I finally understand what FAANG wants in a candidate

6 rules on “how to tango” in the interviews which got me the job.

The Conversation, 1908–1912 by Henri Matisse

FAANG is an acronym for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google.

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear not to brag at every corner that I’m working at Google now. This is the only article I’m mentioning it in. I’m still cool and independent like that — the sunglasses are not just for show, you know.

Getting into FAANG as a non-native English speaker

I’m not the kind of person that employers actively hunt for. None of the company names in my CV will tell you anything. There are at least 2 other challenges that make me “unfit” for many employers, such as:

• my non-nativeness in English (which, in Content Design, is a real joy-killer) and my traceable Slavic accent,
• the necessity for an EU or US employer to provide me with a visa.

Even with these “quirks” — which make me less competitive in the job market — I made it. It’s not because I’m special. It’s only because I learned the unspoken rules of the interview tango. Which, at Google, consisted of exactly 6 rounds.

In this article, I focus on the communication strategies I developed while…