Reading through the writer's notes. I don't disagree that there is a chasm between large successful firms and small firms over the last 15 years. The 2000 to 2010 period had nearly the opposite behavior however where startups were the successful area to join, rather than established firms such as IBM/HP etc.
The notes on the job interview process are more suspect however, the examples of performance fixes that the author published are mostly focused on systems engineering. Having started my career in this space, I can say that I've seen a noticable move away from systems engineers as a distinct profession over the last ~10 years. Better cloud systems enable standard SDEs to carry the pager and not lose (as much) sleep. Better tooling and knowledge has likewise equipped standard SDEs to build out their cloud infra without an additional systems person in the middle. Bias against individuals being hired with these skills also tends to mean that systems focused engineers transitioning to SDE have a harder time.
The notes on the job interview process are more suspect however, the examples of performance fixes that the author published are mostly focused on systems engineering. Having started my career in this space, I can say that I've seen a noticable move away from systems engineers as a distinct profession over the last ~10 years. Better cloud systems enable standard SDEs to carry the pager and not lose (as much) sleep. Better tooling and knowledge has likewise equipped standard SDEs to build out their cloud infra without an additional systems person in the middle. Bias against individuals being hired with these skills also tends to mean that systems focused engineers transitioning to SDE have a harder time.