less and less as more diverse mindsets of people enter 
the company but encountering these is still pretty frustrating. As a company, 
we know exactly who these people are. Several folks keep complaining 
about them to each other but nothing ever happens. A bit of coaching can go 
a long way. 
 
USsx42​: Since the work environment is pretty laid-back on feature 
teams, I'd appreciate faster opportunities for advancement if 
someone is willing to put the hours in. With the current system, you cannot 
advance up the ladder unless you are in charge of a project, which is often 
difficult on feature teams because product and design departments are 
extremely short-staffed. Individual product managers and designers are 

13 
often working on way too many projects at once to reliably hand off 
completed product specifications for engineering scoping. 
 
On the other hand, most of the backlog project specifications in core 
platform/engineering-driven teams are written by engineers, and therefore 
do not run into these large roadblocks. This makes it much easier to 
advance up the ladder and compensation levels. If I had known this prior to 
accepting the offer, I would’ve been much pickier about which team to join. 
 
days​: Since Google is a large company, a lot of time is wasted on 
process. You have to write a bunch of design docs and 
documentations, go to a bunch of meetings and receive a bunch of feedback 
that you have to work on. Iteration is just too slow and unbearable for me. I 
would prefer to have faster iterations, which is generally hard at Google. 
 
Dios​: Facebook used to thrive on a direct and contrarian culture, 
where the best thing you could say is "That's wrong and here is why.." 
Big ideas were challenged openly, which led to highly professional and 
data-driven discussions. As the company grew, this has slowly degraded into 
what is now effectively an outrage culture. 
 
Sensitivity has gone up, and we've been trying so hard to be inclusive across 
all dimensions (which is admirable). Dissenters and contrarians haven't felt 
comfortable being direct and open, and have eventually been penalized or 
left the company. Internal communications is very "pins and needles", where 
each post is carefully authored and scanned to make sure the message is 
neutral and palatable for everyone. I'd like for this to be net-positive, since I 
do believe in our goals around inclusion, but I think this has significantly 
taken away the signal quality from how we talk to each other. 
 
zeJk27​: There could be better coordination across teams to reduce 
overlapping work. People do overlapping work due to different 
reasons, such as lack of communication or trying to move fast on a 
project. However, duplicate work wastes valuable resources, creates 

14 
conflicts and results in less elegant solutions. With that said, in any big 
company, duplicate work can only be reduced, but never eliminated. 
 
A​:​ ​Due to the high velocity of decision making and ever-changing 
strategy (adapting to the needs of customers), we often set highly 
unrealistic expectations and stretched goals for ourselves at Amazon. This 
pressure is top-down, and conflicts with the objectives of different teams. 
While this tension is healthy for optimizing the business, it sometimes leads 
to very long working hours and unhealthy habits for employees. If there were 
a magic wand, I would like to change the stressful environment and make 
things easier for the employees a bit. 
 
Mr.Mirror​: Bureaucracy and red-tape. Lack of belongingness because 
the company is so huge, you don't feel responsible for holistic product 
or feature. Rather, you feel like a bureaucratic paper-pusher writing configs, 
boilerplate code, reviewing others' code, passing it along the process and 
becoming a good cog-in-the-wheel. 
 
I would like to change that so that small, agile teams are given more 
responsibility and less red-tape holding them back. Smaller teams and 
individuals empowered to draft bold product ideas and technical designs 
(even at the risk of being sub-optimal) and have the mandate to execute on 
them. More hackathons and idea incubation efforts. 
 
If I could pick another thing but related to culture: I'd pick more flexible office 
locations so that commute wouldn't take so long. 
   

15 
– 
How others view your company vs. your 
thoughts 
 
*You can click on the username to ask questions directly
 
zeJk27​: Others may think we can't possibly care less about our users 
and only focus on monopolizing the market. In fact, many people 
working here care deeply about our users' well-being and privacy. They do 
believe the work they do will create a better world for the people we serve. 
Like everyone else, we make mistakes in this process, but we learn from 
them and try to correct those quickly. 
 
NYxU44​: Amazon is viewed negatively by a lot of folks. Especially 
after the NY Times article, there is a conception that Amazonians 
work too much, people cry at their desks, and people are unhappy. My 
experience has been the polar opposite. Sure, there are days when I put in 12 
hour days, but those are rare. I am also free to put in 5 hour work days and 
no one questions. Most organizations have a great work-life balance, and 
our roadmaps are designed with 50-60% productivity in mind so we leave 
enough buffer. I do think there was a time when those things were true, but 
in the past 4-5 years, we've turned things around 180 degrees and the work 
still continues. 
 
shsl​: There seems to be two different perspectives about my 
company when I talk to my acquaintances. One group believes it to be 
their dream company and the best place for software engineers to work on 
cutting-edge things. The other group believes that it pampers its employees 
way too much; they get a sense of entitlement and are unable to function 
well outside of the company environment. 
 
USsx42​: People's reactions to Yelp can be quite polarizing. From an 
outside investor standpoint, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of 

16 
confidence that we'll stand up in the fight against Google. From the average 
non-user standpoint, we're often portrayed as an ads-hungry firm that 
basically blackmails small businesses into buying ads in exchange for 
positive reviews. While it's not my place to defend the company (we have a 
wonderful PR team for that), I personally think it's just something for others 
to hate on. It's been proven multiple times that there is zero correlation 
between advertiser status and review rating. 
 
As much bad press as there is, I'm also excited to say that I've met many 
diehard users who say that they see Yelp as a trustworthy company, with 
trustworthy content. In the age of fake news and big tech scandals 
stemming from the personalization bubble, I think it's nice that Yelp is 
maintaining its trustworthy status, and I hope that continues in the future. 
 
A​:​ ​Amazon is generally perceived as (i) a tough place to work, where 
(ii) you will get big opportunities to work on problems and solutions 
on a large scale, and (iii) it will look great on your resume when you want to 
move to another company. I agree with all of those points. It will definitely 
challenge you, let you work on exciting projects, and get you the attention 
from other potential employers. 
 
Dios​: This varies quite a bit. Within the U.S., there's been some 
criticism of the company - which isn't entirely unfair. Internationally, 
we remain very popular and well liked. I think the media tends to amplify 
whatever the sentiment is around the Facebook brand. When Facebook is 
doing well, we're given too much credit. When we falter, media criticism 
seems a bit unfair. 
 
ebcs21​: There are two sets of people - Apple fans and others. Fans 
always support anything Apple does and others always oppose it. I 
would like to see a more balanced approach from both sets of people. The 
growth rate of the company is still amazing and having more realistic 
expectations from the company is the need of the hour. 
 

17 
 AmznAnlyst​:​ ​From what I have read, I believe everyone wants to work 
at Amazon. Just judging by the answer requests I get on Rooftop 
Slushie since I joined, I am certain that the tech community values 
Amazon a lot and the company is well regarded as one of the best places to 
work at. 
 
Mr.Mirror​: People view Google as a great place to work, great 
work-life-balance and good technical infrastructure. All of those 
things are true. 
 
What most people think that I disagree with though is that it isn't that big a 
deal to work here. I've answered several questions posed to me by folks on 
RooftopSlushie who desperately wanted to join Google and considered it 
their life's ambition. 
 
To those people, I would just advise: don't try to set yourself up for 
disappointment in life. I would encourage you to think about your individual 
career goals rather than thinking of just joining an employer. It's not as big of 
an achievement as you think it is. Think of becoming a better engineer, what 
that means to you, your goals, your trajectory in your career, aim to be an 
expert in the niche field that interests you. Then you will have leverage over 
various positions and roles, and whoever doesn't hire you is the one losing 
out (not you). Build your network and grow your connections and make sure 
to help out your colleagues and acquaintances. As you build your career, 
think of a coherent narrative connecting your various experiences.  
 
When you pick your next role, think of these two axes - responsibility and 
value added. Responsibility: are you growing in the level of responsibility you 
are given? Value addition: are you adding more value to your employer in the 
new role than your previous role? These are not simple answers, but you will 
have to do the exercise of evaluating these in order to make your decision. 
You want to be on an increasing trajectory w.r.t. these two axes, otherwise 
you will not find your work meaningful.  
 

18 
Finally, consider enjoyableness: you also want to make sure you like the 
work and the company of people you work with. Once you have addressed 
the responsibility+value axes, look at working on things you like intrinsically. 
Those connections are very useful as you build out your career. 
 
 
 
 
Need more information? 
Ask our professionals on ​Rooftop Slushie 

   

19 
– 
Where do you see your company in 5 
years? 
*You can click on the username to ask questions directly 
 
ebcs21​: Apple is already the biggest technology company on the face 
of the planet but I personally do not see them holding on to that 
position for the next 5 years. The biggest reason for me is the lack of a cloud 
solution from Apple. All the competitors are building their businesses around 
clouds but Apple does not have any viable product in the cloud space. 
 
NYxU44​: Amazon will continue to be a market leader in the 
consumer space. Other businesses like AWS will also grow into giant 
companies of their own. We will have revolutionary leaps in the tech we use 
for delivery as well as other businesses. Culturally and as an employer, 
Amazon's image will completely change from a "difficult" to "favorable" place 
to work because we are heavily investing in cultural improvements. 
 
USsx42​: I see it going in one of two ways, one more likely than the 
other (you decide which): 
 
1) Yelp builds up a good enough product/design team, and pushes enough 
new features in the Restaurant and Home Services category that it becomes 
a one-stop shop for meaningful interactions with local businesses. 
2) Google eats up the entire review business and duplicates all our features 
with enough engineering effort, before some regulatory body can swoop in 
to break them up. Yelp disappears off the face of the Internet. 
 
zeJk27​: In 5 years, the company would see more activities across 
the globe than in the US. It will also tend to have better practices 
established around user privacy and content integrity. It will expand business 

20 
around digital currency and new media. Finally, I hope it can keep giving back 
to society. 
 
 
shsl​: I see the company continuing to grow. The company invests a 
lot in its employees and innovation which should definitely help in the 
long run. Whether the company is able to transform itself to meet the 
expectations of corporate clients is something that might impact its future in 
a big way. 
 
Dios​: I could see it going a number of ways. Facebook has an 
amazing resiliency when it needs to. A good example of this 
Facebook Mobile back in 2013-2014. At the same time, I think a lot of the 
headwinds now are more complex, such as government regulation, 
customer sentiment, and a growing need for digital privacy. I think Facebook 
will have a hard time turning the ship at this point, given their size. 
 
AmznAnlyst​: I see Amazon having even more market share in the 
overall retail space, online and offline included. I see AWS dominating 
the web services market even more because of how obsessed Amazon is on 
delivering what the customers are asking. I also see the company selling 
more devices like Kindle and Echo, where we already have a giant market 
share. 
 
A​: Amazon has grown from being an online bookstore to an 
everything-store. Apart from selling the world on the Internet, now it 
has proliferated into: cloud computing, data warehousing, movie and music 
production, physical store, Kindle, content, smart home, Alexa voice, to name 
a few. I continue to see Amazon innovating on behalf of the customer over 
the next 5 and even perhaps 20 years! Amazon is here to stay and grow. 
 
days​: I think Google will still be doing pretty good in 5 years. That said, 
I feel like we didn't have a good product in years. Android, Youtube, 
Chrome, and Gmail are all great successes, but there hasn’t been a similar 

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success story recently. I hope Google can be successful in more areas so 
this great company can continue to exist. 
 
Mr.Mirror​: Google is a technology powerhouse - I think they will 
remain in this position and be an incubator of technology and a 
safe-haven for engineers. Google is also well-diversified in various 
fields to remain relevant in a changing environment. I do think though that 
Google will slowly become larger and more bureaucratic and slow, like 
Microsoft and IBM and won't be the fast-paced disruptive, bold, 
moonshot-chasing company that it once was. They'll still do ambitious 
bureaucratic projects and market it through the media engine as though 
those are bold and daring moonshots - but those bureaucratic media 
narratives aren't the same as the exciting and bold ideas explored 
unencumbered by curious, inventive individuals at the company in the old 
days. 
 
 
 
 
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– 
Do you want to move companies? 
*You can click on the username to ask questions directly 
 
Dios​: I'd like to move on, but not to another company. Most of my 
colleagues are either retiring, joining a start-up or passion project, or - 
if they're more junior in their career - grinding it out at FAANG or similar. I'm a 
bit wary of tech in general at this point. I think the large players will do fine 
but valuations and venture capital will dry up, in a way that makes it hard for 
small and medium-sized competitors. 
 
ebcs21​:​ ​Yes, I would like to move to some of the startups in the initial 
stages. After dealing with systemic issues with processes and red 
tape, I would like to work in places without these processes and just working 
on solving technological challenges. One problem with working at big tech 
companies is the lack of product ownership and working at startups can 
help fix that. 
 
shsl​: At least not in the next 2ish years. I enjoy the work I'm doing and 
have no complaints with the company. That being said, in the long run 
I may try to start something of my own given that it's something I've always 
had an itch to do. Let's see :) 
 
USsx42​: As a young engineer with almost no financial responsibility 
or desire for lifestyle upgrades, I'm pretty happy with where I am now. 
While the pay is definitely below market rate, I'm content with the amount of 
freedom I get to have and just relax after a stressful university experience. 
 
I haven't worked in an extremely high-stress (with correspondingly high 
compensation) environment yet, but if given the option, I would choose to 
work in that environment for a couple of years to see what I'm missing out 
on. 
 

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 NYxU44​: I've been approached by Google and Facebook 3 and 4 
times now. I try to convince myself to move each time, just so I can 
have a different set of experience but don't have a strong enough 
reason to move. At Amazon I have full autonomy over my projects, team and 
vision. I get to influence not just tech but also business strategy; I make a 
real impact every day. I deal with critical situations that I learn a ton from. I 
don't see what Google or others can offer me that'll be significantly better. 
 
days​: I'm considering. Mostly because of things moving too slow, 
including promotion. On the other hand, Google is a really great 
company which offers great perks, benefits and work-life balance. Most 
importantly, people here are very friendly. It's hard to find another company 
that has as good environment as Google. 
 
AmznAnlyst​: I do not want to move companies at this point. But I am 
in principle not loyal to any company. I am only loyal to the quality of 
work I do and the complexity of problems that I solve. In that regard, I do not 
have a dream company that I want to move on to, but I have an extremely 
personal dream role that I’d like to move to. Those roles can be inside or 
outside my current company. When I find something which I am interested 
in, companies do not matter, as long as realistic salary expectations are met. 
 
A​: Not immediately, but perhaps in a couple of years. My background 
is unique (studied biotechnology, worked in big data in financial 
services, did my MBA, and now at Amazon in my 5th year), and I might get 
promoted with a much bigger responsibility soon. Also, I am an Indian living 
in Europe expecting to get a passport. Given my favorable situation, I am 
likely to be suitable for director-level roles in smaller companies in the next 
2-3 years, or for Senior Management roles in FAANG. 
 
zeJk27​: Not right now, since I'm still learning a ton every day. This 
will happen one day though. There is no telling where I will move next, 
but that place must be characterized with an exciting challenge 
resulting in a significant and positive impact I want to make for the world. 

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Mr.Mirror​: Not yet, but perhaps some day :) 
If I do decide to move, I'd probably move to a smaller company in an 
unsolved technical space where I'd have the freedom to experiment with 
various approaches and have the responsibility to solve the said problem. I 
don't intend to move in the near future though. 
 
 
 
 
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25 
– 
Promotions 
 
*You can click on the username to ask questions directly
 
AmznAnlyst​:This is completely anecdotal based on my 18 months in 
the company. In general, my view is that promotions are given when 
they make sense and are frequent. It depends on levels and dry out 
the higher you go.  
 
days​: I'm not really getting underpaid because my initial offer is high. 
But for those who get Google's standard new grad offer, I think they 
are slightly underpaid if they cannot promo to L4 in 2 years. 
 
NYxU44​: It depends on the level and role. Level 4 to 5 Promotions are 
very easy and they happen really fast. Level 5 to 6 for SDM, PM and 
TPM roles are super easy and usually happens within 1-1.5 years. SDE 
promotions from SDE 2 to SDE3 or SDE3 to Principal and above, are very 
tough. It’s not surprising for an SDE 2 to 3 promotion to take 5 years. We are 
actively working on fixing it and have brought it down to 2-3 years. 
Principal/Senior Manager promotions are still broken. 
 
zeJk27​: Promotions are given every half a year. Promotions are 
impact-based: how much your work has delivered results that 
contribute to the company's mission. This mechanism encourages people to 
devote the limited time to problems with the biggest marginal gain. But this 
can also make people blind to minor issues that can create a bigger churn 
long term. 
 
ebcs21​: Promotion cycles depend on the team and level you are 
getting promoted to. For early career roles, it's common to see 
promotions every 2-3 years. For senior roles, it depends on the work and 
there is no set time limits and 4-5 years in one level is quite common in most 
teams. 

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A​: Timing is not fixed, it depends on when the individual is ready. 
Usually L3 to L4 should happen in 2 years, L4 to L5 promotions 
should take 3-4 years, L5 to L6 should take 5-8 years, beyond which it 
becomes really complex. There is a quarterly process in which every 
manager has to write a promo doc and submit a case for the employee, with 
verbatim and evidence-driven feedback by a set of senior stakeholders who 
are supporting the promotion. For example, to get from L5 to L6, you need at 
least 4-5 L6s, 2-3 L7s, and hopefully even an L8 writing few lines about you. 
This data-driven exercise ensures that most partner teams agree with your 
level-up, but the downside is that it might take more time than you’d like. 
 
Mr.Mirror​: It used to be once every 2 years but the promotion rate has 
slowed down to once every 3-3.5 years. It's a symptom of Google 
becoming large, bureaucratic and slow. Google's promotion process is 
heavily dependent on peer feedback so your ability to play nice with your 
peers play a very heavy role, more than it should in an ideal meritocratic 
system. This leads to political plays by people who try to play the status 
game and try to gain sympathy and like-ability among various teams and go 
around doing favors in expectation of getting rewarded with peer-bonuses 
etc. The other thing to note is that Google's promotion process is geared 
towards minimizing false-positives even at the expense of false negatives, 
so many deserving candidates get denied or asked to continue sustained 
performance for another 6 months or 1 year - this sometimes leads to good 
engineers quitting for greener pastures elsewhere, where the competition 
doesn't hesitate to offer high compensation and level on day 1. 
 
   

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– 
Misc. 
 
|​ Your favorite company product? 
 
ebcs21​: It has to be the Apple Watch. It is genuinely a great marvel of 
engineering which helps a lot of people. And the number of people it 
has already saved from treacherous positions is a testimony to its 
utility. 
 
AmznAnlyst​: Apart from the website, I would strongly recommend 
Fire TV Stick and Echo. I think they are great products which are 
extremely competitively priced. 
 
 
| ​Biggest perks 
 
shsl​: Although undervalued, my favorite perk would be the guest 
policy. Makes it easy for working parents to get their kids on days 
when their schools and day-cares are closed or when the nanny is out 
on a leave. 
 
 
 
| ​Thoughts on Google’s ‘20% Project’ 
 
shsl​: So in practice, not a lot of people do the ‘20% project’. Even if 
they do, it's not some innovative new idea - but more like an already 
existing 20% project. For instance, Google has a readability reviewer 
for CLS: this is actually a 20% project. So I really don't think it fuels 

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innovation, and less and less people choose to do it since it won’t help you 
with promotion.  
 
 
| ​Do you feel secure in your job? 
 
NYxU44​: Overall, Amazon is one of the safest companies you can 
work for, and I never felt or seen others worried about job security. 
Each major site has hundreds of open jobs, and with innovation and 
new markets we enter, it is easy to say that this is not a bubble.  
 
However, people undergoing performance training are a completely separate 
story. I have seen many of these people crying, and most of them constantly 
feel nervous and insecure about their work. So much so that even after they 
are out of the performance plan, they just quit because of emotional fatigue. 
Amazon has no incentive to treat these people nicely, even though we are 
more than fair to them and every manager I worked with has gone above 
and beyond to get these people out of performance plans. But the reality is 
most of them don't end up making it and those that do it, are just exhausted 
at the finish line. 
 
 
 
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29 
Here are some additional resources you can read for free: 
 
Amazon Leadership Principles 
Amazon SDE Phone Interview 
AWS Data Scientist 
Amazon SDM Phone Screen 
Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer 
— 
Airbnb Data Science Onsite 
Airbnb Software Engineer Interview 
Airbnb Engineering Culture 
— 
Apple Finance Onsite Interview 
Apple Work Culture 
Apple SWE Pros and Cons  
Apple TPM (Hardware) 
Apple SDE Interviews 
— 
Facebook Data Engineer 
Facebook Product Analyst 
Facebook Product Manager Interview 
Facebook Data Engineer 
Facebook Machine Learning Software Engineer 
— 
Google Product Manager Interview 
Google SWE Interview Tips 
Google Machine Learning SWE 
Google System Design Interview 
Google Cloud TPM Interview 
— 
Linkedin Senior Software Engineer Onsite Interview 
Linkedin Machine Learning Engineer Onsite 
— 
Microsoft Product Manager  
Microsoft Azure Software Engineer Onsite 
— 
Netflix Software Engineer 
 
 
For more information, please visit us at ​www.rooftopslushie.com 

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