irfan3's review

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5.0

A must read for everyone looking for a position in the tech world.

rodhilton's review

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3.0

Not bad. Decent advice in here and good material, it gave me some insight into some "behind closed doors" aspects of Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon's hiring process. It was worth reading for someone interested in a job at one of these big companies.

I think overall the book skews more toward college students and recent graduates than folks like me who have been working in tech for a while. There were plenty of parts that I just skimmed because I felt like they didn't apply to me.

I felt like the advice in general skewed young as well, and I kind of felt like the author did too. There was one section of a Q&A where the question was something like "my parents tell me I should take down all the facebook pictures of me underage drinking, are they right?" and Author Gayle McDowell's response was not to bother, if anything underage drinking makes the submitter look more sociable which Google might want to balance out all their nerds. Uh, no dude. Delete the pictures. Holy smokes what terrible advice.

Overall, book was full of good insider info but for someone at my point in my career there was a lot that didn't apply. I'd definitely recommend it to younger folks or college students who want to get into one of these big companies, and it's worth a quick skim for graybeards like myself.

vishals's review

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4.0

The core essence of the book would fit just a couple of pages. Provides good examples to help understand the her recommendations. I thought it was catered more towards fresh graduates. For experienced folks, its reinforcement of what they already know.

klptenn's review

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4.0

Great for the students I work with and overall career advice- esp entry level. However, there is not a ton of brand new earth shattering info here.

funbeach1100's review

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5.0

Great book for people who are inexperienced with US tech job ecosystem. 13 chapters cover a lot of material. First chapters focus on which courses to take that’ll help you land a dream job at tech giant. Chapters in the middle focus on application and interview process. Last chapters focus on steering your career in the right way to land a dream job. Although hiring process is extremely stressful and diverse, the author does a tremendous job helping applicants focus on really important stuff. For example, whatever question recruiter asks, keep in mind that recruiters want to know two things when they pick up your resume:
1. Where would you fit at our company?
2. Would you do a good job?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s well structured, easy to read and full of practical advice.

michelleful's review against another edition

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4.0

Pretty much common sense resume/interview tips, but geared towards the tech industry. There are some specific tips for the big 4 - Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. A lot of advertising for the author's company/website CareerCup.

achouz's review against another edition

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5.0

Highly recommend for those who want to get into the tech industry but still new to the field (myself included). Reading this makes me feel so naive back when I made my first attempt blindly applying for these companies. I didn't know job searching and applying have their own working system that not a lot of people knows about. The author wrote with such a witty tone yet not sugar-coated about anything, which I really love and feel so connected with her. I'm in the middle of learning and applying for jobs, which would be a perfect opportunity to see if her advice will do me any good :) 5*/5*