I love programming. I have been working at a couple of startups in the last 5 years. I want to move my career forward and improve my chances of being hired at a big company that is relatively more stable. I am in my early 30s and I am feeling insecure about the future. I have sent my CV a few times to Google and I didn't get a single response back.<p>Outside work, I write little programs for fun and to solve my own problems. I contributed to a couple of famous open source projects and blogged about it. I have put most of my personal projects on Github (link in bio). I am willing to put as much hours as required to make myself more employable. But I feel stuck. I don't know what to focus on, what projects to start, or what books to read to get them to notice me.<p>I would appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks.
Read this blog : <a href="http://haseebq.com/" rel="nofollow">http://haseebq.com/</a><p>This guy majored in English, was a world class poker player before he made his move into tech. In 1 year he learned enough to crush every single interview in top tech companies ( Google, Uber. Airbnb, etc. to name a few ). His blog posts provides information in extreme details. It might be of help. Cheers!
Google reached out to me for a software development position about 9 months ago and the recruiter told me the main contributing factor was GitHub but he ended up making the initial contact through LinkedIn.<p>I never bothered applying because I didn't want to invest a lot of time preparing for the interview.<p>I would say keep doing what you're doing, just more of it. It wouldn't hurt to learn languages they use internally too.
> I have sent my CV a few times to Google and I didn't get a single response back.<p>This is not how you get a job in tech. Big companies like Google receive thousands of resumes from all over the world on a daily basis. Linkedin and Github are all you need to worry about. Build cool things, network with interesting people, and eventually they will start knocking on your door.
Over time I collected many tips, blog posts and links to prepare for interviews at companies like Google, FB etc. But I didn't prepare for them yet, but I hope you'll use them.<p>Granddaddy of all collections:<p>===<p><a href="https://github.com/andreis/interview" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/andreis/interview</a><p>Blogs<p>===<p><a href="https://medium.com/always-be-coding/abc-always-be-coding-d5f8051afce2#.7x1rs0cik" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/always-be-coding/abc-always-be-coding-d5f...</a><p><a href="https://medium.com/always-be-coding/four-steps-to-google-without-a-degree-8f381aa6bd5e#.a3wq9jdkk" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/always-be-coding/four-steps-to-google-wit...</a><p><a href="https://medium.com/@dpup/whiteboarding-4df873dbba2e#.z3ya1rpsp" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@dpup/whiteboarding-4df873dbba2e#.z3ya1rp...</a><p><a href="http://www.restlessprogrammer.com/2013/09/hacking-coding-interview.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.restlessprogrammer.com/2013/09/hacking-coding-int...</a><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/get-that-job-at-facebook/10150964382448920" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/get-that...</a><p><a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing3.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing...</a><p><a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html</a><p><a href="http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/06/done-and-gets-things-smart.html" rel="nofollow">http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/06/done-and-gets-things...</a><p><a href="http://haseebq.com/" rel="nofollow">http://haseebq.com/</a> <--- just added after comment from @arkro<p>Hiring Companies (like TripleByte) or Companies giving you training for a fee:<p>===
<a href="https://www.hireart.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.hireart.com/</a><p><a href="https://hired.com/" rel="nofollow">https://hired.com/</a><p><a href="http://interviewkickstart.com/" rel="nofollow">http://interviewkickstart.com/</a><p><a href="https://www.interviewcake.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.interviewcake.com/</a><p><a href="https://www.pramp.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pramp.com/</a><p><a href="https://triplebyte.com/" rel="nofollow">https://triplebyte.com/</a><p><a href="https://www.smarthires.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.smarthires.com/</a><p>Interview Prep Sites
===<p><a href="http://leetcode.com/" rel="nofollow">http://leetcode.com/</a><p><a href="http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/</a><p><a href="https://www.careercup.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.careercup.com/</a><p><a href="https://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=ProblemArchive" rel="nofollow">https://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=ProblemArchive</a><p><a href="https://codility.com/programmers/" rel="nofollow">https://codility.com/programmers/</a><p><a href="http://interviewing.io/" rel="nofollow">http://interviewing.io/</a><p><a href="https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-difficult-algorithm-data-structure-problems" rel="nofollow">https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-difficult-algorithm-d...</a><p><a href="http://www.gainlo.co/#!/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gainlo.co/#!/</a><p><a href="https://www.interviewbit.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.interviewbit.com/</a><p><a href="https://github.com/mission-peace/interview/wiki" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/mission-peace/interview/wiki</a>
I receive messages from Google's recruiters once in a while (maybe twice a year). Always through LinkedIn so I would recommend to polish your LinkedIn profile.