VideoHow to stand out in a Big Tech interview
TL;DR Ask for a specific referral, and spend 30 minutes on the parent company's side projects, not just the flagship app.
Part 2 with my friend Alex, Data Sovereignty Manager on TikTok's privacy and security engineering team, with Activision Blizzard, Microsoft and Tencent on her CV. I asked her what actually makes a candidate stand out.
Her answers were refreshingly concrete. None of them is “grind more LeetCode.”
- Get a specific referral: your referrer should describe how you worked together and what you solved
- Spend 30 minutes on the parent company and its side projects, not only the flagship app
- Bring a Day 1 mentality: curious, ready to solve problems, caring about the product
Try this
Before your next interview, write down one thing about the company's ecosystem nobody else will mention.
