Maddie Zhang, who spent over four years as a programmer at Google, working on projects related to search and advertising, shared five tips for landing a job at Google or a similar big tech company.
Maddie Zhang, who spent over four years as a programmer at Google, working on projects related to search and advertising, shared five tips for landing a job at Google or a similar big tech company.
Business Insider reports that Zhang currently works at Airbnb and has previously interned at Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft.
To get a job at Google, she advises applying as early as possible — within a few hours of the job posting because of the high competition. If you apply the day before, you’ll already have hundreds of candidates applying. While a recruiter is required to review all applications, they’re likely to review the first batch and ignore the rest, says Maddie Zhang.
She says it’s also a good idea to get a recommendation from someone who already works at the company. These applications have a higher success rate. But that doesn’t mean you should ask just anyone on LinkedIn for a recommendation.
«If you don’t actually have a connection with them, it won’t help,» Zhang warns.
While a good resume or recommendation can help you get past a recruiter’s initial screening, candidates must then go through a technical interview. Many engineers prepare using LeetCode, a tool that Zhang says is still valuable.
«I know that no one likes him. It’s a necessary evil,» the programmer believes.
She recommends solving LeetCode problems of varying difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. If you encounter difficulties, Zhang advises starting over rather than looking for a ready-made answer.
Aitivytsa also recommends not underestimating your IT education, even if it’s not from a prestigious institution. As you move up the career ladder, the importance of a diploma will become less and less significant.
According to Zhang, you shouldn’t be upset if you get rejected, because after all, finding a job is a lottery in many ways. Previously, the programmer received hundreds of rejections and even considered leaving IT, but she realized that the reasons for rejections can be completely different.
«Maybe I was having a bad day, maybe the interviewer had more qualified candidates, maybe there was something I couldn’t control. The rejection has nothing to do with who you are as a software engineer,» Zhang said.
Recall that artificial intelligence researcher Chip Hewson, who previously worked on the NeMo platform at Nvidia and taught machine learning at Stanford University, provided advice to IT professionals seeking to remain competitive in the era of artificial intelligence.
