Here's what it's like to interview at the 5 biggest companies in tech, according to current employees

Facebook employees Mark Zuckerberg

It's not impossible to land your dream job at one of the nation's biggest tech companies — but be prepared for a long and rigorous process.

To gain insight into the interview experience at some of tech's most important companies, the career-data site Comparably surveyed 6,463 current employees at Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.

Comparably found that the process varies considerably from company to company. At Apple, candidates should "expect to be turned away a few times" and know that it might take "a few years" to land a job, while at Facebook, engineers can show up for an interview in "whatever is most comfortable," including a T-shirt and jeans.

Here's how current employees rated the interview process at five of the biggest tech companies in the world.

Employees rated Apple and Microsoft as having the best interview processes overall.

Employees gave Apple and Microsoft the highest ratings when it comes to the overall interview process.

Apple — 90 out of 100

Microsoft — 90 out of 100

Google — 88 out of 100

Amazon — 87 out of 100

Facebook — 83 out of 100

Google employees said their interview process was "difficult."

Most Google employees surveyed found the interview process to be difficult or very difficult. In contrast, 30% of Amazon employees described the process as easy or very easy.

Amazon

Very difficult — 17%

Difficult — 24%

Average — 29%

Easy — 17%

Very easy — 13%

Apple

Very difficult — 12%

Difficult — 36%

Average — 32%

Easy — 12%

Very easy — 8%

Facebook

Very difficult — 16%

Difficult — 26%

Average — 37%

Easy — 5%

Very easy — 16%

Google

Very difficult — 19%

Difficult — 30%

Average — 25%

Easy — 18%

Very easy — 8%

Microsoft

Very difficult — 11%

Difficult — 36%

Average — 48%

Easy — 5%

Very easy — 0%

Many employees ended up getting the job after simply applying online.

Overall, most current employees at the companies said they landed a job interview by applying online, except at Google and Microsoft. And Facebook, for example, had the highest percentage among the companies of employees who said they got an interview by networking.

Amazon

Applied online — 39%

Referral — 14%

Recruiter — 32%

Other — 12%

Networking — 3%

Apple

Applied online — 34%

Referral — 29%

Recruiter — 10%

Other — 17%

Networking — 10%