I am currently a senior engineer at an early stage startup - 6.5+ years experience. 63 LPA cash TC, tier 1 uni CS grad. I primarily work in the big data space.

Apple

In January, one of my friends convinced me to interview with Apple Hyd in their data engineering team as my work ex fit their JD exactly.

I had 3 online rounds through the month of March. 1 onsite round comprising of 4 interviews towards April end in Apple Hyd. Finally, exactly 30 days later they told me that I am not accepted. Interview process was decent. Apple interviews are lengthy. Medium LC & SQL questions + behavioral questions. All in 1 hour. Pretty exhausting.

Uber

In the interim, my Uber DE application went through as well. I started process for L5A DE role in late March & Early April.

1. Phone screen. 3 questions. I underperformed in this round. Recruiter called back telling me that I have been down-levelled to L4.
2. R1 - medium dsa question. i messed up this one big time. interviewer was kind though and put up with me though and let me complete my solution in 1.5 hours.
3. R2 - 4 SQL questions - 2 med, 2 hard. 1 medium DSA question. General chit-chat about workex. This round was a breeze for me. I could solve everything. Interviewer was nice as well.

Recruiter texted back a week after R2 telling me that there will be 2 more rounds for system design, but then never followed up. I texted him multiple time in May, but he just kept postponing. I am assuming I am ghosted.

Databricks

A recruiter reached out in May for BLR roles. I scheduled the rounds pretty early on.

1. R1 was an intro call with the HM of the team I was interviewing with. General chit-chat 30-40 minutes about work ex & databricks & the team's work and stuff.
2. R2 was by a SDE. Pure DSA. I solved the Q IMO, but I took too long and also, interviewer had a specific solution in his head and I didn't give that solution, so more or less refused to accept my anwer. Anyways, he had followup Qs, but we were out of time. Decent interview experience.

Recuiter called back within an hour and told me it is a no go.

Conclusion

I am not sure of what to feel :-) . I have good growth opportunities in my current work as well. But the ego hit of not being good enough in interviews has its low points. 5 years back I interviewed with Google as well. Had 5 rounds, but rejected after the last round. I am not even sure of how to upskill myself to be interview ready.

Plus, my comp is only cash. I have ESOPs which are valued at INR 3cr mark, but I don't think any valuation is reliable in the current market. Considering how tech stocks are soaring, not having the USD values RSUs is sometimes disappointing.