Have you ever wondered what it’s like working at a FAANG company? FAANG is an acronym that stands for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, by the way. When I was in university it was known as the big four: Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. I had always wondered what working at Google would be like. I’d heard some stories, but never had a great idea until I worked there myself.
After graduating from university, I moved to Seattle and went to work at Google’s Kirkland office. My team was the Google Contacts Android App Team. Working at a tech company takes a great amount of effort, but the culture and the benefits are equally great.
I’ve written a post about my whole experience at Google. Hopefully reading this will give you an idea of what it’s like to work in the tech industry.
Google logo in the lobby. Kirkland, WA.
The Radar
You might not realize it but, if you work in technology, Google has probably had you on their radar for some time. Full time recruiters are staffed to research and mark potential candidates all day, every day. They scan through the internet to find anyone who might be a good fit at Google. If you’re lucky they might even reach out and make first contact.
Recruiters are looking for dedicated individuals who garner a lot of interest. Common places they check are LinkedIn, blogs, programming competitions, math competitions, university tutor registries and employee directories. Recruiter emails are somewhat common in the tech industry. Since there is such a great need for strong engineers, they’re constantly trying to poach good developers away from other companies.
When Google contacted me I was living in Seattle working as an intern developer at Amazon. They contacted me through my university email address. I’m actually still not sure how they found it, but I suspect they discovered my email on the University of Manitoba’s tutor registry. They asked me if I’d be interested in interviewing for a summer intern position for the following year.
Other common ways of connecting with a recruiter is through a referral or an application. If you know anyone working at a tech company, they are heavily incentivized to give referrals for their friends and peers who also want to work at the company. This is because, if a referral leads to an accepted offer, they will receive an instant bonus of a few thousand dollars.
Although being contacted by a tech company can be very exciting, the really hard part is still to come: making it through the interviews.
Interviewing
Google’s interview process is much like any other tech company’s, with a large focus on technical ability. The interview process generally happens in two parts: a short phone screen followed by on-site interviews.
Phone screening is generally two 45-minute interviews back-to-back, conducted over Skype or phone. If the interviews go well, you’ll be flown out to a Google office to do a full day of on-site interviews. The full day of interviewing is broken up into four or five technical interviews, each about an hour long. Interviewers challenge candidates with programming problems and you have to be ready to solve these problems on a white board right then and there.
Interestingly, my first round of phone screen interviews with Google were a complete disaster. I didn’t do well with either of the interview questions and I remember needing a lot of direction in finding a solution. Naturally, I didn’t get an offer for an internship. That summer I ended up working at Facebook instead. But, to my surprise, Google contacted me again that summer, asking me if I’d be interested in interviewing. I agreed, and this time the interviews went much more smoothly. The phone screens led to on-site interviews, and the on-site interviews led to a job offer.
There are many great resources to help you prepare for the interviews. I used a few different methods that I’ve linked below. The key, I think, is to practice, practice, practice. Know how to tackle these types of programming problems inside and out. When studying, focus on objects, algorithms, recursion, dynamic programming, and object oriented design patterns.
Interview practice resources:
Example Problem
Given a string of characters, write a function to determine if the string is an almost-palindrome. An almost-palindrome is a palindrome with exactly one extra character. For example: given the string ‘abba’ the function should return false, since this is not an almost palindrome. When given the string ‘abbca’ the function should return true, since we can find a palindrome by removing ‘c’.
When interviewing, It’s important to remember that the interviewer isn’t just looking for a solution to the problem, but rather how you approach the problem. I’d suggest starting with a naive solution and go from there. Don’t spend too much time being stuck, say aloud what you’re thinking and ask for clarification if you need it. Don’t worry if you don’t finish the questions, I’ve known people who were way off from finding a solution, but still got an offer because their problem solving approach was sound and competent.
Only about 1 percent of candidates make it through the recruitment process and receive a job offer from Google. If you’re one of the lucky few that receive an offer letter, then congratulations! You’re officially a Noogler.
Yours truly, in a spiffy new Noogler hat. Mountain View, CA.
A Day in the Life
9:00, wake and wash up. I lived just a few blocks from the office, so I’d arrive at work before 10:00. Grab a quick coffee and snack from the kitchenette and get right to work. Software development feels about the same no matter where you work. Lots of programming and code reviews organized into two week sprints. At around 1:00, after a morning of work, most of the team would head over to the cafeterias together and grab lunch.
After lunch it’s back to work for a few more hours. More programming and more code reviews. Depending on the day, the afternoons are filled with different activities to drop in on. Some of the activities I frequented were going to the on-site gym, watching open mic performers in the common area and attending the livestream on Fridays with Larry and Sergey. There are constantly events happening at Google. You have to pick and choose which ones you want to do, otherwise you’d never get any work done.
In the evening, some of the team goes home for the night, while the rest keep working. Hours aren’t tracked at Google, so getting your work done is your own responsibility. At the end of the day, some of us would grab dinner at the cafeteria together. Not many people stayed in the office late enough for dinner, but I usually did. I also remember quite a few nights going to Chainline with the team (the microbrewery next door). I’m pretty sure Google engineers solely kept that place in business!
After a long day, it’s back home for the night. Tomorrow start all over again!
Perks, Perks, Perks
Tech companies are known for the benefits and perks they offer employees. Almost everything you can think of is provided to employees for free. Even your home internet can be billed directly to Google. The most common perk people tend to hear about is the free food. And yes, lunch, breakfast and dinner are all provided at the office. Served in the cafeteria, breakfast is usually until 8:00 (clearly, I waived this perk), lunch from about 11:00 – 13:00 and dinner at about 18:00. There are also micro kitchens throughout the offices with snacks, drinks and coffee machines.
But it doesn’t stop there. There’s also a multitude of different restaurants and coffee shops throughout the campus serving throughout the day, just pickup and go. At first it can feel weird ordering food and then just walk away without paying. It’s kind of like the first time you ride with Uber and get out without paying. You get used to it pretty quickly though. Even an open bar is hidden in one of the buildings.
There’s a saying amongst software engineers: a good developer is a learning developer. There are many great ways to learn at Google, not just software development, but anything that interests you. There are constantly talks happening that you can drop in on, hosted by speakers both from within and out of the company. Want to take your master’s or PhD? Completely free. There is even an arrangement where a percentage of non-career related learning is covered, from piano lessons to skydiving classes.
And the list goes on and on. Free gym pass, on-site gym with sauna, free on-site parking, unlimited transit pass, annual bonuses, spot bonuses, equity, health and dental, on-site music room with state of the art recording equipment, and on, and on, and on. Compared to most companies it can sound unbelievable, but I swear it’s all true.
Conclusion
Facebook, Google, Amazon are all amazing companies. Strong software developers are hard to find, and tech companies spare no expense in attracting and retaining as many talented individuals as they can. But make no mistake, tech jobs are also very demanding. Everyone at Google has high expectations, both for you and for themselves. The deadlines are short and the workload can be difficult at times.
All that said, I would still recommend that anyone who is prepared to work at a tech company gives it a shot at least once in their careers. It’s an amazing place to be, exciting, and filled with some of the smartest and most talented individuals you’ll ever meet.
Noogler graduation. Google Headquarters, Mountain View, CA.
Cheers! 🍻
