Want to Land a Job in FAANG? [Here’s My 2020 No-BS Guide]

Let’s be honest. 

There’s a lot of people who haven’t been in your shoes, giving out advice on how to get into FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google). You’ve “tried” it all – from rewriting your resume to getting into another certification. You try something new each time, it doesn’t work and then you repeat the cycle all over again.

I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but…

Sending out a resume is not a solid job search strategy.

How do I know? I’ve been there several times. Before breaking into Amazon back in 2015, I was in your shoes. I was trying to transition into a big tech company using the experience, skills I already had. I was sending out my resume left and right because “coaches” who were in HR and hadn’t worked a day of their lives in tech were telling me to do this.

What I learned from this experience is that tech doesn’t follow the hiring rules of conventional fields. So why should you follow a conventional job search strategy?

Here are 5 steps you can follow to ACTUALLY land a job in FAANG:

Step 1 – Find Your Target Role

Whether you’re a woman already in tech, a non-tech professional trying to transition, or a recent coding bootcamp graduate – this step is key if you’re serious about landing a job in the big leagues.

There are thousands and thousands of roles you can find in big tech companies. These roles go from technical to non-technical and everything in between. The possibilities are truly endless but that doesn’t mean you have to apply to all of them. It means the opposite. You should market yourself very specifically for one type of role.

Here a quick way to find roles that fit your experience and skills:

  1. Pull out your resume and highlight work experience you enjoyed or were really good at and want to continue to work on.
  2. Open your ideal company’s website and check out their job page.
  3. Search by using terms you highlighted on your resume.
  4. Different companies will use different titles, so start writing those down as you find them.

2. Time to Reframe Your Experience

This step is what most people get wrong. You might think you need a prettier resume, a longer resume, or a resume with more fancy words – but this is not the case at all.

Think about the two places where you should be reframing your experience – resume and Linkedin profile.

The best way you can think about this is this. Whoever comes across your resume or Linkedin profile and who can potentially hire you speaks “techie” language. If your experience is not translated into that “techie” language – your possibilities of getting to the next step are slim.

By “techie” language- I mean a combination of industry words, problem-solving skills highlights, and data.

In the previous exercise, you found your target role – now it’s time to reverse the process.

  1. Open your target role on the company’s job board.
  2. Take note of the verbs, words they use.
  3. Compare the verbs and words you’re using on your resume and LinkedIn.
  4. Change to the new words where applicable.

The second part to this is making sure you have three of the below in each experience sentence:

  • Show results in data (numbers, figures, percentages)
  • No fluff words
  • Highlights your problem-solving skills
  • Is it relevant to your target role? (Transferability)

3. Optimize LinkedIn (Yes, This Is Not a Drill)

It’s not a secret anymore that LinkedIn is the place where big tech companies come to look for talent. The real question is: are you helping them find you?

If they can’t find you, it’s not about you not having enough experience. It just means you need to stop treating LinkedIn as another social media where you have your resume. It’s time to go all in and follow a strategy.

The main idea behind optimizing LinkedIn is to help recruiters and hiring managers to come across your profile, so they can see all your value and experience and they can reach out to you.

We already talked about reframing your experience and making sure you fill out the experience section on LinkedIn with your results from that exercise.

Here are other sections you need to dust off:

  • About section

This should be a story about you and your journey. Forget about summarizing what you already have in your experience section.

  • Headline

The headline is one of the most important parts of your LinkedIn. Ditch the “looking for a job” and put a few keywords related to your target role.

  •  Endorsements

Boost your profile by getting more endorsements. The key here is to have endorsements for skills related to your target role.

4. Step Out the ‘Employee’ Mentality and Become a Leader

Have you noticed the type of people who get hired in FAANG companies? Yes, they have a type. They hire leaders. People not afraid to showcase their expertise. People who share their knowledge with others.

How can you do that before you work for any of these companies?

It’s simple – post more on LinkedIn (or your blog if you have one).

You might be freaking out now, thinking how can I post more on LinkedIn? Do I need more experience to do this? I’m afraid.

Yes, posting on LinkedIn can be daunting. It’s as easy as sending out a resume and crossing your fingers. So let me share with you the anatomy of a good engaging post on LinkedIn:



5. Level up Your Networking Game

This wouldn’t be a no-BS guide if getting out of your comfort zone was not included. The truth is landing a six-figure job in FAANG will take a lot of action outside of your comfort zone.

One of the fastest ways to break into big tech is to land a referral. This process doesn’t have to be daunting. It can be as simple as having a conversation.

Once you optimize your LinkedIn, you’ll start to attract more new people to your profile (ahem! Hiring managers and recruiters). But you should also make a proactive effort to grow your network with people already working in the companies you want to work for.

When you’re growing your network, remember you’re a leader. To show up as a leader, write your communication keeping these TWO tips in mind:

  1. Level up your wording – ditch “picking your brain” or “need your help”
  2. Make it about having a conversation not asking for something

Conclusion

There is so much information out there from career “gurus” telling you to send 100 resumes daily and call it a day. So I wanted to create an actual guide for you, using my actual experience breaking into FAANG and helping dozens of women do the same.

Remember this is not about landing another role and continue to be an employee. It is about taking over your tech career and showing up as a leader so you can break the glass ceiling and live up to your potential.

Do you want to see better results in your job search? And finally, land that dream job? Then my FREE 3 Strategies to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile training is for you. I will teach you how to attract opportunities in tech instead of chasing after them. Click here to gain immediate access.