how to break into faang w/ genesis bonds

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Hello, hello. Thanks for listening to Guidance Counselor 2.0. Listen, I want to give you a quick rundown of what this podcast is and what you're about to get into as you listen to these episodes. We had Guidance Counselors in middle school. We had Guidance Counselors in high school, but we didn't really have Guidance Counselors in college and now as professionals, we don't really have anybody to turn to to ask a quick question to learn something about the job search or to navigate your career. And so that is what I want this podcast to be for you. I want it to be a tool for you to navigate the job search and your career.

So that being said, I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you need to reach me, Taylor at vaco.com is how to get in touch with me old fashioned email social media at tdssent, d-e-s-s-e-y-n. And finally, please rate and review this in the app store because I want this to be discoverable for others so they can navigate their careers. Hope you enjoy the episode. So, Jess, give the people what they want. Who are you? What do you do? And then we'll dive into the topic today. All right. Who am I? That's a really existential question. But hello. My name is Genesis Barnes. I am, you know, I'm from Queens.

I'm from New York. I'm in Queens right now. I am a software engineer currently at Facebook or meta, however you decide to roll that one. I also am the director of social engagement for a nonprofit called Text Givin, which which I love actually sort of post my own tech talks like this. Similar to this, if you're following follow text giving, we can be reached at textgiving.org. I'm also speaker and an advocate for Render ATL this year. So I'm excited about that. I love it. Yeah, it's just a Render ATL session this morning. If you want people coming to Erica, Dr. T, what's going on, girl?

It's great to see you, Tyrone. It's so great to see you all this morning. All right, so Genesis, the question that we're gonna kick off with, which to be honest, I'm super excited to have you, because I don't know how to answer this question because so many people ask me. How do I break into Fang? Now, this is a super big wide question. So just give me some thoughts and then we'll vibe on kind of what you say. So by breaking into Fang, I mean, that's a question that I always, I would say have difficulty answering as well because it depends on like by which means and also what role fits you, right?

So I speak to a lot of people about breaking into tech the one support code. At this point, that isn't really anything, right? Because tech is everywhere. Tech is everything. That being said, I can break into tech meeting. I'm going to be a software engineer at a non-technical company or break into tech community. I'm an HR at Facebook, right? It can be technical roles, non-technical roles. If we're speaking specifically about software engineering, I personally didn't even apply to Facebook, right? I use LinkedIn. So I'm a huge LinkedIn advocate. I'll tell you, I guess, a little bit about my pathway to tech, if you will, my pathway to Facebook.

I graduated school, so I went to Duke University. I started as an electrical computer engineering major, and then I realized that physics wasn't in God's plan for me, right? So I decided to listen to that. Not your spiritual gifts. Not my spiritual gifts at all, you know? I mean, there are certain lanes that people, you know, are in, and I really, I really, you know, that wasn't online. So I eventually ended up switching to computer science major. But I found that to me, and this may be something that I'm not sure if anyone can resonate with this as computer science major, I found that it was really based towards people who already had a code, people who were like, you know, making, committing to open source products and stuff like that online already, and people who coded in there free time.

That wasn't me, right? So I found out that I could code, but mostly console apps, basically just small things that were not full stack applications. That being said, when I graduated, I was looking for opportunities to break into tech. I was working in Dallas, Bbq's and Times Square. I'm not sure if you've been there. I'm not sure if you've been there. I'm not sure if you've been there. I'm saying six years ago, I didn't know where I was going to be. Either way, I found a bootcamp. me, I can talk about that as well. This is like the golden arrow boot camps, wherever you can actually trust them.

I kind of have a lot of feelings about them now. But I ended up going to a boot camp, and I did well, so I ended up teaching there for three years. So now, yeah, they only hired trainers from the camp. So my LinkedIn, of course, I had it stacked with all the technologies that I was doing that I was teaching. And also, as the years passed, we added more and more technologies to to our curriculum. That being said, after three years, I was teaching, you know, basic to AWS, back-end job at Spring fun and Angular, and then we were hosting our app, so and so forth.

Excuse me, we even touched microservices. But then after, you know, I feel like something that's important in the job, I guess, you know, these days, a lot of people switch between job and job and job every two years or less. And I'm not here to say your name to that, But personally, I like to make sure that I'm getting every single more slow of what I can from a role before I'm moving on. Yeah, until I feel like it no longer serves me in the space of a healthy way. I'm not having any challenges that are technical. I started to have challenges where I was like, okay, I'm actually really tired of my day-to-day being people who are relying on me every single day, to be there and be happy in their face in person.

I just didn't. I couldn't do it anymore. So then I started looking for roles as an actual software engineer and then I looked through my emails and then I remember just you know looked through my LinkedIn whatever. I saw this message in all caps last attempt Facebook software engineer and I was like girl have you been ignoring Facebook like who are you? Who do you think you are? You know? So I ended up in replying to the email the fourth email that this man had sent me and then interviewing and getting the role. But that's, I say all this to say that the pathway to a thing career looks different, right?

Many people apply, many people have internships and that's like the best way. If you're young and you're in college, really try to make sure you snag an internship while you're there, right? Because it's really, of course, it ends up being hard to get in front of the recruiters. That's what I'll say. But once you're there, we can talk about the interview process as well. I love that. So a few more people have chimed in this morning. Chris, it's so great to see you. Dually he's asking what part of Queens, that's my home. Oh, Jamaica. That's awesome. Hey, that's awesome. And then Andrew, it's great to see you buddy.

Yolanda. It's so great to see you all. So you drop, you drop some good, some good gems and there's a lot of places we can go. I want I want to touch on bootcamps real fast because I think right now, I don't want to dive too deep because we have a lot to cover, but just what are some general things that people need to be mindful of when evaluating bootcamps because obviously you kind of threw some shade a little bit. Yeah, I have lots of shades that are honestly towards bootcamps because there's a few things I have to say, right? One, as to me, I feel as though you need to make sure that somebody is going to invest in you as much as you're going to invest in them.

And the bootcamps that I went to the reason why I felt so comfortable with going was because, look, there was no money upfront. It wasn't one of those things where they signed you to offer up your first child, basically, which is like 30% of your first high paying job after you get a job. You have who camp was, you work with them as you're learning or whatever for three months, and they pay for your housing. By housing, though, I had a literal roommate and not going to hold It was like I roll over and there's like a chick six feet away from me like an actual roommate.

And so there was that but they paid for your certifications that you got while you were there. You worked for them though exactly. You worked for them as a contractor for two years. And I think that was a really awesome and awesome segue because I was like 22 at the time. The initial the first year you'd make 50,000 second year you'd make 60,000 and you'd just just like go anywhere, right? Now it's to a lot of people that's not what you'd expect for a software engineer salary at this point. This is also, again, a few years back, I think at the time, I was definitely like, okay, cool, 50K, I can then swing that to however much money later, right?

I just need to be much later in the board. So that being said, of course, if you don't get a job, they don't get their investment, right? So I figured I want to go to a boot camp where they're on the hook as much as I am for my success. I love that. Yeah. I love that. This bootcamp for transparency was called Revature, or is called Revature. I'm not gonna say anything for them to come sue me or whatever, but I'd just say like it's different from when I started. Sure. Yeah. So I'll leave you. So that's something to keep in mind of is like you want to be, so anybody who's wanted to join a bootcamp, make sure that they're invested in you just as much as you're gonna have to be invested in them.

Correct. I mean, I've seen some people where they're taking out loans, taking out $10,000, $17,000 loans to go to these bootcams. And then especially during the pandemic, you're sitting at home, this guy, I know, I'm not gonna lie, my time is a little expensive now. So this man was here asking me to tutor him. I was like, babe. I don't know. I don't really know what he's saying is gonna happen, but because of his friends, yeah. Because we're friends, I didn't really charge him or anything like that. Sure, sure. Because he needed some help, and he had already taken out, when he told me what was going on, I was just like, okay, let me help you.

Let me just try to get you through this thing. But there's just, to me, the lack of effort from the boot camp was very alarming. He said that apparently the trainers or whatever, they would say, we can't help one person because they don't make things unfair, weird things like that. We should tune you out to the hours. I was teaching, we've got a mission for how many students of ours got jobs. I was at work until like seven PM because I was like, you're going to learn something. If you don't have any questions, you're going to stay and we're going to chat and you're going to learn.

Right. Well, I want to point out something because Genesis won't say this and I want to give you props. You, your intensity and your intentionality and your drive, you, I've already picked up on it through this interview. I mean, like, you're just getting after it. I mean, and I think every individual who's watching this, whether you're a junior or a senior, it doesn't matter. I think you gotta approach it the way Genesis is, because I don't know if y'all are picking up on these Q Genesis, like, you know, I'm working late, I'm, you know, I gotta get this out of this, you know, and just props to you, because I think, I think that's the mentality I think people need to have.

And I think people have lost that mentality. I think there's, I think, and rightfully so, the market is dictated that the candidate is the driver, but I think that's caused candidates to get lazy right now. I think it's caused the job seeker to get lazy a little bit. I don't know your thoughts on that if you had any thoughts. So I would like to know what you mean. So in the sense of you think that people are expecting the jobs to come to them or people just think that, okay, I can do, okay, that's interesting. Just because the market, everyone's been told the last two years that the candidate is like the gold standard right now.

And I feel like there's a lot of people who are just sitting back just waiting, just, I mean literally, you know, talked with an individual the other day, been out of the job search for a little bit. I'm like, hey, how's your networking chops? Like, you talking to people? He was like, I'm all, no, I'm just interviewing like one or two times a week right now. And I'm like, come on, go. So I didn't know if you had thoughts on that. I think to me, I'm not even sure if I would, I have no idea about what the job market looks like, which is general candidates, something that I feel like it's a double-edged sword when it comes to, or I guess there's two sides of the coin when it comes to the frequency with which we talk about breaking into tech, right?

Because on one hand, people are feeling inspired. People are feeling like, okay, if this person is doing it, it's not impossible. There's no, you know, smokescreens and mirrors or whatever to breaking into tech. There's no, you know, no thing that one particular person had to be. On the other side of that coin, I feel like people are really thinking that, okay, it's like, you know, you just got to bat your eyelashes and then next thing you know, someone's gonna come up to you and offer you a job. I just think we remember speaking of, you know, when you're talking to people and you're kind of like, hey, what's going on?

You know, there was someone who went to a boot camp and hadn't been working or anything like that. And like, again, no shade. But this man like hit me up talking about, oh, Jen, can you refer me for your role? I was like, what have you been, you know, like sort of, how can I, you know, because obviously I'm going to help you or whatever. Give me some. Yeah. And I was like, Hey, so what's going on? He's like, yeah, you know, I, I went to a book, came up a little bit, then sort of doing things and doing freelance or whatever. And he's like, yeah, you know, I'm just working on a few technical skills, but I think I'll be able to, I'm like, yeah, this is, this is not like the job where you're working on technical skills.

And then you're going to get the role. know, I just, I think that not enough people are willing to put in the time now because of the fact that this whole six months to six figures pipeline BS is being spewed all over the internet, right? There it is. Like I get there. I can take six months to get to where I am, you know what I mean? And then when I talk to people about that, they're like, oh, well you went to do, oh, you this. And I was like, yeah, but I also bust my ass, you know? When I was studying. And that's why I want to give you props, right?

because literally your entire tonality through this interview so far is your crushing it. And you have a mentality. And I don't think that mentality's there for a lot of people. So, Darwin, what's going on? Dr. T goes, I'm feeling that the bootcamp should do more than throw the code at you and see if it sticks. Probably bootcamps that most instructors are not educators. Oh yeah, I'm sorry, my mom is calling me. I can't answer this really quick. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I will definitely keep laughing, Put yourself on mute and I'll definitely keep blabbing. So as Genesis is taking this call right now, quick intermission, what I also want to encourage y'all to do, please connect with her, Genesis Bond, please go connect with her on LinkedIn.

She's obviously an amazing individual, an amazing force. Oh, she's back that was fast. Let's see here, grind on no shortcuts, exactly it's a journey and not a sprint. It takes a lot of effort in grinding. Dr. T goes, I'm over here like I'm in church, better say it, I love it. So let's talk a little bit about just some, a mindset to go through the interview process at Med or Facebook or whatever. What do people just need to mentally be prepared for? Cool. I would say there's a lot of pressure that's going to happen when you walk into those rooms. Something that really kept me calm was, I don't know if it's like a spiritual thing, but I figured that if this opportunity had been placed in front of me, it was for a reason.

And it was only up to me whether or not I got that job. I love that. I love that so much. So yeah, so like when I walked into the room, I have a lot of anxiety a lot of times when it comes to like lots of things. But it was to me very tall. Yeah, it was very telling that when I walked into those rooms, I was like, you know what, there's always gonna be anxious, you know? Like these people, it's taught you out, these people are willing to bring you here, right? Because getting, again, learning the interview is a huge hurdle. Thank you.

I say the same thing too. I'm like, listen, if a person, if a company's calling you, they're interested. Like that's huge. Especially, um, especially let's say if you're doing any sort of in person interview right now, um, because I, I started working never before the pandemic. So I was in the office, you know, um, they're feeding you there. There are people taking their time out of their day to talk to you. So do understand that if you're letting the interview, you're already in a good space. Um, excuse me. But something that I would say to help me, or that helped me be really prepared was like I mentioned before I'm a New Yorker.

I was going to work back and forth and I would have my note, my, like a, where are those? There's a notepad and Ex-situation. Yeah, like I was, I'm yes. And I had that crack on the coding interview book as a PDF on my phone. And I was here like writing out the problems or writing out my solutions. And then I would get home, see if it compiles, check my education, so and so forth. right? There's something to be said about making sure that you're practicing on pencil and paper because as you guys know or actually let me circle back for maybe those who are slightly unfamiliar with the process.

Of course for coding interviews or software engineering interviews, you're going to be coding on a whiteboard in front of someone and then there's likely going to be, see if I don't know what is happening to me, like either way, there's going to be a systems architecture as well. We're like DPI designing and depending on your level that's going to like vary in complexity. So about the coding challenge part, I think that it's really important to write things out by hand because you are absolutely not going to be able to use an IDE, you're not going to be able to compile things and see if it checks out.

Also, I would say don't worry about the company's language, right? Like Facebook is PHP backend, Instagram is Python back end I did my interview in Java because Java was almost familiar language they don't care as long as it's valid syntax right they're just gonna have an interview or who knows that language um beyond that something else that I would say to help you prepare that's the question right like how to prepare for these interviews yeah yeah or just any tips to be honest with you so you can you can take this however you want to okay cool um the another thing that I would say is to to record yourself because I realize, yeah.

No, yes, completely. I think I'm glad that resonates, right? Because whenever we speak, and this is something that I make sure I check myself onto, I also at this point, I recently got a public speaking coach because I don't really know if people realize how many times I use filler words. And as someone who was interviewing people when I was at my last job, it's kind of like, like, even when I say it, the word like or um, starts to drive in your ear. And then it takes away from the actual content. In addition to that, you may not realize how awkward you are or how much dead time there is when you're speaking while you're thinking.

And it's very important to make sure that you're speaking throughout your thought process, you're telling me interview or what you're thinking, you're showing it, you're just talking how you got there. I think the biggest thing, so few things, one, again, I did not pay Genesis to say this at all, One, I talk about writing. I literally recently have talked about specifically writing things down, writing your story, who you are as an individual. I interviewed a CTO of a startup out in Raleigh this week, Chris Rathgab, or was that last week, the time's running together. But literally Chris said the same thing. Know your story, write it down.

And here's Genesis talking about literally writing down problems, writing down things, which is amazing. The second thing that I talk about too is video in yourself. Again, Jess, I talk about this all the time. Videoing myself is huge. I was a public speaking minor in college and I had to record myself and it was brutal. I wish I still had those videos because it was just brutal and you have to work on yourself. And so many people are like, well, how do I work on my speaking? How do I work on my communication skills? I hate to say it. You have, I mean recording yourself is the easiest thing and the most effective thing.

I had a few more people come in brand and what's going on, buddy. Chris goes, I like that attitude. If I'm here, there's a reason. Yes, so good. And then Duly comes in, your passion is flowing out. I love that, I love that. So as we wrap up here, so we got five, seven minutes left. Awesome. Time flies when we're having fun. I guess there are. What else would you like to, I guess impart on individuals right now who maybe are stuck in their job search, who may need some encouragement right now or any other, maybe best practices tips that you love. Absolutely. So a couple things that I'll say to feel encouraged, right?

I personally feel as though there's no, like I, something that makes me feel very good about myself is not that I'm the best at any one particular metric, but it's like everything that I bring to the table is going to be unique, right? Like the combination of things that make me me is going to be unique and I can do that very well. That being said, sometimes you may interview at a company and it may be discouraging if you don't get that role, right? I don't know what's happening. I'm so sorry. I'm like, I'm so tired. I went out last night for anyone who's here.

What's she going through? Don't go out on St. Patty's Day when you have interview at 9.30 in the morning. Okay. Anyways, so where was I? Yes. You were talking about tips about a billion per inch, right? Here I am. OK. I'm like, hung over. OK. So yes. So whenever you are interviewing for certain things, please just don't think that you're not getting to one company is going to is a slight, right? Just maybe that's not the company for you. There's obviously just a billion places at this point, looking for software engineers. Something that I found that was really interesting that people have been doing is talking about conversion rates of like reachouts they have to roles.

And this one person who want to follow on Twitter was talking about her applying to I think 102 jobs for two job offers. And saying, right, 102 job to two job offers, but that one like the job offer that she took is a $40,000 raise from where she is now. Okay. Right. Okay. Yeah. So like, I, I, I personally don't know how to encourage people other than to say like, you know, just keep, just keep swimming. You know what I mean? Like keep keep keep that roles. Yeah. Um, but one thing I will say as well is to not go for the big fish before you feel prepared because you can only apply once every six months, right?

Oh, really. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, once I'm again, I'm so sorry. No, you're fine. And I think too, I think too with with what with what Genesis is saying, I think it's incredibly important is timing, right? I've I've talked about this all the time on this show. is just because you don't get a job in the moment, it doesn't mean that it's not, it's not a slight towards you. There's so much I post about this the other day. I literally think, and hopefully Genesis can still hear me because I want to hear a thoughts on this. I think 75% of the job search is actually not even about you.

There is so much that has to do with budgeting. There's so much that has to do with people, headcounts. There is so much involved in the job search that isn't actually you, Justice, I said, I think 75% of the job search isn't even you. I think it's budgets, head counts, closing of positions, reallocations of roles. Um, what are your thoughts on that? Cause, cause I encourage people, it's like, it's not about you most of the time. It's actually just about some other factors that you can't control. Right. Um, I would say I like to keep a healthy mix of both of those thoughts in my head, because I also am a huge fan of accountability.

Um, so yeah. So I would say like, all right, there are certain things where again, like I said, if something doesn't work out, it just wasn't for me. Because sometimes there will be changes in scenarios, there will be, I mean, maybe, you know, maybe right before you applauds, there was a reorg and now that allogasness moved, there's a bunch of things like that. But again, once you learn that interview, you have to make sure you're prepared. And that'll honestly help you go in without that anxiety, help you go in without that feeling of you're overthinking everything, right? Because if you know that you prepared, then the only thing you can do is do your best.

And then if you don't get it, you know, neither here nor there. But I would say as far as preparing for those interviews, I mentioned, you know, recording yourself, making sure that you're not practicing with IDEs initially. Also, I would say one site that I found and they're not paying me, unfortunately, but I've been advocating for the site for so long is interviewcake.com. Interviewcake.com. It's a little expensive, but I found that the way they explain coding problems was so pivotal and honestly, I think one of my Facebook interview questions was like, right, something that I'm practicing from that website. I was like, damn, yeah. So, you say it's interviewing cake or interview cake?

you flake.com. Yes. And they also have a Twitter. They like put out I think like free problems and stuff like that. But it was cool because they asked me these really hard questions and they're like oh still don't get it and then you can click something and it'll like talk you through the problem. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. But there's no to me people are they always ask well how much time do you study blah blah. I pushed my Facebook interview back about three months. I initially talked to the recruiter because I mean you can you can take the data structures in Alkater than class when you're 20 years old but obviously like you need to you need to be brushing up on these things.

And I remember I interviewed for Google as well. I didn't really want to work there. I was like let me take this Google interview first before I take the Facebook one and this person asked me what's the big annotation of a binary search I was like, boy, what are you talking about? I don't even know what that means. I don't even know what that means, but that sounds fancy. I mean, at the time I was losing my mind. I was like, oh my god, I thought it was just going to be, you know, the algorithms. I didn't realize that I had to know in a time complexity and space complexity of various data structures.

So I would say, you know, make sure you're studying for that particular interview as well. Facebook didn't do that, but Google apparently is notorious for doing that. And I didn't do my research, right? So I wasn't prepared and there you go. There you go. I love it. And again, I tell individuals this too. At the end of the today, take some pressure off yourself, hiring managers and job seekers, everyone's doing the best they can. I mean, I've talked to so many senior level folks on the show over the last two years, like CTOs, VP's of engineering, they're trying to figure it out too. Everyone's just trying to figure it out.

And I think if you can go into the interview process knowing that everyone's just trying to do their best and just do your best, I think it could take some pressure off of you. And then Chris comes down here, I love it, gives a link to Twitter, I love that, thanks Chris. All right, Jess, is there anything else? We could wrap up. Yeah, please follow Tech Giving. That's my nonprofit I'm on the board of. We do really great work there, we do similar things to this, we do Tech Talk Tuesdays. Actually, it's coming Tuesday, I'm doing something similar about best interviewing practices, so on and so forth.

All right, let's see who's next Tuesday or next Tuesday. In addition to that, good luck for people entering tech. I'm sorry for the issues. And my mom's having a couch delivered downstairs. You're fine. You got me interested. Yeah, thanks. But this was great. And please connect with me. I'll link it. Please, yes. And then again, check out Render. If you like Genesis, she will be there. And she will be taking autographs. And I will be getting her autograph. So, so, so y'all hang out again. Thank y'all for hanging out today. Genesis, stay on for a quick second after I end, but y'all have a great weekend and we'll see y'all on Monday for another guest.

Y'all have a good one. Peace. Hey, you did it. You listened to an entire episode and I am very grateful. Cause you know why? There's a lot of podcasts out there. There's a lot of episodes and I myself rarely finished an entire episode. So I appreciate you so, so much for listening. Quick reminder, please rate and review this podcast in the App Store. I want this to be discoverable to others, and the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it, please, like right now. Unless you're driving, then don't do it. So thank you again. If you need to reach out to me, Taylor at Vaco.com, or at T.

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