I got a new job!
I’m really excited to start my new job as a software engineer at Samsara today.
I know I have a lot to learn in order to succeed with my new team, but I’ve been working hard for the past 6 months to get this opportunity, and I want to savor this moment and all the process that led up to it.
I quit my job at Magoosh in February, moved back to Berkeley to certify as a blockchain developer with Blockchain at Berkeley, contracted for a startup in April and May, moved into a new apartment in San Francisco in June, and had been intensely solving LeetCode questions for the past two months with my roommate.
I applied to, was reached out to from, or was referred by (friends working at) 45 companies. I chatted with 27 recruiters, interviewed with 13 engineers over the phone, and scheduled 6 on-site interviews. To my surprise, I was somehow able to finagle 5 offers from companies I was pretty excited about: Neighborly, Samsara, Uber Frieght, Amazon, and Google. I mean, GOOGLE! If I told my college-self that someday I’d have the chance to work at Google, aka ~the Harvard of tech companies~, I probably would’ve scoffed and continued complaining about how I didn’t want to do any of the problem sets assigned to me.
This recent job hunt process has taught me a lot about my ability to stay focused and to execute on a vision. In the beginning, I really doubted my ability to interview, but by surrounding myself with people who were also job hunting, dedicating large amounts of time to practice interviews, solving over 150 LeetCode questions, and even mock interviewing with a recruiter in order to learn how to sell myself as an engineer, I was able to maximize the number of opportunities I had for my next job.
When it came time to decide which company I wanted to commit my work hours to for the near future, I looked primarily at the growth of the company, followed by how interesting the industry is to me, then engineering team size, and finally location. Samsara ranked at the top of the list for all of these factors.
Fast forward to now, and it’s my first day. I’m really looking forward to helping Samsara t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶I̶o̶T̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶i̶c̶e̶s deploy sensor solutions at scale!
Shout outs:
- my good friend Jason, who inspired me during my job hunting with his move to New York
- my underpaid genius roommate Steven, who made LeetCode fun for me by practicing with me
- my homie Matt, who keeps me grounded with his funky parties and entrepreneurial efforts
- all the friends who trusted me enough to refer me to their companies
- and last but not least, my best friend and biggest supporter, Catherine
Finally, two announcements.
1) If you’re looking for a new job, Samsara is still hiring, so let me know if you’re interested.
2) If you want some coaching during your job hunt, whether it’s for technical interview questions or learning how to talk about your past projects, I’d love to help, so please reach out.
Thanks for reading!
Edit: Updates from my time at Samsara so far —
