Building Your Knowledge Base And Getting An Interview
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We have recently covered the steps you need to take to enter TCS and Infosys. We’ll cover more of mass recruiters in the near future but overall, the processes and strategies Indian IT giants are using for recruitment are quite similar. Now that you have a fairly good idea of how to get a secure, comparatively easy to get job, let us turn our sights to the dream companies every engineer fantasizes about. This series will cover steps you need to take to get into the legendary FANG(Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) companies.
First, let us develop an action plan for getting a job at Google - especially if Google doesn’t visit your college for campus recruitment. There are two levels to this -
Getting an interview
Acing the interview
Getting the interview: Everyday thousands of people apply for jobs at Google. Google has a policy of having the applications read by humans to find the best fit between applicants and positions. Which means it’s almost impossible to get noticed using the official channel of Google Careers. Still, give it a visit and read up on their best practices. Apply for the positions you like and then… forget about it. If you get a call, great and if you don’t, at least you didn’t get your hopes up.
Right, apart from the official channels what else can you do to maximize your chances of getting an interview?
It Starts In College: Recently Google has stopped giving much important to CGPA rankings in their recruitment processes. It still has some importance if you’re a student applying for an internship or a fresh graduate. But much more than your academic record what matters is your familiarity with core computer science concepts at an execution level. So start doing projects early and have a GitHub presence. Even though you may not immediately get into Google just by having a few projects, it’ll help you later on by showcasing your evolution as a tech expert. Learn at least one of the major, eloquent and multi-paradigm programming languages such as Java, Python or SQL. Multiple languages are preferable. Basically, we’re trying to create a strong base for you to be even slightly interesting to Google. To be sure, when I say that “it starts in college” I don’t mean that you should be discouraged if your academic performance is average or below average. I mean that despite the low academic scores, you must have practical programming skills in major languages with an understanding of fundamentals. As far as scores are concerned, Google even recruits candidates without any engineering degrees. Skill though is non-negotiable.
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How To Build Your CV: I’m sure you have an all-purpose resume ready for applying at on-campus and off-campus drives. Throw it away. I’m serious. Don’t look at it twice. Make a Google CV for yourself. Tailor it to your dream job at your dream company at your dream location. When I say “build your CV”, I don’t mean type it up and make copies. Building a CV involves working on yourself and gathering the experience and skills that would make you shine in a sea of applicants. While building your CV you must remember these salient points.
If you have a low GPA, don’t mention it at all. You don’t want to get eliminated at an early stage without even getting a chance to demonstrate your skills.
Get experience. Not the usual internship experience that we usually do in engineering colleges (we all know how much “work” we put in those). When I say experience I mean usable, practical skills.
Include testimonials. Be they from your mentors, internship managers, professors or freelance work clients, make sure they mention the key skills that you want Google recruiters to see.
Showcase a T-shaped personality. Google famously prefers people with a T-shaped personality. It means having multiple skills and one specialization. In other words, jack of all trades and master of one. Cultivate the habit of reading and learning and have diverse interest but be nothing less than devoted to at least one area of interest.
Boost your CV’s T shape by including extracurricular activities, both technical and non-technical. I know, everybody says it, but nobody reads this part of the CV. Trust me, when it comes to Google, this is not just generic advice. Out of tens of thousands of CVs, you need these activities to make yours stand out. In addition to that, extracurricular activities signal social intelligence and leadership abilities.
Have an open source coding track record. Many major companies run open source coding competitions and projects that you can participate in. In addition to the benefit of learning by doing, you also get to show off your work to recruiters.
Have a GitHub presence. It’s like a portfolio website for engineers. It has an active and supportive community of engineers worldwide who can help you solve your problems while your portfolio of finished and unfinished projects tells the recruiters that you’re not some noob off the street.
Show how you can help. Google clearly prefers passionate, extroverted tech experts. Make note of it - “passionate, extroverted tech experts”. It means social skills and leadership skills are quite important. In your CV, using your tech experience and skills combined with your social and extracurricular activities and your passion for technology and the company, paint a picture of a unique individual capable of making a substantial contribution to the company.
Cool. We have a respectable CV ready. Let us make sure it gets noticed by a recruiter and you get the first call. As we discussed don’t depend solely on the official Google Careers page. Strategize your way to an interview. Let’s look at some high success rate strategies.
Be flexible. Sometimes (many times) you won’t get a position at Google immediately after your graduation. This doesn’t mean you’re incapable of getting a job at Google. It means currently your skillset doesn’t fit their requirements and you need to grow. Take a few years, work at other places, innovate, maybe even work on a startup (Either you’ll get crazy money or crazy knowledge) and come back. Usually, engineers with minimum 3 years of work experience do much better.
Activate your contacts. You are three-fourths more likely to get an interview by being referred by a contact. The belief at Google is that quality employees will bring in more quality employees. This would require you to earn a reputation as an expert or at least a quick learner among your professional network. Make it easier for people to refer you.
Email recruiters directly. Or get in touch on LinkedIn. Don’t be shy. They actually prefer it. If you get in touch with them on LinkedIn they get to see your professional evolution online AND a general idea of the kind of a professional you are. Don’t email or message blindly. Find out which position you want and who the recruiting manager for that position is.
Communicate how you’ll be using. Again, communicate CLEARLY. Don’t even think about boilerplate BS like “To obtain a position with a progressive organization who provides opportunities to utilize acquired skills and knowledge”. Personalize it to the position you’re looking at and the value you bring to the company.
Photo by Anthony Young on Unsplash
We saw in this article how to secure an interview. In the next part, we’ll cover the interview process and learning resources you’ll need to prepare for it. Until then, happy preparations!
Piyush Tainguriya
An engineer by education, writer by profession and a stand-up comic by vocation. I'm only half joking though.
January 25, 2018
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