I am a self-taught senior developer in a fly-over state. I always wanted to work in a FAANG and now an Amazon recruiter found me on linked in and invited me to send him my resume for a West-coast located position. Given the following:
- I absolutely CANNOT pass the algorithm/machine learning part of the interview (nor have I worked complex codewars/hackerrank problems in a while). I haven't reviewed the topics in 5+ years, but I know that I can prepare for these topics in 6 months, as I am familiar with them.
- I am absolutely comfortable doing everything in the job description.
With those points in mind, what is my best course of action:
Politely reply to the recruiter saying that I am interested, but not now, and would like to keep his contact information (should I explain the reasons)?
Ignore the recruiter, apply through normal processes or through the recruiter's email when ready.
Explain what I explained here and see if he is still interested? To me this doesn't seem like an option - I am guessing every dev goes through the same interview.
Any advice welcome.