Cracking the Tech Career: Insider Advice on Landing a Job at Google, Microsoft, Apple, or any Top Tech Company

16Crafting Your Career

If it feels like the interview cycle never stops, that's because it doesn't. You need to start thinking about your next career jump on your first day at the current job. What will you do? When will you switch positions? Will you stay at your company or go to a new one?

Most new employees are extremely focused on creating great work, but that's only half the battle. To get promoted or get a nice, fat raise, you do (hopefully) need to execute on your responsibilities very well. But you also must build strong relationships, understand your weaknesses, and position yourself to make important accomplishments for the company.

Additionally, you need to know where you want to go to next. What's the point in slaving to become the best darn software engineer you can be if you want to become a product manager?

Define Your Career Path

The first year that Christine joined Amazon, she was thrilled. Great team. Great pay. And a company that most people would kill to work for. The second year was the same, as was the third and fourth year. She loved it there. Why would she leave? The dramatic rise of the stock price didn't hurt either.

By year five, she was finally ready for a change and started shopping her resume around. She realized then what far too many people do: she didn't really need those extra few years at Amazon. Had she left two years earlier, she would have been in nearly the same position. Oops.

It's easy to get sucked into a big company and let the years ...