The document provides lessons and tips for Thai programmers to get hired by top tech companies in the US. It discusses the difficulty of getting a work visa, the importance of referrals, preparing for interviews through practicing algorithms and data structures on sites like LeetCode, and the need for strong English communication skills. The author shares their experience applying to many companies, including getting no responses or reaching the interview stage but not receiving an offer. Attending university in the US and timing applications around the H-1B visa lottery deadlines are also emphasized as potential pathways.

1. Thai Programmer Association
CodeEXP.
How to Get Hired
By Top Tech Companies
Supasate Choochaisri
26 Jan 17
@ National Innovation Agency

2. /me
Supasate Choochaisri (Ping)
- Co-founder @ LarnGear Technology Co., Ltd. (2006 - 2017)
- Co-founder @ Streaming Co., Ltd. (2012 - 2017)
- President @ Thai Programmer Association (2016 - Current)
- Solutions Engineer @ Facebook (Since Apr 2017)

3. Disclaimer
Opinions are my own and not the views of my current and future employers.
Everything in this presentation is just a general guideline. Some information might
not be applicable for some companies or some roles.

4. Top Tech Companies

5. My goal
Getting into a top tech company in US
- Started applying in Feb 2016

6. Lesson Learned:
Before being called for interview

7. Lesson 1:
Getting into US from Thailand
is super hard!

8. To work for companies in US
Need Visa
- H-1B (Specialty Occupation) -- Need company sponsor + luck
- L-1 (Intracompany Transfer) -- Need time to work at branch
- E-1/E-2 (Treaty Trader/ Treaty Investor) -- Need money++
- F-1 (Student) 1 year after graduation -- Need time to study
Reference: http://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/graduation/visa-options/

9. Lesson 2:
Applying through web sites
is 'almost' useless

10. Black Hole
Just an auto-response email after submitting a resume

12. No Interview
Got contact back but got declined to be interviewed

16. Applying through
recruiting campaign

17. Uber Code on the Road : Hacker Challenge

19. Black Hole
Staff Engineer - Distributed systems software @ VMWare => Black Hole
Software Engineer @ Autodesk => Black Hole
Senior Software Developer @ IBM- StrongLoop => Black Hole
Software Engineer, Palo Alto @ HackerRank => Black Hole
Software Engineer - Evolved Network OS @ Cisco => Black Hole
2 Software Engineer positions @ Uber => Black Hole
Software Engineer @ Arista => Black Hole
Software Engineer, Product @ Twitter => Black Hole

20. No Interview
Software Engineer, Tools & Infrastructure @ Google, Zurich => No Interview
Software Engineer @ Google, Japan => No Interview
Software Engineer, Front End @ Google, NY => No Interview
Strategic Customer Engineer, Google Cloud Platform @ Google, SG => No Interview
Software Engineer @ Google, NY => No Interview
3 Software Engineer positions @ Coursera => No Interview
3 Engineering positions @ Slack => No Interview
Full Stack Engineer @ Udacity => No Interview
Full Stack Software Engineer - iTunes U @ Apple => No Interview
Software Engineer @ Quora => No Interview
Software Developer @ Khan Academy => No Interview

21. Lesson 3:
Studying in US
may be the easiest path

22. Student F-1 Visa
12 months after graduation for practical training
* Not sure with the future situation

23. Lesson 4:
Referrals put your resume
on top of stack

25. Lesson 5:
Referrals do not guarantee
your resume will be picked up

27. Lesson 6:
Several ways to get chances
(but not so easy)

28. Google Code Jam / Facebook Hacker Cup

29. Contributing to open source projects
Attending hackathon / competition events
Networking

30. Lesson 7:
Timing is Crucial

31. Fiscal Year 2016 H-1B Cap
Regular Cap = 65,000
Master’s Exemption = 20,000
Start accepting petition on "1 April 2016"

32. Cap reached within 1 week
https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-reaches-fy-2016-h-1b-cap

33. Timing
2 - 3 months interview period
Feb - March Sponsoring company prepare documents
1 Apr Sponsoring company issues H-1B petition
-------------------- Wait lottery result ---------------------------------
1 Oct Eligible start working date

34. Timing
2 - 3 months interview period => Oct - Jan is good timing to apply
Feb - March Sponsoring company prepare documents
1 Apr Sponsoring company issues H-1B petition
-------------------- Wait lottery result ---------------------------------
1 Oct Eligible start working date

35. Prepare for interviews

36. Typical interview rounds for top tech companies
Software Engineer role (SWE)
Round 1 Pre-screening interview with a recruiter
Round 2 On-line coding interview with an engineer
Round 2.5 (optional) On-line coding interview with an engineer
Round 3 - 7 (vary) On-site coding interviews + system design interviews

37. Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
Coding interview
OS + Networking + Filesystem
Linux commands
Root cause analysis

38. (Technical) Solutions Engineer (Special case)
Round 1 Pre-screening interview with a recruiter
Round 2 On-line coding interview with a recruiter
Round 3 On-line coding interview with engineers
Round 4 On-line OS/Networking + coding + business interview with an engineer
Round 5 On-line Business + Communication interview
Round 6 On-line App Review interview

39. Behavioral Questions

40. Behavioral Questions
What is the hardest thing you've ever done?
What project are you most proud of?
What would you do if you weren't afraid?
Talking about your past experience
Test Culture fit / Googleyness

41. Coding interview
(Technical interview)

44. Ref: careercup.com

45. Ref: careercup.com

46. System Design

47. System Design Questions
Design Gmail
Design Twitter
Design YouTube
Design a distributed logging system
Design an airline reservation system

48. Engineering Blogs

49. CS75 (Summer 2012) Lecture 9 Scalability Harvard Web Development David Malan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W9F__D3oY4

50. Business Interview

51. Business Interview
Technical depth and experience questions
Business acumen
Communication
Strategic thinking

52. Required skills?

53. 1) English!!!
Need to speak with real people (recruiters, interviewers, etc.)
Need to listen to questions carefully with noisy microphone/unfamiliar accent

54. 2) Basic Data Structures & Algorithms
Time/Space Complexity (Big-O)*** Bit Manipulation Recursion*** String***
Array*** Linked List (Singly, Doubly, Circular)*** Hash Map***
Stack*** Queue*** Priority Queue Heap Tree Binary Tree Binary Search Tree
Tries AVL/Red-Black Tree Tree Traversal (Pre-order, in-order, post-order) DFS*** BFS***
Graph Shortest-path Connected Component Union-Find
Sorting Insertion Sort Merge Sort Quick Sort
Searching Binary Search*** Quick Select
Dynamic Programming*** Memoization***
*** = often found in leetcode.com

55. 3) Communication
Need to explain what you think when solving problems
Need to make interviewers want to work with you!

56. How I prepare

57. Books

58. Books on Data Structures & Algorithms

59. Books on Interview Questions

60. Practice

61. leetcode.com

62. HackerRank.com

63. Whiteboard Programming!!!

64. Sport Programming

65. Facebook Hacker Cup

66. Google Code Jam

67. CodeForces

68. Mock Interview

69. Mock with Friends

70. Mock with Friends

71. pramp.com

72. pramp.com

73. 5 Key Takeaways

74. 1) Always aim high

75. 2) No one is too old to learn

76. 3) Passionate about what you do

77. 4) Practice, practice, practice

78. 5) Never Give Up!

79. Thank you
Q&A