Hey there - gerat questions. I don't know your professional skills well enough to give specific recommendations, but here are some general thoughts:

• A lot of getting a job at FAANG is about the jobs leading up to it (i.e. you want to ladder yourself from no-name companies → B companies → A companies). This is because the recruiters get literally hundreds of applications for each open position, which is impossible to otherwise sort through. So depending on your past work experience, you may need to get an interim job to lever yourself ultimately into FAANG.

• Spend far more time preparing for interviews than most people do. My Substack post on getting a job at OpenAI discusses this. It's important.

• Leave every work relationship positive, even when you leave a company because it's gone south. This is because the industry is small (especially at Staff+ levels), such that you're very likely to remix with past coworkers in future situations.

• Relatedly, the best way to get in is to have a referral from an internal employee who's worked with you in the past. Odds of this are better if: a) you already work at well-established companies (since those employees will often move into FAANG), and b) you've worked at several different companies (so that your professional circle is wider).

Hope that helps!