3:00 why the 4? try to start with working for a big company 5:00 pay 6:10 roles Getting a job IS obvious step 1: get an interview concise resume that focuses on impact of your work work on projects that concern with what you wanna do. You won't be happy with every one. Keep doing em anyway GPA ain't everything you won't get an interview if you don't apply another way to get an interview is to participate in coding challenges try to get an interview with the help of an existing employee's referral step 2: the interview 20:30 - 22:15 cracking it: 22:50 - 24:30 behaviour: 24:35-24:52 list of questions: search on the internet for questions for your prospective role in the company practice: 26:00 mock interview: 26:30-29:32 find patterns in different problems 30:03 36:00 37:03 39:11 40:31 41:42
As a full time employee at a company he mentioned I don't know why I watched this video from the beginning to the end, and I have to say, I am very inspired, and very motivated in a general sense of life
Also, Sean Lee seems like one of the rare and wonderful people who organizes communities and produces a group of people who all climb and lift as they go.
Wow, I never thought I'd gonna go through the all 42 minutes but his attitude kept me there. Great talk, precious and I agree on aaaall you said! Thanks Sean!
I normally don't comment. And this comment is going to be put at the bottom of the 746 already existing comments. But, Sean Lee, thank you. This was incredible. I'm struggling with all of this and watching your presentation has given me newfound hope.
GREAT talk. What a personable, humble guy. Usually speakers on this topic can come off as arrogant, but he countered that by minimizing his talents and magnifying his failures in a humorous way. He appears to keep the audience engaged while providing relevant resources and strategies.
I agree but I think he failed courses it wasn't because he was stupid. It was because he prioritized his interviews over his school work at Columbia. Not mention going to Columbia automatically makes you smart.
I watched this video first 6 years ago that set me on my interview preparation path. Before this video, I considered these top tier companies out of my reach considering my grades and university. Through the preparation, I got an internship at one of the big 4 and came back to work full time. It's been instrumental in my career path and life. Thanks for this video. This is personally one of the most impactful videos I've ever watched.
The value of this video is probably more beneficial than the 5 year education I have done from UBC LOL. Watched this video from time to time when I started to feel unmotivated. Me and a group of friend (Computer Engineering undergrad at that time) followed his suggestion from the video, everyone actually ended up in big tech companies 1 year later (Google, Amazon, SAP ...etc). I also got a chance to interned in Amazon and received a full time return offer from Amazon. Trust this video and good luck guys :)
The best advice in this video is about perseverance. Thanks for being totally honest by disclosing all of your failures along the way. That speaks louder than credentials ever will.
Most of the advice here is true to any professional/competitive job. Opportunity exists for those who have put in the preparation without knowing when they're going to succeed.. and in this journey perseverance through the darkest times prevails. :)
I just got a call and was told I'm going to be an intern @Amazon! Thank you so much for the motivation and information during my application stages. Much appreciated, great talk!
Rainman Honestly, if it meant more relevant work experience, then it was hardly a stain on his résumé. Almost no employers will give a shit how long it takes you to graduate, regardless of how long the program is supposed to take traditionally.
yeah, at around 37:20 in the video he tells the story of how he failed data structures/algorithms and software engineering, which are both core courses
Okay, thanks. Did he ever state his overall GPA? I don't know how it works at UBC, but at my university, you needed to get about a 2.8 GPA among core classes in order to declare a CS-minor or major. So perhaps he didn't truly fail, but he merely didn't hit the cutoff GPA? I
I love this guys talk. It is so inspiring to see when somebody has to struggle through something and they 1. don't give up or get discouraged 2. keep it up and look at the big picture and eventually succeed. Awesome talk!
I was in this room and was greatly inspired by this guy. I just got a job at MS as a PM and his words definitely helped me along the way. Don't fear failure. Thanks Sean Lee
I watched this video 7 years ago, and after completing my degree and graduating I got an offer for a Big 4 company. I can't believe watching this video have helped me so much, and something that sounded like a dream a couple years ago is now a reality. Thank you so much for opening the doors for me for interview preparation , leetcode, CTCI, and resumes, and portfolios. My 8 year's ago self would be proud of the achievements of my present self and would not believe this was possible. Keep trying and keep working, because it is possible.
Tim Foolery, I have a question for you. Do you actually believe that having a 5 month interview process actually attracts top talent to google/facebook/amazon? Given that the top talent can likely find other offers within 2 weeks?
Thanks for posting this. I followed his recommendations and got a job with one of the big 4! Your tips were super helpful and they were what made the difference for me getting the job.
Amazing video. I followed your advice 2 years ago and I was able to get an internship and full time position at a FAANG company. For anyone reading this comment, listen to this videos advice. IT WILL WORK
I love this guy. Not for his tips but more for the last 10 mins of Empathy and talking about himself openly. For getting emotional and wishing from bottom of his heart.
Wow! Thanks for the inspiration, Sean Lee!I have been out of school for over 10 years and only worked 3 of the years in the computer industry, and it was only a computer operator job that I didn't need a B.S. in Computer Science for! I never felt confident. I didn't know how to start. (Well, I had the degree, but felt so inept I didn't want to pursue the necessary course of action that you have stated here.) My GPA is about 3.2, so what you told us about your GPA was inspiring! (I failed Ordinary Differential Equations twice - took it 3 times and got an A)Also, what you told us about (major) companies not really caring about your GPA was inspiring!Thank you very much! I have laid out a game plan based on this video, and I am going to do what you have outlined here! I will report back with the good news! You rock, buddy! Thank you!
I love this guy. He put himself out there and made himself vulnerable. To convince us we all have whatever it takes to fulfill our dream. He got really emotional by the end. Such a great person. This talk made my day! Thanks Tiana, Joseph and Sean Lee.
I have worked 30+ years in software / system engineering. His speech is still very inspiring. Those big 4 companies and other high tech companies tend to hire newly graduate students, who have higher successful rates to pass those academic questions. In my 15+ software development experience, I don't deal with algorithms as much, but other environmental, tools, packaging issues. So, the mid/late career software engineers actually have a harder time to pass those academic coding interviews. Not that we are not good programmers, but the experience often didn't get considered in those first step academic 45 min interviews.
Good Talk! He makes a very important point: treat interview prep not as a prep for interviews only, treat it as prep for your professional life. This will be your job! People often just study coding questions before interviews hoping to make it in. Let's say you got lucky and got in with that prep, what happens next? You need to prove your worth everyday for the rest of your career to stay at whatever company you got in and to move to better companies. It has to be a regular part of your life. The athlete analogy was perfect.
When I got an offer from Amazon everybody was asking how did I do it and I share this video along with the resources he mentioned. There is no other way I would have done it. I think I have way more failures than him. I was not applying for an internship but it really helped me to stay motivated. Thank you, man! And thank for an excellent job recording and sharing it.
Lol which means that GPA are bs !!! It’s more about skills. The education system in the whole world is a true waste of time when it comes to building really good engineers. I Hope this will change in the near future
I have never programmed in my life. Never a single line of code yet I was able to sit through this entire lecture without getting bored and actually extremely interested. Massive Props.
Thanks for encouraging me. I struggle with depression and motivation every day because I see how everyone is smarter and ahead of me. I'm a cs grad, 32 years old, couldn't get a job so I've got no development work experience, working as a cashier clerk... My classmates who got F in their programming classes are now working at big companies making 6 figures, and I , who got all A's, still have no programming job few years after. Sad reality... But I'm still gonna keep trying
@@musqitonebeats2129 well, I studied, had a tutor also. 2 years went by since my original comment, and I do have a small consulting company job that a friend referred me for but I'm not doing programming, only like support stuff and a little bit of database. I'm still struggling with my depression though and can't pass the real interview... No one seems to like me, maybe I give them weird/awkward vibes... I don't know. But I'm getting by for now. Hopefully one day I'll succeed in getting a better job.
@@EvgeniyaJZ just practice fake smiling an d awkwardness will go away, I have been there and struggle with it sometimes hopefully you can do leetcode too in free time and get your dream job good luck man
I watched this back in late July 2021, unmotivated, complacent with returning to my current company after interning there for 3 years. This video popped up. I watched through the whole 42 minutes, it left me with weird feelings. I started the grind then. At first it was really tough, can't even solve leetcode easy, now I can solve a medium 50/50. I have a final with microsoft scheduled in 3 weeks. If I pass it, part of it owns to this video that motivated my ass to grind.
This video session is probably the best video on the internet regarding this topic. Thank you so much for posting this classroom presentation here. I will come back one day here to comment about my offer on one of these top 4 FAANG company. Mark my word! This is my public commitment.
Hands down one of my favorite speeches. Particularly for the end. Thank you for letting people know you don’t need to be a guru to be a software engineer.
i was seriously considering not doing comp sci anymore but I'll try to stick through it, especially when he said he failed 2 comp sci courses and has a low ass gpa
I'm exactly like that guy. 7 years for a 4 year degree. Academic probation and 2.3 GPA and failed game design even though I make games. Love the story.
I've failed 4 courses and currently have a 2.0 GPA. You goof once, then slowly snowball into a huge degenerate, give up and play League of Legends 6 hours a day while putting in just enough work to still be enrolled. I don't know if I'll ever get hired by anyone at this point, and I'm already 3 years into undergrad with no extra-curriculars, no side projects, and no internships. I get anxiety from constantly having thoughts like "What if I give this effort and still fail?" Still though, I'm glad I watched this video because hearing about how you landed these seemingly impossible internships on academic probation has taught me that at every point in my life when I thought I was completely screwed and gave up, I really did still have a chance. If by some miracle, I manage to get even an interview, it will be all thanks to you for inspiring me to keep on hanging in.
Came across this video AFTER successfully completing my internship at Microsoft. I graduated from University and now have a position at Amazon! Looking to move up in Amazon. Fantastic company to work for! From UK.
These are honest. These companies need talent. They express over and over how many seats are empty at these companies because the education system isn't producing enough talented youths.
Excellent sharing: "the interview only limits you for 45 minutes of taking the test but it cannot limit how much time you prepare for it." "The good thing about resume is that you don't have to put down how many times of failure into a resume (only successful ones after multiple attempts)."
You have inspired me. It is my vision to work at the Big Four Software Engineering companies, to contribute to the technological development of human civilization. From this day onward, this is my main goal, and I will do whatever I need to go there. I have recognized that it is possible for me to get a job at the Big Four. It's not something which is unattainable. You just have to commit to it and work hard. That's it.
This is probably the best video about getting job at the big 4 or generally in technical roles. I am so thankful to you man. I just moved to America with my wife from Pakistan and I am a computer engineer but I worked in non-tech fields back home because I was always afraid to do programming but now I have embraced it. I am doing a lot of self-learning, learning SQL, python on my own and your video has motivated me to learn more. Thanks for this! I will pray for your health, success and happiness.
Great motivational presentation by Sean! Congratulations at landing a job at the Big 5! My son is studying at UW, I am sending him a link to this presentation so that he can remember the recommendations.
I have watched the complete video. But I accurately know the answer to the question. Improve your topcoder-github-kaggle performances and try to befriend/impress the present employees of such tech companies to get referral to get a job. Simple. All the other ways to get jobs at such companies are super long and super uncertain. All the printed papers like school and college degrees have lost their value in the computer engineering industry.
Step1: - personal projects .. what are interested or wanna work on - coding challenges from companies - referrals (very useful) Step2: - cracking the coding interview (ctci) .. a good resource : 1- all data structures & algorithms 2- no behavioural questions 3- glassdoor.com to know interview questions for jobs u apply for 4- leetcode is a bit more challenging - get used to white board coding - practice interviews with 2 to 3 friends max
Probably one of the best talks I have ever watched. I've seen it two times now and will continue to watch it once a month until I get an offer at a big 4.
Usually I wont sit through 40+ mins presentation in a single watch. But this is too awesome to ignore. Great talk with facts for every software engineers out there.
It's awesome, but it's a bit different here in the UK. I have worked in the United States and had job offers which are way easier to get than in the U.K. Recruitment Process for Amazon in the UK: 1. Online Application + Cover Letter + 3 questions with 300 words each 2. Online Tests (Numerical, Analytical, Business Reasoning) 3. Telephone Interview 4. On-site Visit (Not an interview) 5. Interview 6. Offer That's it
Well, right now I'm sitting in a small private school in western Canada that doesn't even have a CompSci course with a 2.8 GPA. I've recently started teaching myself programming again, and my dream is to work for one of the big tech companies. I don't know how long this journey will take but I'm prepared for a long game, but I think I can definitely do it, and this guy has definitely inspired me to make a dedicated push for the top.
I watched this video about 6 months ago. I have interviews with Google and Amazon at the moment. It was really inspirational, now I have a week to study LC and hopefully land one of them. Also, I have a 2.5 gpa and no experience prior to last semester. But I got a research volunteer spot, then another part time data analyst spot and here I am. So, just work hard guys
I'm that person who feels like burning out when I haven't even started yet. I got rejected from Google last year, I've interviewed with several companies since then and I'm about to graduate with a masters degree without a full-time offer in hand. I consider myself the dumbest of all even though I have a GPA of 3.92 because I know that GPA doesn't matter if you can't think of an efficient way to write code. I practice on hackerrank and fail several times every day. But you sir just made me believe that even though I might not be able to solve that one problem now, I will know it tomorrow and it will help with other problems someday somehow and that's how I'm growing. You sir just made me believe that I can be a software engineer one day, and I will forever be grateful to you for that.
The way he took me out of fear of knowing nothing is incredible ...and i am so much thankful for that.... and i am sure very soon i'll be working at big 4.....and congrats to all commentors who got job at big 4.
Hey, Ryan here. Maybe the real question is not why you should believe me now, but why you don't believe in yourself. There's been a gangster inside you all this time, you just have to unleash it, G.
I have a job lined up for September, it's not in one of these companies and I don't do a degree in computer science or programming. But I still watched the whole video!
because japan/korea genetic overlap...japanese people are more pure toward this race and looks significantly better than korean people... korean people are basically mixture between japanese+chinese...
I randomly clicked this learned a lot. But I'm already worked and is working for the top 3 Sports brand in the world. Time to apply for a higher position and move up.
