# How I Got into FAANG (Data Science)

**Creator:** Sundas Khalid
**Platform:** youtube
**Duration:** 22m
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js

## Summary

The video discusses the speaker's journey to securing jobs at major tech companies, specifically Amazon and Google, while sharing insights on the application and interview process. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding personal motivations for wanting to work at these companies, preparing thoroughly for interviews, and leveraging networking opportunities.

- The speaker transitioned from a startup internship to full-time roles at Amazon and Google, emphasizing the value of learning from peers in larger organizations.
- Negative experiences at smaller companies influenced the decision to pursue opportunities at FANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google).
- Key factors for wanting to work at FANG included access to mentorship, a sense of belonging through affinity groups, and opportunities to explore various roles.
- Researching the company’s mission and values is crucial for aligning personal goals with the company's objectives.
- Networking and building connections before needing a job can significantly enhance chances of getting referrals and interview opportunities.
- Preparing for interviews involves extensive practice, including mock interviews and studying common questions, particularly for technical roles.
- Persistence is key; rejection is common, and candidates should learn from each experience to improve future applications.
- Building a supportive network of mentors and peers can provide encouragement and assistance during the job search process.

## Transcript

[[0:01]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1s)
Hello welcome to another youtube video um before 
we jump into my video i just wanted to say you guys please ignore my background there's a 
mess over here there's a mess over here i tend to be a perfectionist and the old me which and 
i'm trying to get better at about it so the old me would have cleaned the entire background before 
recording this video but the new me is not going to do that because that is real life this is how 
my background looks 99 of the time so i'm not i'm

[[0:32]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=32s)
not going to hide it some of you well a lot of you 
have been pinging me in respect to learning how i got a job at amazon and google my for contacts 
for those of you who are not familiar with my career journey i worked at a startup i interned 
at a startup which is called which was called utrip i think it still exists so i interned at a 
startup called u-trip then i interned at a fang

[[0:56]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=56s)
of at amazon and then after my internship 
there i ended up joining amazon full-time and i was at amazon for about six years before i 
started at google about a year ago and that being said i have interviewed at other companies 
and i just threw a word at you and i didn't explain it which was fang so thanks stands 
for facebook amazon apple netflix and google and this term is kind of thrown around in the 
industry to represent the big tech companies

[[1:30]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=90s)
specifically in u.s so that's what i will be kind 
of talking referencing to fang quite a bit today instead of naming individual companies now there 
are some big companies that are not part of this term which is microsoft um and a few other 
companies but just assume they are part of it so companies where i have interviewed so obviously 
i've interviewed at amazon as an intern and as full-time i interviewed at google because i work 
here i interviewed at microsoft toys twice and i

[[2:03]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=123s)
got the job offer i interviewed facebook 
i failed i interviewed at uber i failed um i interviewed at airbnb and i passed the 
interview but they had made they were already ahead in their pipeline the interview pipeline 
some other candidates so they did not offer me um where else apple i never really tried for 
some reason i don't it never attracted me but who knows down the road so let's jump 
right into it number one reason number one

[[2:39]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=159s)
thing that i did was figured out why i 
wanted to work at a fang and i actually sadly i went through some bad experiences working 
with small and interviewing at mid-sized companies and that kind of and also a good experience with 
my internship working at amazon i think that was maine one of the main attraction 
factors so let's talk about the bad experiences a little bit my internship at a 
startup was not really a bad experience but

[[3:10]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=190s)
i think for me personally i did not have so 
i was interning as a web analytics intern at a startup called utrip and i was the only 
person in that role so i felt like there was not many learning opportunities 
especially from like peer learning because i was kind of like figuring it out on my 
own and learning it and it works for some people who like to learn things on their own and apply 
i personally like learning from people who have

[[3:40]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=220s)
already done it so that was one of the reasons one 
of my reasoning that i figured out later on as to why i was so attracted to working at a big company 
the second was that i interviewed at a mid-sized company one of the things that i figured out early 
on that discriminatory behavior for example one of the interviewer asked me um during my interview 
when i pretty much answered all my questions and um and i nailed it but they were still not 
sure because the question that they asked me is

[[4:12]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=252s)
how do you expect to work at a demanding job while 
managing two kids at home first of all that's none of your business who i have at home and if i as a 
mother if i can deliver or not um so i think that was a big turn off for me um another interview 
that i did that was also at a midsize company so i got the job offer but i was still not sure if i 
want to pursue it or not so i went um for a lunch

[[4:40]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=280s)
um um during like my final rounds and um those 
people just like were joking about personal stuff and again like this is my personal experience 
i'm not saying like all small companies and with companies or mid-size companies are like that or 
all not all small not all companies are like that but i'm just telling you like some of the 
things that influenced my decision like some bad experiences um and now i interviewed at boeing as 
well i got a job offer like i was ready to take my

[[5:10]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=310s)
boeing offer because they were all super amazing 
i also had an offer from pwc i also had an offer from kpmg those are all great experiences and i'm 
i am only talking about a few of them and those happen to be the bad ones because the topic today 
is why did i decide to what helped me to get to um to figure out like i want to work at a 
bank so for me i had like those very solid

[[5:33]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=333s)
reasons why i wanted to not possibly work at a 
not really work at a big company but not work at a small company especially a company that asked 
me during interview if i'm gonna be able to do my job because i'm a mother that is just 
horrible like do not do that so the thing that i'm trying to say here is um that there are 
thousands of people who apply and who want to work there so if you really want to stand out figure 
out what your reasoning are for working there um

[[6:04]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=364s)
the purpose of me mentioning all of this is that 
find your reasoning now again my reasoning would be very different from what your reasoning would 
be um one thing that i loved loved about working at a big company specifically when i was interning 
is that the access of the number of people that i had that i got to learn from so i really 
loved that about my internship experience because i learned a lot from my senior team members who 
were in the same job family but i also got to

[[6:35]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=395s)
get got the exposure to like other job families 
as well and that i believe helped me shape um help shape my thinking in terms of like what i 
want to do next um so there was a lot of like learning opportunities right um people from like 
the people around me the sheer people around me um and also the second part that attracted me um 
to fang was the number of affinity groups that were present so as a women of color i even though 
like i was the only female on my team that time

[[7:07]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=427s)
i i felt like there are a lot of groups 
i could talk to and i can connect with so that was also for me to have like a sense of 
belonging was very very important because as an immigrant i also i many time i feel alone and 
being able to find a place where you don't feel alone where you're able to find other people 
who are like you even if they're not in your immediate team was like a big one for me i almost 
felt like home and i know like i'm just being um

[[7:40]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=460s)
throwing in these like cheesy reasons but to be 
honest um those were like some of my big reasons um and the third thing that it really really 
attracted me was the opportunity to try different roles um i interned at fina as a financial analyst 
intern but i transitioned to a data engineer and at that time the company was willing to take 
a chance on me with the limited knowledge that they had on me um so i just loved that aspect of 
it that i can like try different things and try

[[8:13]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=493s)
different roles and if it doesn't work out like 
it's not held against me and that was one of my other reasons to join a big company because i was 
when i was starting out i wasn't sure exactly what i wanted to do um so just to summarize this whole 
thing make sure that you have a good reasoning as to why you want to work at a fang uh because it 
is competitive there are thousands of people who

[[8:35]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=515s)
apply um so you need to have like a good reason 
for you to be able to fight that fight i'm calling it a fight but it is a lot of work so just make 
sure that you understand that the second thing that really really helped me is that finding a 
role that fits me so if you are trying to apply for big companies there are hundreds of roles 
and it's possible that one role at one company

[[9:00]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=540s)
does not match to another or another company and 
this is specifically true for data job families so make sure that you study the rules that are 
available at that company and make sure that they are aligned with what you are what you want 
to do so for example if you are let's say into operations management apply to operation 
management role like don't try to switch job families while you are trying to switch 
companies as well um so stick to that job

[[9:28]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=568s)
family for me if i'm in data i'm going to stick 
to the data job family i'm not going to like try to go for a software development job emily so 
make sure it's a lateral move and find the role that actually fits you and that you have enough 
experience to talk about it so it's a lateral move another thing that i did very well is i 
researched people who were already working there um so i used linkedin for this quite a bit where 
i would just stock though it's not really stalking

[[10:03]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=603s)
it's researching uh where i would research people 
um and like study there for example if somebody works as a data scientist at amazon i would say 
okay i would like go to their profile and see okay where did they work before this where did 
they work what degree did they have like what else did they do to kind of build that portfolio 
to get to that point so i um i studied a lot of those profiles to kind of like understand what 
has helped if there is a trend that i can find

[[10:30]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=630s)
that is very attractive to these companies that 
i can also kind of include in my experience as well um so i definitely would recommend that like 
study people who already work there there is so much rich information available on linkedin for 
free that you have access to but not everybody does it so but you can do it definitely one of the 
biggest things is study the company i talked about like finding your reasonings and why you are 
a good fit now talk let's talk about like why

[[11:01]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=661s)
you are you are valuable to the company 
specifically so um the way to do that is study the company's mission whichever fang 
we're talking about what is their mission what are their principles and what what kind 
of what kind of culture and um environment that that they provide so for example we're 
talking about we're talking about amazon um amazon has like a very unique distinct 
leadership principles that you kind of need to

[[11:32]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=692s)
know and understand before you actually get to 
the interviewing part because you need to show them show aspects of it in your resume i'm 
also sharing a few book recommendations here which are specifically put together to cover some 
of the topics for fang so yeah i talked about like how different companies have different objectives 
different missions different leadership principles make sure you study that and also have like a 
good value proposition for how you can provide

[[12:01]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=721s)
value to the company so these are like some high 
level things that you should do to kind of like understand where you fit in where you fit in 
where the company fits in into your vision and where you fit in into the company's vision um and 
then once you have like figured that part out um then like start networking like make sure that 
you have build your network so when you're applying for jobs you can actually ask reach out 
to somebody who already works at that company and

[[12:28]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=748s)
get a referral so that is also one of the things 
that i did um when i was applying for um when i was trying to leave amazon and trying to interview 
different companies when i got my job at amazon it was i'll be honest i um i didn't have to 
work that much because my university because amazon recruited from my university like to date 
i never applied to amazon because i thought that i i don't deserve this is like too high of a 
company for me to uh to kind of like work there

[[13:06]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=786s)
but boy i was wrong um so i actually attended 
one of the networking events and during the networking event the person that i talked to um 
just took my resume casually and the next thing i know is that i got an interview call um and 
um i interviewed and i even got the job offer too which was still to date it just it just you 
know like looking back i feel like that was like meant to be because to date i never applied 
um i never applied officially to an amazon job

[[13:38]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=818s)
it just happened so i don't want to say i had it 
easy i did had resources around me and definitely the networking i leveraged the networking 
opportunities that my school offered um so that like that was and not a lot of students did 
that and i did it so similar to that in the real world there are not a lot of people who are going 
to utilize the networking opportunities so you should take it upon yourself to kind of like build 
your network not when you need a job do it now so

[[14:07]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=847s)
when it's time let's say six months down the road 
you can actually all you already have somebody who you can ask for referral and um interview help 
if possible like tips on the leadership principles or whatever that company has to offer get to 
like the the actual meaty part now so let's say you got that interview call and now it's time for 
the interview so a lot of people make it to the interview but they don't make it to the final drop 
stage and one of the reasons for that interviewing

[[14:42]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=882s)
at fang is hard the interview itself is hard like 
there's it's not no kidding the interview is no joke um when i was interviewing at amazon like for 
my internship like that was just the internship i had to sit in a room room for like four to five 
hours consecutively where one person was going and one was coming and just the process of it is so 
tiring so you should be mentally prepared for that but forget that like even if we you are 
comfortable with that part i do want to

[[15:13]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=913s)
call out that you need to make sure that you nail 
your interview uh regardless of how tiring it may be you need to know your [ __ ] excuse my language 
but you pretty much need to know your stuff what you're talking about and um one of the things 
that i did is i practiced a lot i studied a lot for the interview interviewing is just like 
another big project if not a degree program in itself like um so you need to like spend a 
lot of time preparing for the interviews itself

[[15:50]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=950s)
um so for example when we're talking 
about the technical um interview make sure that you know your stuff if somebody 
asks you a question you are able to answer it um there is no getting away from it so um getting 
a job like you did all the hard work getting the interview call but don't just screw it up at this 
point you should be 100 prepared like whether that is doing lead code whether that is doing something 
else like for so technical interview is one part

[[16:20]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=980s)
i also have like the behavioral questions 
i have like pages of pages written of um interview questions that i anticipate to get 
and i have under each question for example if there's a question called tell me about 
a time that you failed i would have at least three project examples listed under my prep in my 
preparation document so um and and then i would like to rehearse it and practice it and i'll 
make sure to follow the store method so do all

[[16:49]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1009s)
this work do a lot of learning on your own make 
sure you're preparing for the interview using the resources whether that is glassdoor or linkedin or 
whatever your network um prepare for the interview and uh do the mock interviews i realize like when 
i'm answering my own questions it's sometimes easier but when it's somebody else who is asking 
me i tend to get nervous so make sure that you're doing a lot of mock interviews and kind of 
trying to mimic that real world setting so

[[17:17]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1037s)
i think that was pretty much it just networking 
having the right connections getting referrals knowing why you want to work at a fang 
knowing what value you can provide to the fang pretty much nailing your interview the tech and 
non-tech part um and leaving no room for mistakes there because you need to nail it um and the 
last thing i want to say that all of this is a lot of work and do not be discouraged if you 
don't get the job the chances are there are like

[[17:52]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1072s)
10 other people who interviewed along the same 
time that you interviewed for the same role and sometimes it just happened to be there's there's 
one person who is who is just with more experience and the company end up offering that uh role 
to them so just know that there are thousands of people applying so if you get rejected do not 
take it personally try again a different way learn what you did wrong in your last interview 
learn from people who actually made it and

[[18:20]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1100s)
people who recently interviewed and what helped 
them that i think that pretty much covers how i the things that kind of helped me um land jobs at 
fang specifically amazon google and microsoft i know i look worn out after talking about all this 
but it's 4 p.m my time and i've been working since morning so i hope this was useful um i i did all 
of this i also had people like mentors by my side

[[18:53]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1133s)
throughout my interviews where i would get nervous 
like let's say one day before the interview and i'm getting really nervous and i would just be 
like freaking out that i'm not gonna get it i will basically text message that person and they 
will kind of like encourage me and kind of like tell me like no you got this like you did all the 
hard work preparing for the interview so just stay confident and do not so those kind of things also 
definitely help i i think one one of the things

[[19:20]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1160s)
that has really really worked in my favor is that 
i build that circle of people around me who i can ask for help but also when um so like also not not 
just like getting the referral part but also like asking like helping me mock interview my mock 
interview like when i was preparing for google the person who did my mock interview 
was my teammate at amazon at that time and we were like casually talking about like 
interviewing for different companies and

[[19:51]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1191s)
we kind of like made a patch that she will 
interview me and mock interview me and i'll mock interview her and we'll kind of like prepare 
for the interviews together um and we did that so definitely like find the people around you who 
will be supportive of your pursuit of like getting jobs um especially at a fan company but just 
know that it's not end of the world if you don't get it like it's it's great working at big 
companies it's great working at small companies

[[20:18]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1218s)
um just do whatever you are just do amazing 
work and don't overthink it make it your goal but like if it doesn't work out try a different 
method don't change don't change your goal change your method um that's like one of the things 
that i learned recently and i think it just like summarizes this whole process so i hope 
this video was useful i know i talked a lot um this is like not unlike my other videos where 
i have a lot of pictures to show you guys i don't

[[20:46]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1246s)
have anything to show you i the only thing i 
have to show is like all this mess that is in the background but i really hope this video was useful 
and some of the learnings that i shared here are useful to you if you have more questions feel 
free to leave them in the comments and i would be happy to answer those one thing that i do want to 
call out is that i have no experience with like

[[21:11]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1271s)
getting work visas so i won't be able to answer 
any work visas related visa related questions but i'm happy to answer any other questions 
that you might have about the things that i share today all the best with your job 
search and if working at a fang is your goal be it like you got this uh work hard follow some 
of the things that i have suggested and you will be working at a fan soon enough all right i'll 
talk to you all of you later have a great one bye

[[21:49]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yr0ZQ1_js&t=1309s)
okay so i just realized that the 
video that i just uploaded before my face was like in here when it should be 
like somewhere here so i'm not liking your face but i already departed it so i don't 
know what to do with it it's going