full image - Repost: How I Landed a 6-Figure Salary FAANG Job with the Cards Stacked Against Me, and How You Could Too. (from Reddit.com, How I Landed a 6-Figure Salary FAANG Job with the Cards Stacked Against Me, and How You Could Too.)
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In this post I will explain: what I did, how I did it what you can do to increase your odds of landing a job(with some visual data), I warn you this is gonna be long if you don’t wanna read it all scroll at the end for crude tips.My background:International Student (European) | Bachelor of Arts (non STEM Major) | 3.6 GPA | White | CISgender Male | No connection in the industry | Top 1% Public University (non Ivy League).Previous Experiences:-Summer intern ad a small VC (When I say small I mean SMALL not BoUtiQue)-Convinced a friend how created a small portal online (virtual reality) to let me write that I worked there as a marketing intern, no this was not a VC backed startup that raised millions in fact it never raised anything at all it was just him running it from his dorm and it had absolutely no customers or investors, more of a side project, I don’t even think the site is still up as of now.In the 3.5 months of job applications and interview I:-Tried every Ai tool Under the Sun (Will list pro and cons of the major ones to keep it short but feel free to ask my opinions on any other tool in the comments).-Got 3 different certifications to increment my chances of getting hired.-Paid to have my resume edited and proofread as well as my cover letter.-Paid multiple people to apply for me.-Applied to 900+ Jobs | 10 Applications Daily | USA Only.Job Selection was limited to jobs that do hire international students, I applied to absolutely anything that would fit a business undergrad, as well as internships.NO NETWORK NO NETWORKING ON REACH OUT OF ANY KIND ON ANY PLATFORM.Why I had the cards stacked against me:12% of international students are able to stay in the US after graduation the vast majority of international students are in STEM(50.4%), me being in Business which makes up for 16.2% of those 12%, meant that only a 1.94% of international students with my degree are able to remain and work in the USA. This percentage amounts only to the number of people that due to my visa are able to make it through to finally join the USA job market, which is a whole other beast in itself.(THIS IS NOT TO BRAG, although I am proud of myself for landing this job I shared this info in the hope to give those who read this post a bit of perspective, if an idiot like me with a shit GPA and with little to no odds to work in the us at ALL managed to land a FAANG job you can easily find a job for yourself)I divided the whole process in tranches of 2 weeks each where I would add something or fix something to see If it would increase my odds off getting an interview.Tools utilized:-Notion(free version, utilized the template “Job Applications” to track the application process(the template is free as well).-Calendar to structure a schedule that would allow me to keep up with the quantity of applications.Format: Google “Harvard Resume Template” LETS START:1st TRANCHE Week 1-2 | START.STRATEGY:Same Resume-Cover letter, created a template for the cover letter that I would fill in, paid an expert to optimize the template as well as proofread my resume template.RESULT: 140 Applications = 84 Rejected 56 No Answer 2nd TRANCHE Week 3-4 | INTRODUCTION TO AI - 1st Interview - Getting Extra Certifications.-Started to take a look at forums and reddit asked opinions, implemented AI.-Obtained free certifications for the following: SQL, Excel, Google Analytics. (All of these took few ours to obtain and were all free, there’s an abundance of sites that do offer certifications online)STRATEGY:Tried different AI Resume Scanners(also paid for the premium service when a free trial was not available), scanned each resume and then tailored it better on ChatGPT, this one took A LOT of time, it took me 10x longer to do one application.Here is how I divided the tools based on the applications to test them:40% Teal.40% Kickresume.20% Various others that I still wanted to test regardless.RESULT: 140 Applications = 97 Rejected 42 No Answer •1st Interview•Out of all the AI platforms I tried there are the main two, Teal and Kickresume, later one you will see how I ditched both.The issue with every single AI platform for jobs is they do give you a score and what to fix but ultimately you will have to do the fixing yourself, there is no automation is just a Scan that does claim to pass ATS scans, I don’t know how true is that(Could be), ultimately they offer some slight improvement (through ChatGPT) but no real “tailoring” per se, and “Templates” which you can easily find on Canva for free, on top of that when I was researching the tools I figured out most of the companies out there do make fake posts on reddit in order to gain traction, in some cases I was not really able to find a legit post and review that didn’t seem shady.Regardless I still tailored each application to get at least a 90% score on the scan.Personal Reflection: I have the impression that tailoring each resume based on the score of any platform might undermine the outcome, there the need of the possibility to keep the same format in the scoring as well as the re writing to be more impactful in the application process. 3rd TRANCHE Weeks 5-6 | PAID SOMEONE TO APPLY FOR MEAs I was busy with school and had to optimize my time I decided to hire someone to do the work for me to keep the momentum and quantity of application per week, also I had little to no trust in the AI platforms and tools to help me optimize the process.STRATEGY:I hired different people across different freelance platforms(Fiverr and Upwork), across different prices, I talked with 20 freelance “professionals”, some of them seemed like bots for some reason, I narrowed down my selection to 4 candidates that seemed promising and matched my requests as well as having a proven track record.4 Freelance total applications 140:1-Cheap: 35 Applications2-Mid: 35 Applications3-Mid: 35 Applications4-Expensive: 35 ApplicationsRESULT: 140 Applications = 57 Rejected 83 No AnswerPersonal Reflection: The most expensive and less effective, most of the applications were meh some were straight up incorrect and full of grammatical errors, also the vast majority of applications were the exact same, I suspect they use some kind of tool or app that does automate part of the job, I mixed feelings about this because I felt like I missed out on opportunities but with school In the way I would have not been able to apply to as many applications.Pros:”Time effective”Cons:lacks quality, cannot track the execution, expensive. 4rd TRANCHE Weeks 7-8 | BACK TO THE ORIGINS - Studied the game and paid for lessons.RESULT: 140 Applications = 98 Rejected 36 No Answer •6 First Interviews•Personal Reflection: Went back to the origins to get some control over everything also I had more time, went above and beyond online to find how to perfectly tailor my resume for better outcomes, also paid to get lessons from the person that would proofread my resume at the start to get more insights on how to tailor it better. Structured my day in a different way to I would have resume and cover letter prepared (which is 80-90% to the application process) using the calendar was HUGE in helping me structuring my time more efficiently. This was grueling and non sustainable I do not suggest to to this, but ultimately It was helpful because it led me to my last idea which was the one that made me succeed.5th TRANCHE Weeks 9-14 THE FINAL RECIPE - PAID AN EXPERT TO APPLY FOR ME I CRACKED THE CODEExpectedly got really busy with school again, knowing that I decided to talk with the person who gave me lesson and would proof read my stuff and asked if he would apply for me, and do the whole process for me(applications only no interview). Negotiate ad price and did the deal, it was far from cheap and considerably more expensive than the most expensive “expert” on freelance sites.RESULT:9-10 140 Applications = 105 Rejected 24 No Answer •11 First Interview•**11-12 140 Applications = 93 Rejected 39 No Answer •**8 First Interview•13-14 140 Applications = 82 Rejected 45 No Answer •13 First Interview•Personal Reflection: This was the most expensive by a long shot overall, but it came back paying in spades. Also for clarity I negotiated a bulk price for a number of applications amount/week, I had to pay NO percentage of my employment rate.TLTR and CRUDE TIPS:-tailor each applications to the job.-schedule your applications time to stay on top of it.-all of the ai apps around might help but wont really automate anything or make you save too much time to be worth it.-stay away from freelance that offer to apply for you for cheap.-hire someone knowledgable someone that necessarily doesn't offer the service of applying for you and try to negotiate with them a way to do so, is gonna be worth your money.
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