3. My Experience
2013- attended Google.GetAJob() workshop in
Washington, D.C.
Had interviews with Amazon, Facebook, Jive, and Google
Applied to PhD programs in CS and Informatics
Kate Ringland April 2015
4. Industry
Ultimately helps if you know someone
If you don’t- need to make your application the best it can
be
Kate Ringland April 2015
6. Applying at Google
1. Apply for position you want
2. Submit resume
3. 1st interviews via phone – technical
4a. Fulltime job- 3-5 more interviews onsite
4b. Internship- host matching for placement
5. Hiring committee extends offer (hopefully)
Kate Ringland April 2015
7. Resume
Most important items should be front, top, and center
Can be more than a page, but don’t assume anyone will
read beyond page 1
Kate Ringland April 2015
8. Resume
Most important
• Education – school, degree, graduation date, and gpa
• Position seeking – internship or fulltime
• (Programming) Languages – include proficiency levels
Kate Ringland April 2015
9. Resume
Relevant experience: one clean section for work/projects
Open Source!
At bottom: awards, honors, publications, patents,
conferences, presentations
Kate Ringland April 2015
10. Resume
Be honest
Make it clean, easy to skim in 30 seconds
Cut all excess language
Lists, not sentences
Kate Ringland April 2015
11. Cover Letter
Most industry jobs will not want one
Have one ready just in case you are asked for it
Kate Ringland April 2015
12. Cover Letter
Sell yourself using examples, stories, and background
“I have excellent communication and organizational skills.”
Kate Ringland April 2015
13. Cover Letter
Sell yourself using examples, stories, and background
“I reorganized the inventory for Small Business I worked for
in 2014.”
Kate Ringland April 2015
18. Graduate School
Materials:
Letters of Recommendation (min. 3, aim for 5)
Statement of Purpose
Personal Statement
C.V.
Transcript
GRE scores
Kate Ringland April 2015
22. C.V.
Like a resume… kind of
Education
Relevant Experience
Publications
Conferences
Volunteer Experience
Example: http://goo.gl/3AWZnP
Kate Ringland April 2015
Apply to the job you want. (IF NOT AT JOB FAIR)
Your resume is reviewed by real human beings, not machines, and then passed along if it is found qualifying.
1st round of interviews on the phone. There will be probably 2 of these and they will be technical. The coding is usually done in a google doc or something of that ilk.
If applying for a Full Time position, 3-5 technical interviews are then done on site. If applying for an internship, there is a host matching process to see if there is a good place for you.
A hiring committee then decides whether or not to extend the offer.
The entire process will take ~1-2 months, unless there is a specific time crunch (other offers, etc).
Best way to secure the interview is having a enticing resume
Student resumes
In this order
If you don’t put your gpa, it will look suspicious
Also, never include the word “expert” unless you wrote the language yourself because it’s just asking for trouble in your interviews.
Next on the resume should be relevant experience. I originally had projects/experience listed separately from my work experience and my reviewer recommended lumping them all together in one clean section. Sort this list by relevance, not chronology. Remember, anything closer to the top will get noticed first (and possibly be the only thing that gets noticed during the skim). So, if you did something amazing on a project, put that first. Sell yourself.
Another big thing that I heard several times was that Google was sad to see so little in terms of Open Source projects on student resumes. List any projects and especially highlight any open source work. If you have time, maybe go DO an open source project because it will a) make you a more awesome programmer and b) help you get a job. The reason open source is coveted is because employers can easily just go look at any code you have written and see your abilities. They can get a really good feel for how you program without the pressure of an interview.
Do include towards the end of the resume your other great stuff: awards, honors, publications, patents, conferences, presentations, and interests. Google wants to hire interesting people, so if you are doing something interesting in your spare time (do you actually have spare time as a cs student???) then add it.
How might we change this?
Your cover letter and resume should speak for themselves in terms of your communication skills
Hoping your other classes have prepped you for this
This is the book I used to practice
I have more experience applying to the PhD, but the process is generally pretty similar for the masters programs
I’ll focus on the writing portions for the rest of this talk
No you don’t write these BUT!
Your letter writers will most likely want/need drafts of all your materials, so they can tailor the letter to you
These will be called different things depending on the school
They will be different sizes (anywhere from 500 to 2000 words)
They want to know why you want to work at their school in their lab
Be succinct, clear
This might be rolled into the other essay, it might be separate
Also variable length
Chance to explain wonky gpa or break in school
Chance to show your passion for your work
Can be longer than a page
Has more sections to it
Great place to show off any research experience you might have had as undergrad – but don’t worry, schools aren’t necessarily expecting a lot of epxerience
