Getting My Dream Job at Google and How You Can Too
From zero coding knowledge to multiple rejections to getting a job at Google. I am sharing my journey and teaching all the skills required to build a successful career in the software industry.
My journey into coding
It was the year 2009 when I joined IIT Roorkee to start my B.Tech. in Computer Science & Engineering. The Indian software boom was still in its nascent stage. Software startups were still not a thing in India. The Internet was expensive, so there was no concept of online learning. Working for giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe was something unimaginable for me or for most of my batch mates in college. I can honestly say that in my 1st year of college, I did not know that one day I will be working at these software giants.
In the final semester of my 2nd year of college, a friend introduced me to Codechef. It is a competitive programming platform which hosts programming contests and practice problems related to data structures and algorithms. Though I have not taken an algorithm course yet, the platform picked my interest. I got hooked, and programming was all I could think of day and night. I did not know at that time, but my journey to get into Google has started there and then.
Codechef has these long contests once a month, where they give 10 programming problems to solve over a duration of 10 days. At that time, about 1500 people used to participate in these contests from all over India. It was not as popular as it is today. Even in my college only a handful of people would be doing competitive programming. I would not lie, but when I started I could hardly solve 1 problem. This went on for a few months, and I used to get stuck at the 1st or 2nd problem, the easiest ones. It was very discouraging, so much that I would leave competitive programming all together. Every time after taking a break for a few weeks, I would keep returning back to try another contest. Not sure why it happened, but the love for programming kept pulling me back into it.
By the end of 3rd year, I was able to solve 6-7 questions in the contest. The happiest moment was when I was able to solve 8 or 9 questions out of 10 and came in top 10 in India. The Codechef team used to send a Codechef branded t-shirt to top 20 candidates in every contest. For the 1st time I got that t-shirt. Since competitive programming was a new phenomena at that time, I did not know how much helpful it could prove in building my software career.
How did I get into Google ?
I still remember the long walk from the placement centre to my college hostel. Not because the distance was long, but because I have just been rejected from my dream company Google. Its been more than 10 years so my memory is hazy but I think I even cried a little.
For me, getting into google was not a straight line path of success. I got rejected twice before I could join it as a full time software engineer. The first rejection came in 3rd year of college when Google came to hire for a software internship. At that time, I could not even clear their 1st written test. Google again came for placements in the final year of college for placements. This time I was better prepared thanks to competitive programming. I got the highest score in the written test and was selected for the interviews.
Though I was well prepared for the interviews at the campus placements, but this time luck was against me. On the day of Google’s interview, I was also giving interview for Goldman Sachs. They took 9 interviews. My interview started at about 8 in the morning and it went on till about 4 in the evening. By the time my turn came for Google’s interview, I was both hungry and exhausted. I could not focus on the interview problem at all. That day I got rejected from both Goldman Sachs and Google. This was my 2nd rejection from Google, and it was heartbreaking.
Finally on day 4, I managed to get a job at Adobe Systems. It was a good company, paid well, but it was no Google. My goal was not achieved. Once I finished college and started working at Adobe, competitive programming took a back seat. I started getting involved in day to day work. A little more than a year passed, I still wanted to try for Google, but some form of laziness and comfort zone took over. One day I fell sick, I was all alone in Bangalore, so I decided to take sick leave and go home for a week. While I was at home, I was browsing LinkedIn and saw an acquaintance working as an Engineering manager at Google. I instantly messaged them if they could refer me for a job position. They agreed and within a week, I got a call from HR to schedule a phone interview. It all happened so fast that I did not have much time to prepare.
On the day of Google’s onsite interview, I was pretty sure that I won’t be able to clear them. My reason was simple, I was rejected twice earlier when I had done much better preparation as compared to now. So I went into the interview without any pressure, as my hopes were not that high. All I thought was that whatever happens, it will be fun to see Google office from inside. This time I nailed the interviews. There were 5 onsite interviews. After the interview finished, I was super tired, but in excitement I walked ~2 km from google office to the bus stop. I knew I was selected, and I was right. In about 2 weeks, HR sent me the offer letter
How can “YOU” get a job at Google ?
I have started from where you are currently, so I completely understand your aspirations. I have seen it all from preparation to rejection to success. To get into Google or similar big tech companies, there are certain skills needed to ace the interviews and have a successful career. I will teach you those skills.
I have 10 years of experience in the software industry, and have cleared interviews of companies like Google, Amazon, Adobe & Goldman Sachs. I have myself taken more than 100 interviews at Google to hire for Software Engineer roles. I have hosted multiple interns at Google & Adobe and have helped them get a job offer. I started as a fresher and worked my way up to Tech lead role in Google Pay & Google Ads team. I will be sharing all of my experience to help you build a successful career in the software industry.
What can you expect from me ?
There will be lots of posts free to read for all, to teach you the skills needed for big tech companies like Google. These will benefit both college students and working professionals alike. Subscribe to this newsletter to get them in your email.
Sharing honestly with you all, I am on my journey to self employment and this initiative is a part of that journey. With time, there will be some paid resources to help me continue this journey.
I have opened up my calendar to schedule a career guidance call with me for a fee. The fee ensures that genuinely interested candidates can book a slot. To book a slot, click on the button below.