The fact that I was admitted to Google

Tram Ho

“Google only hires trainees from top schools like Ivy Leagues, must have a high GPA or have a great CV, then maybe.”
“90% of Google trainees were all second year bro, first year like us doesn’t have a door …”
“Last year when I looked at the statistics, they only allowed 10-15 people for every internship in Canada, not to mention the average of each university they chose was the highest 2 …”
So there was a girl in the first year who ran away to lmao.
Image result for google
I like it, I move
Ah, before telling the story, introduce it briefly.
Hello, my name is Scarlet, 18 years old, currently studying at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Some people know me through the series [What can they learn after 4 years of settling in Canada?] And now my 5th year in this country of maple leaves.
The purpose of this article is to document the whole process from application to interview to Google – it’s not so special, but in the last time, I have discovered many interesting things about this company. .

Round 1: Resume / CV

Google begins opening applications for internships every year in mid-September, with an unusually large number of applicants. According to what we learned, last year (2018) they received more than 125,000 applications from around the world, but only about a third of them will be selected for interviews and finally only ~ 3,000 left. Only the offer is accepted. This year, the number is even stronger because Computer Science (CS) / Computer Engineering (CE) is one of the hottest industries with loads of emerging technologies that people often refer to everywhere like deep learning , blockchain , quantum computing etc. Even in my first year, when no one has chosen a major, almost everyone I meet is staring at this fertile land. My friends, who are eager to spread their resume everywhere, have to submit between 50-70 companies on average, and I’m lazy so I should submit only Google …
Source: code.org
The more I learn, the more I find the process of hiring people in big companies really work. For example, to solve the problem of receiving such a large number of records every year, they have to use a system that automates the resume / CV filtering process with certain keywords to eliminate junk or resume. who didn’t qualify right from the first round. In addition, an internship program on this side is often based on rolling-basis – only those who are interested enough to internship will be motivated to submit early, be pre-considered and likely to be received earlier. The fierce competitive environment made the majority of those who came after they submitted their applications, but had not been able to lift their buttocks for an interview, they were reported all over. In addition, the most unfavorable side for me is probably still the application of the 1st year will automatically be pushed to the bottom of the admission list, giving higher positions to the brothers and sisters in 2,3 and 4 years. (aka. people with more experience). Google made a direct announcement on job-posting that they wouldn’t even consider first-year student applications until December.
So I still have every way to try to improve the resume by asking a friend of the Toronto programmer for suggestions and applications as soon as possible, about 3 days after the application opens (September 18), in the mood excitement mixed with suspense.
This is the resume I used to submit it
At the time I submitted it, I thought it was an honor to have my resume peeked through, I think I would have to prepare psychologically until December to hear the rejection notice. Unexpectedly, 3 days later, I received an email from an extremely beautiful recruiter saying:
“Congratulations on being selected for the interview! I have 4 more days until then. Before the interview, sign for her about 10 pages of documents with some of these NDA applications as soon as possible. Good luck.”
Uhmmm, what …… ?!
My mood then clearly chaotic. It was fun, and to be honest, the quick time that made me panic quickly became more appropriate. Normally, people prepare for an interview for half to a month, with large companies, some people spend months, even years.
And I have 4 days.

Trivia: Interview Prep.

Technical interviews are the most common type of interview in the programming world, revolving around questions that assess your knowledge and technical skills by approaching and solving difficult problems. Based on your qualifications, the interviewer (usually senior developers) will ask different difficulty questions,

and the candidate will have to code the solution on a whiteboard on the spot – or in his case, just explain by phone and code on a shared Google Docs.
So there was a whirling kid who went looking for something to learn …
data structure
Algorithms about sorting
I suddenly discovered, basically, I would have to run away “review” the things I will learn in the next 4 years:> I also learn that Google is also one of the most respected companies about scalability ( scalability) and efficiency in a system make it difficult for their questions to be well known, requiring a very quick response to the given algorithms / equations and one who must understand the complexity. time and space complexity of the code they write, and then optimize the best answer based on context.
But not enough. The candidate also needs to both think and communicate his or her thoughts to the interviewer at the same time, and this is probably the most important element of a successful interview: communication . Often the questions are confusing and missing important pieces of information, and the job of a good candidate is to keep asking the interviewer until he or she knows the topic well. The basic steps will usually look like this:
1. Explain the question again as you know it
2. Ask questions like “I think abc xyz … is that it?”
3. Give examples of the solution of the problem, usually for a normal case and at least 2 edge / corner / boundary cases -> ask the interviewer again if You are on the right track
4. Decide on the data structure you will use for the solution
5. Start coding, and while coding, you should write and continually explain to the interviewer which algorithm you are applying or how your thinking circuit etc.
I have started to study almost day and night for this event with the help of familiar programming platforms like LeetCode and HackerRank . I even asked a few friends to help me simulate the interview so that I could get used to speaking and brainstorming continuously. Remembering those early days I stuttered and didn’t know what to say, my face looked so dumb and could not stand making friends tease after this haha.
On the interview day (October 1), I have 2 phone interviews lasting 2 hours, each session will have a Google programmer randomly selected from all over the United States to interview me. At that time, she was so worried that she had to spend 30 minutes before the interview to take a deep breath to reassure herself, temporarily leaving the petty emotions behind her back and focusing her best on what would happen. out coming.
Fighting, everything will be fine Scarlet. * pats on the shoulder *

Round 2: Interview

Pheww, thankfully, the two programmers interviewed me that all of them are cute and friendly, so my psychology is much more relaxed than super.
At the first interview, I was asked what my favorite technology was to “warm up” and immediately went straight to the programming question, without a bit of a small detail. Here is a sample question posted on Youtube available:
When I receive the problem, what I do first is to clarify the problem by asking lots of questions and thinking through specific cases, then approaching the problem by solving the most original solution (brute force). approach) to set a starting point. The need to constantly speak out his thoughts caused an hour to pass quickly. Another factor that takes up quite a bit of time is that I have to constantly think of ways to upgrade the code in the current version to run faster / use less data. In particular, every time I nearly finished arriving, he interviewed added “a few small issues” to increase the “interesting” level so I had to smile (misery) and try to continue. For about 5 minutes at the end of the session, I was asked all sorts of things about Google and listened to him telling some really interesting stories that made me so happy that I was grinning, not always having the honor to speak with a Google engineer. Do not.
The second interview is almost the same, only this time instead of being chattered about the technology, he interviewed immediately gave a long piece of code looked frightened and asked himself,
“This is a code reading. Do you know the concept of Promise in programming? If you’re uncomfortable, you can change the question. ”
“I don’t know, although I’ve heard of it but never used it. But I’m not afraid to learn something new, can you briefly explain to me the concept? I want to try it out. ”
The concept of Promise and Async in JavaScript
So within the next 3 minutes I have to learn a new knowledge on the spot and use it to apply the code above to write down what the result is. The first time I looked at the question, I was terribly confused, I didn’t know what the code was trying to do, so it was extremely difficult. Fortunately, I calmed down after that. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized the core of the problem and wrote down the correct answer. The interviewer was surprised that he should say “Bingo!” And laughed happily saying he did not expect to learn so quickly ? After that, the question solving process happened similar to the first interview, only the level was different. much harder but luckily I got the results within the time allowed.
At the end of the 2 interviews, I fell down on the table, while my arms and legs were all empty. This experience is much more fun and tense than originally anticipated, but in the end, it is still extremely valuable and can say I feel extremely grateful that a rare opportunity can take me far. to this extent.

Round 3: Hiring Committee

Honestly, this is the longest period of time I’ve ever had in my life. The rate chosen was so low that I was restless all the time, even more unsatisfied if I saw the letter of refusal even though I never dared to think that I could receive an offer. So I got myself into a situation where I often keep my phone by my side but I didn’t dare check my email …
According to what I have learned, after the interview, the interviewer will have to fill out a long and extremely detailed feedback form about the candidate and return it to the recruiter as soon as possible. Usually this process will take 2-3 days, and once the recruiter is received, it will start drafting and rearranging all candidate information into a packet, including :
• Resume
• Questions used in interviews and candidates’ answers
• Letter of recommendation (if any)
• A few small recruiter’s notes about the candidate
and bring it to the bottom of the list of candidates in need of approval. At Google, there are many boards that specialize in hiring an internship called the Hiring Committee (HC), usually senior managers and have long-standing experience in recruiting. a certain department in the company. Each week they will have a meeting (as I stalk it is usually on Tuesday or Thursday morning) to review a range of 7-10 candidates for that week and decide whether or not to go to the offer.
The process from recruiter to HC usually happens as follows:
• 1-2 days before the meeting, HR will post all documents of the candidate batch of the week on the system and send an email with the link of each person’s profile to every member of HC
• Once an email is received, each HC member will have to give a general assessment (hire / non-hire), defaulting a score they deem appropriate from 1 to 4
1 = Don’t rent
2 = I think it should not be hired, but we should still take a closer look
3 = I think this is the right person, but we should still take a closer look
4 = Should rent
(btw, to be accepted, candidates must have an average score of 3 or more)
and write a detailed comment about each candidate.
=> Everything will be done on the system independently and anonymously during this time to minimize prejudice from the crowd to an individual.
• By the day of the meeting, the recruiter will project each candidate’s packet on a big screen, and all the independent reviews / points / comments of each previous HC member will be made public. with the candidate’s original profile
=> Usually 2/3 of the candidates will receive a relatively close score from the HC members (when independent review) so in the meeting, HC will make a quick decision (when considering the collective ) if they want to accept this candidate or not. If a candidate receives mixed opinions, HC will spend more time analyzing and listening to opinions from all sides.
There are 4 main areas that need to be assessed for a candidate:
1. The ability to analyze and solve problems ( through interviews)
2. Working experience :
– Write clean and beautiful code, high efficiency, not too slow, etc. (code sample from interview)
– Past experience (resume)
3. Leadership : knowing what to do when you don’t have much guidance from your boss
4. Googliness : Does the personality fit with Google’s culture or not (through the way of talking during interviews and email exchanges with HR)
In case HC still cannot decide after meeting, there are 2 directions:
1. Schedule a third interview to have a more comprehensive view of the candidate
2. Refuse straight
Case 2 is more common because Google has a heavy culture of “false positives” – thinking that it is better to miss a good person than to hire the wrong person. That makes HC notion that being confused with “should not hire”. In addition, scheduling interviews often takes a lot of time so the first case is usually avoided as much as possible.
• Immediately after the meeting, the recruiter will start to call / email to notify the candidate of HC’s decision.
=> Whether or not the candidate receives, the candidate will receive a call

Result

October 22 – Just 3 weeks after the interview, I miss a call from the recruiter who nods in Biology class. Later, when I discovered a missed call from Google on my phone, I rushed out of the classroom and found a place with the best wifi to leave a message asking if she could call me back. After waiting for 10 minutes, I kept trembling on my phone and didn’t know what was going to happen, so I kept praying. Because everyone’s life needs a little luck …
“Good day Miss”
“Good morning, how do you feel?”
“Good, how about you?”
“Yeah, you’re fine … Well, do you have good news,
HAPPY I HAVE BEEN ADJUSTED TO GOOGLE’S INTERNSHIP!
Can you set aside the next 10-15 minutes to hear about next summer’s job information? ”
At that time I could not believe my ears so I stood there for a while, everything was like a dream ?
So there was a girl who obediently yes yes, your face was stupid for half an hour after that lol.
Man, the benefits of Google for students are way too good to be imagined. The recruiter said she would be paid, the rent and meals would be covered by the company (food in Google sounds high quality and delicious), and the first week was going to New York for an orientation week with space. Accommodation and air tickets will be provided fully. Also at Google, things like gym, pool, massage service or bike / car will be free for employees.
This will be my building, my workplace next summer
They also have an internship experience design team to ensure that trainees will have the best summer experiences like going to the movies, basketball, or eating out with an intern. The recruiter also said that I will have many opportunities to meet and learn from long-term engineers in the industry through lectures and workshops specifically for trainees next summer, listening to that with my eyes full of laughter. always.

Round 4: Host Matching

After signing the contract, I am currently in the waiting stage to interview teams at Google to choose a project to work for the next 3 months of next summer. Basically, wait until it is updated. I will add this section later.

Conclusion

It has been a while since I wrote the article, so if the words are a bit messy, everyone will sympathize with me. If I’m too inhibited, just comment, I will try to improve the post better!
My experience in applying for Google was just over 1 month but a lot of things happened, I also learned a lot during this time. It also partly proves that you do not need to go to super high school or be genius to be accepted, because those who know you before will know that you are an extremely normal kid, not good at school. or exceptional intelligence at all. This success was due in part to early submission and careful preparation, part of the previous work experience, and certainly an indispensable part of luck. I don’t know how much luck is, but one thing I’m sure of is: if I was scared at first and took it back then I wouldn’t have this article here for everyone to read ?
I am currently focusing on school inspections but my eagerness to spend the summer next year has never diminished. Maybe it’s time to write part 2 for the Google experience series again, hmm maybe if I’m interested haha. If I have enough time, I also hope to visit Vietnam next year before the internship because I want to meet some of my dear brothers and sisters on Spiderumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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