Latest / The Tech Career Podcast with Fexingo: Engineering Jobs, Interviews, and FAANG Career Strategy / How to Build a Technical Network Before a FAANG Interview
Transcript
- Lucas: So we talk a lot about interview prep — algorithms, system design, behavioral loops — but there is this one thing that can literally double your callback rate that almost nobody preps for. Luna: Okay, I'm guessing you're not talking about practicing on a whiteboard with a timer. Lucas: No, this is about the network you build before you even apply. Internal referrals at most FAANG companies boost your chances of getting a phone screen by something like 40 to 60 percent, depending on the source. And yet most engineers treat networking as this awkward, optional side quest. Luna: Yeah, and I think a lot of people hear 'network' and imagine schmoozing at a conference or sending a cold LinkedIn message that goes ignored. That's not exactly motivating. Lucas: Totally. But there is a more natural way that fits how engineers actually work. It's a three-step framework I've seen work for multiple candidates: find, engage, nurture. And the 'find' part isn't just who works where — it's finding specific people whose technical work you genuinely respect. Lucas: If today's tech conversation gave you something usable — a specific strategy, a framework, a reference you can look up — that's exactly why we keep this show going. We deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: And it genuinely makes a difference. Even a few contributions keep the whole thing ad-free and focused on what's useful for listeners. Lucas: Alright. So back to the framework. The 'find' step — start with a company you're targeting. Say Google. Go through their engineering blog, find an author whose problem domain you find interesting. Maybe they published a deep dive on how they optimized BigQuery storage. Read it, understand it, and see if they have a public GitHub profile or a personal site. Luna: So you're not targeting random recruiters — you're targeting the engineers who actually wrote the code you're reading about. Lucas: Exactly. And the 'engage' step is the part most people mess up. They send a message like: 'I'm applying for a role, can you refer me?' That's a cold ask with zero context. Instead, you engage with their work first. Comment on their blog post with a thoughtful question. Open a pull request on an open-source project they maintain. Or, if they tweeted about a technical topic, reply with a real observation. Luna: I've actually seen this work really well on GitHub. A friend of mine wanted to get into Stripe, so he found an issue in one of their open-source repos, fixed it, and the maintainer who reviewed his PR turned out to be the engineering manager for the team he later joined. Lucas: That's a perfect example. That's not networking — that's contributing. And it builds genuine rapport. The 'nurture' step is then just following up naturally after that interaction. Maybe a few weeks later, you send a polite message: 'Hey, I really enjoyed working on that PR. I'm actually exploring opportunities at Stripe — do you have five minutes to chat about what your team works on?' Luna: That's so much better than the cold ask. You've already given them something. They know you can code, you're interested in their domain, and you're respectful of their time. The referral almost writes itself. Lucas: Right. And there's data on this too. A study from a few years ago by a company called TalentWorks analyzed over 6,000 job applications and found that candidates with an internal referral were 40 percent more likely to get an interview than those without. At the big tech companies, I've heard numbers closer to 50 or 60 percent. Luna: Is that just because the referral gets you past the resume screen? Or does it actually affect how the interview is evaluated? Lucas: Both. First, it almost guarantees your resume gets a human look. But second, if the referrer is someone respected in the organization, their endorsement carries weight. A hiring committee might be more forgiving of a slightly shaky answer if a senior engineer vouched for your general competence. Luna: That makes sense. But let's be real — not every engineer has time to contribute to open source or write a novel comment on a blog post. What's a lower-effort version that still works? Lucas: I think the lowest effort that still works is to find a specific engineer's talk on YouTube or a conference recording, watch it, and then send a LinkedIn message referencing one specific slide or idea. Something like: 'I saw your talk on distributed consensus at QCon and your explanation of Raft's leader election was the clearest I've heard. I'm preparing for SRE interviews and your perspective really helped.' Luna: That's still specific. It's not a template you copy-pasted. I can see someone actually responding to that. Lucas: Yeah, and once they reply, you've started a conversation. Then you can ask about their team, their interview experience, what they look for in candidates. That's the nurture step unfolding organically. Lucas: One thing I want to emphasize: don't ask for a referral in the first message. Even if you've engaged with their work, lead with curiosity about their role. The referral conversation should come from them, or at least feel like a natural next step after a chat. Luna: Right. Because if you ask too early, it feels like the whole interaction was a means to an end. And people can sense that. Lucas: Exactly. And the other thing is, don't limit yourself to people at your target company. Build relationships with engineers at adjacent companies too. The tech world is small — someone at a startup today could be at Google next year, and they'll remember that you had a smart conversation about their work on distributed tracing. Luna: So you're basically saying that networking should look less like collecting contacts and more like learning in public and having real conversations. Lucas: That's exactly it. And the best part is, this approach also makes you a better engineer. You're reading real code, understanding real architectural decisions, and engaging with the people who make them. That knowledge will show up in your system design interview and even in your behavioral answers. Luna: I want to come back to something you said earlier about the 'find' step. How do you actually discover the right people if you're not already plugged into the community? Lucas: Start with the company's engineering blog. Most FAANG companies have one — Google's is 'Google AI Blog', Meta has 'Engineering at Meta', Netflix has 'Netflix TechBlog'. Read the posts, note the authors, then search for them on GitHub or LinkedIn. Another great source is conference talk lineups — check out the speakers from the last few years at Strange Loop, QCon, or AWS re:Invent. Luna: And if their GitHub is mostly private or they don't post much publicly, is that a dead end? Lucas: Not at all. You can still engage with their published content. Or, if they have a Stack Overflow profile with interesting answers, you can leave a comment or upvote and then follow up. The key is to find some public footprint that shows their technical thinking. Lucas: I'll give you a concrete example. There was a candidate I coached who wanted to get into Amazon's AWS Lambda team. He found a blog post by one of the Lambda engineers about cold start optimizations. He read it, ran the benchmarks himself, and wrote a detailed comment noting that his results slightly differed on the latest runtime. The engineer replied, they had a short back and forth, and eventually the candidate asked if they'd be open to a quick chat. That chat led to a referral and an interview. Luna: So the engagement was genuinely technical. It wasn't flattery — it was a real technical observation. That's hard to fake. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why this approach works better than traditional networking. It's based on substance. You're not trying to be liked; you're trying to be useful and curious. Engineers respect that. Luna: Let's talk about the nurture phase a bit more. Once you've had a conversation, how do you keep the relationship warm without being annoying? Lucas: The best way is to share something relevant later. If you read an article that relates to what you discussed, send it with a note: 'Saw this and thought of our conversation about serverless cold starts. Interesting read.' That's low pressure, it shows you remember them, and it adds value. Then, when you're ready to apply, the referral ask feels natural because you already have a relationship. Luna: What if you're early in your career and you don't feel like you have much to offer? You're not a senior engineer with deep insights. Lucas: You can still ask good questions. Junior engineers often ask the most interesting questions because they see things with fresh eyes. A thoughtful question on a blog post — 'Why did you choose eventual consistency here instead of strong consistency given the trade-offs?' — shows you're thinking critically. That's valuable. Luna: Okay, so let's say someone does all this right. They build a genuine connection, get a referral, and land an interview. Does the referral actually help during the interview itself, or just in getting the interview? Lucas: It can help in subtle ways. If the referrer is on the hiring committee or knows the interviewers, they might give you context on what the team values. But more importantly, a strong referral can offset a mediocre performance in one round. I've seen cases where a candidate bombed a coding round but the referrer's endorsement was strong enough that the committee still moved forward. Luna: That's a huge edge. But it also means the referrer is putting their reputation on the line, which is why you shouldn't ask someone you barely know. Lucas: Exactly. That's why the 'nurture' phase matters. By the time you ask, the person already knows you're competent and professional. They feel comfortable recommending you because they've seen your work or had substantive conversations. Lucas: One last point. Some people worry that relying on referrals is unfair — that it favors people who are already connected. And there's some truth to that. But the good news is that this approach is learnable. It's not about being an extrovert or having a huge network. It's about consistently engaging with technical content in a way that builds real relationships. Luna: So if someone listening wants to start today, what's the single most actionable step? Lucas: Pick one company you're targeting. Go to their engineering blog. Find one post that genuinely interests you. Read it thoroughly, then write a thoughtful comment or question. That's it. One comment. Do that today, and you've already started the process. Luna: I like that. It's small, it's specific, and it's actually useful. Alright, I think that's a solid plan for anyone who's been putting off the networking piece. Lucas: Yeah, and the side effect is you'll learn something about the technology you're interviewing for. That's never wasted time.