The Big Tech Interview

The Big Tech Interview 💻 📝

One of the toughest things you can do in a software engineering career is to pass the interview and land a job at Big Tech. The preparation is long and the process is brutal. Its harder when you do not have a flashy CV loaded with years of full-time experience in other big companies. And even harder if you do not have a friend in HR rooting for you. You’ve got to have friends in high places, especially in Kenya. Its just what it is. But I got a job at Microsoft without any of that.

“Success isn’t about who you know. It’s about what you’re willing to endure.” 💥

Grinding Without Glory 🏋️

No connections. No golden resume. Just grit. I had only held one full-time job before applying to Microsoft, so my CV didn’t exactly scream “corporate darling.” But I grinded LeetCode like my life depended on it. I prepared obsessively, tackled the interview beast, and didn’t just land any role- I landed a Senior Software Engineer position. For a while, I was the first and only Senior IC (Individual Contributor) in my team. 🎯

The Lonely Victory 🎉

Getting into Microsoft was a life milestone- a culmination of the years I spent staring into code while the rest of the world moved on. So I celebrated me, because no one else saw the quiet suffering, the solitude, the nights of doubt. Learning to code was lonely. I lost friends. I lost time. But in that solitude, I built something unbreakable: resilience.

“It was in the silence of the grind that I found my loudest victory.”

From Black Sheep to Golden Child 🤩

This job turned my narrative around-from being the black sheep of my family (I was the college dropout that didn’t seem to do very well) to becoming a family success story. Everyone finally seemed proud of me. I was eager to share the spoils of my victory, to show that I had made it. From rejection to redemption- it was my moment to shine. 🌟

Not Everyone Claps When You Win 🙄

But here’s the twist- not everyone claps when you win. Some people seemed unsettled by my success. Their resentment showed. I tried to be nice to everyone, make life easier, give back, but it was never enough. I fell into the trap of people-pleasing, draining myself to fill cups that only leaked. I was trying to please everybody, including people who weren’t even happy with my success in the first place. I wasted so much time and energy maintaining toxic relationships that I got sick. I got stress induced illness that was persistent and nearly had a mental breakdown. ☠️

“You can’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm.” 🔥

Cracking Under Pressure 🤒

Meanwhile, expectations at Microsoft were sky-high. Being one of the only senior engineers in the team meant I had to set the bar and live above it. Pressure was mounting for me to perform at my level but I kept disappointing my team because of the personal crises I was going through. The personal chaos I was juggling spilled into my work. I wasn’t meeting expectations, and I knew it. My body was breaking down, but I didn’t yet know why. So I made the toughest call: I resigned.😱

I also felt that I had proven myself as a world class engineer, having made it into Microsoft. Whats the point of playing the game some more when you have already won at it?

I felt like I was ready for another world-class thing in my life - tech entrepreneurship. 🧠💡

“When the game no longer grows you, it’s time to change the game!”

From Big Tech to Small Hustles 📉

I came out and immediately hit the ground running with several local businesses - a couple of Airbnbs in high end estates, a skating rink in a shopping mall, all driven by a desire to quickly replicate the income that I was earning at Microsoft, so that I can actually start doing tech entrepreneurship. 💸💸💸

I thought to myself: “Im a world class engineer from big tech, what is a local business to me? I can run seven!”. While at it, I was still maintaining the soft life of a big tech employee, only with no salary to back it up. God, was I naive! 😬

I also carried along my “Big-Tech Certified” ego im my business management style. I brushed off a lot of people who didn’t vibe with my attitude. I attracted haters where I needed support to succeed with my businesses. I lost a lot of time and money and I failed miserably. 🚫💸😭

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” - Henry Ford

The Real Interview 📝

That’s when it hit me: Working at Big Tech has nothing on entrepreneurship. 💯 Entrepreneurship is the interview that happens every single day, requiring tough preparation, mad discipline and humility coupled with focus. The questions don’t stop. The expectations don’t lower. You have to wake up, show up, and grind hard to prove yourself again and again and again… 😅

“Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. This improves the odds of success.” - Elon Musk

• microsoft
• big-tech
• employment
• entrepreneurship