Scribe: Andy Chan
Intro
-Graduated from JCU in 2015
-Former CS128 Lab Assistant
-Favorite class was CS328
-Software engineer at Google for about 1.5 years now
What he does at Google
-Works on the storage platform for many of Google’s products
-Batch processing large amounts of data
-Figures out how to safely change production
How to get into Software Engineering?
Recommends:
-practice problem solving
-good book to look at: https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-Questions/dp/098478280X
-take a discrete math course
-group projects
-tutoring
-lab assisting
Day in the life
-Meetings
-Works on a team of 18 people
-Checks on batch jobs to see if everything is working properly
-Code review
-Coding
-Bug hunting
-Once a quarter on-duty rotation: make sure all changes are pushed into production
-Goes home at 6pm
What he likes about working at a big company
-Working on projects where you aren’t responsible for everything
-Learned how to create maintainable code and use version control
-Google creates and use many of its own internal software
-Has time to work on own side projects
About living on the west coast
Pros:
-Nice weather all year long (bikes to work everyday)
-Can shuttle between Mountain View and San Francisco for work
-Mountains
Cons:
-Cost of living
-Timezone difference can make it hard to communicate with people from the east coast
Questions
Q: How does Google keep theirs files secured?
A: 2 factor authentication. Limit access to as few people as possible.
Q: Difference between west coast and Cleveland culture.
A: People are warmer and friendlier in Cleveland.
Q. How long until you felt comfortable there:
A: Still feels like the new guy. Took about a year to feel comfortable
Q: Con of working at google?
A: Everyone is good at their jobs so it can be hard to have your accomplishments noticed. Cost of living.
Q: How similar is it like working at Google to how it is portrayed in The Internship movie:
A: Pretty similar
Q: Languages used:
A: Primarily Java
Q: Are regular expressions important?
A: Yes, they're especially useful for finding smalls things in a large amount of files
Q: How often do you Google the answer for something?
A: Almost every time. Google has their own code search tool which is helpful
Q: Google interview process
A: Got a call from recruiter. Phone interview (1-2 java questions on a shared Google docs) Got accepted and flew to mountain view for 4 additional interviews. Tutoring was helpful in learning how to explain solutions on whiteboards.
Q: Important coding skills learnt at Google
A: Ability to read a lot of code that isn’t yours
Q: Least beneficial class at JCU
A: CS125 since he doesn’t do a lot of front-end
Q: Harsh management style at Google?
A: Doesn’t feel his managers are very harsh. Amazon is more notorious for their harsh management
Q: Strategies utilized to better fit into the work environment
A: Being friendly; goes camping with co-workers often
Q: Disparity in gender representation?
A: Yes, but a lot is being done at Google to remedy this.
Q: Age demographic
A: Average age of the people he interacts with is about late 20s
Q: Good work/life balance?
A: Yes but leans more towards work
Q: Favorite side project
A: Made a multiplayer crossword puzzle game
Q: Does Google give training to keep employees updated?
A: Yes. Many in-company classes. Takes them during working hours.
Q: Is Google/Silicon Valley a stressful environment?
A: Doesn’t feel stressful working in his team
Q: Are you distracted by the many amenities you are surrounded by?
A: Google has their own tennis courts and bowling alley. More distracted by snacks.
Q: Weight gain since working at Google?
A: +10lbs
Q: How accurate is the show Silicon Valley?
A: Some things are exaggerated but gets the details right
Q: Do you interact with people from other SV companies?
A: Not yet
Q: How did recruiter find you?
A: Wrote papers with Dr. Palmer and Kirsch. Found him through those publications.
Q: Any internships previous to working at Google?
A: Worked at JCU with Dr. Kirsch and Palmer.
Q: Does he see more tech companies coming to the Midwest?
A: He hopes so. Doesn’t feel SV is very sustainable (costly real estate).
Q: Advantages of working on the Google main campus as opposed to Google’s other campuses?
A: More opportunities for advancement because there are more projects to work on
Q: Tips for the job hunt
A: Practice problem solving for interview questions, ideally with someone else.
Q: What IDE do you use?
A: IntelliJ > Eclipse