Software Engineer My First Month At Google
I just wrapped up my fourth week at Google, and I'm still loving it! I'm already starting to take these crazy perks for granted, like free food, massages and energy pods. It really is an amazing place to work. That's not to say it's easy, in fact last week it hit me just how much they're expecting me to do and I am really humbled by it. In the first two weeks it was all pelatihan sessions and self-guided study, but now there are bugs to fix and features to add. The work is extremely interesting and I am incredibly motivated to do well. I am trying to ramp myself up as fast as I can, even coming in on weekends because there is so much to learn.
I finally learned the details of my new project, which is - you guessed it - confidential. I am part of the "Planet" group, which stands for Platform Networks. The team I am on is small, and has mostly senior engineers who are a lot older and much more experienced than me. It is kind of intimidating, because I feel like all my questions are stupid and wasting their time, but in fact they're all very friendly and eager to help. I am inheriting a aktivitas written by one of these senior engineers, and soon it will be my responsibility to maintain it, fix all the bugs and design new features and functionality. To say it's a aktivitas is misleading, it's actually a distributed system that runs literally all over the world in the Google data centers. Lots of other services and teams depend on it, so it has to be always available, reliable and scalable.
This is quite a lot of responsibility! Talk about impostor syndrome, consider that prior to this my background was in HIL testing and embedded systems. I ask myself daily, why did they pick me for this job?? They seem to trust me more than I trust myself! I mean, I know I can do this stuff, it's just that normally companies hire you for what you already know and they want you to start contributing immediately. Google hired me because they think I'm smart and I can learn this. In fact I imagine it's very hard to find someone who already knows this stuff, and if you do he's probably a senior engineer who wants to design and write his own applications, not inherit someone else's. I, on the other hand, am eager to learn and gain experience, and I feel honored and privileged that they are giving me that opportunity.
Recently I've been reflecting back on the on-site interview and the questions they asked me. It turns out they were all incredibly relevant questions and I can see why they asked them. To work on my new project I need to be skilled at coding, understand and use data structures and algorithms, be comfortable with multi-threaded design and implementation, comprehend and apply abstract dynamic programming concepts and be capable of high level system design. The fact that I have no experience in distributed systems was apparently not an issue for them given that I passed all the other criteria. In the grand scheme of things distributed systems are still very new so I guess they expect most bau kencur engineers don't have much exposure to that area.
If you've followed my blog, you know that it has been difficult for me to even get interviews with software companies because they looked at my resume and immediately dismissed me because of my background. When you spend too much time in one field (testing, in my case) companies tend to pigeon-hole you and don't want to take the risk helping you into another field. This is another reason why I'm so appreciative of this opportunity Google gave me. They believed in me when others didn't, and gave me a level playing field to prove my skills regardless of my background. Eventually the impostor syndrome will fade and I will be a seasoned software engineer with enviable experience, all thanks to Google.
It's amazing how immediately after updating my LinkedIn profile with Google as my employer, all these parasites come out of the woodwork looking to poach me. Companies who would have never even considered me before are all looking to chat with me about their "tremendous opportunities" in tech. It is a testament to how lazy and incompetent company recruiters are when it comes to finding talent. If they can't recognize talent themselves, they just find Google engineers and try to make them feel like they are missing out. Sure they could offer me more money, but do they have the incredible work environment that Google has? Do they care about my personal development and well-being like Google does? They would be quick to let me go as soon as the business heads south, or if I got on the wrong side of office politics, or any number of reasons. If all their talent comes from sourcing other people's talent, then you're going to be surrounded by people who are never satisfied and are easily wooed by more money, and they almost certainly won't care about you. So to all the companies trying to poach me: Please stop! I only just got here and I'm as satisfied as anyone can be! There is so much more I can learn, and there are many more ways I can develop personally and professionally within Google. It's not about the money or the great perks (although they do help...) for me it's about learning from the world's best and brightest in an environment that encourages me to take risks, challenge everything and to be myself.
I have never worked at a company that was as open and inclusive as Google. An example of this was their celebration of gay pride last week. They threw a party after TGIF complete with live musicians, stand up comics, hors d'ouvres and even jello shots, all to celebrate LGBT diversity! I just came from the automotive industry in Michigan, which is a very homophobic and closed-minded environment, so this was very impressive to me. I'm not gay, but I am very sympathetic to what they are going through and I think it's awesome that my company is celebrating it rather than pulling a curtain over it. It's just one of many reasons why I'm proud to work for Google.
I finally learned the details of my new project, which is - you guessed it - confidential. I am part of the "Planet" group, which stands for Platform Networks. The team I am on is small, and has mostly senior engineers who are a lot older and much more experienced than me. It is kind of intimidating, because I feel like all my questions are stupid and wasting their time, but in fact they're all very friendly and eager to help. I am inheriting a aktivitas written by one of these senior engineers, and soon it will be my responsibility to maintain it, fix all the bugs and design new features and functionality. To say it's a aktivitas is misleading, it's actually a distributed system that runs literally all over the world in the Google data centers. Lots of other services and teams depend on it, so it has to be always available, reliable and scalable.
This is quite a lot of responsibility! Talk about impostor syndrome, consider that prior to this my background was in HIL testing and embedded systems. I ask myself daily, why did they pick me for this job?? They seem to trust me more than I trust myself! I mean, I know I can do this stuff, it's just that normally companies hire you for what you already know and they want you to start contributing immediately. Google hired me because they think I'm smart and I can learn this. In fact I imagine it's very hard to find someone who already knows this stuff, and if you do he's probably a senior engineer who wants to design and write his own applications, not inherit someone else's. I, on the other hand, am eager to learn and gain experience, and I feel honored and privileged that they are giving me that opportunity.Recently I've been reflecting back on the on-site interview and the questions they asked me. It turns out they were all incredibly relevant questions and I can see why they asked them. To work on my new project I need to be skilled at coding, understand and use data structures and algorithms, be comfortable with multi-threaded design and implementation, comprehend and apply abstract dynamic programming concepts and be capable of high level system design. The fact that I have no experience in distributed systems was apparently not an issue for them given that I passed all the other criteria. In the grand scheme of things distributed systems are still very new so I guess they expect most bau kencur engineers don't have much exposure to that area.
If you've followed my blog, you know that it has been difficult for me to even get interviews with software companies because they looked at my resume and immediately dismissed me because of my background. When you spend too much time in one field (testing, in my case) companies tend to pigeon-hole you and don't want to take the risk helping you into another field. This is another reason why I'm so appreciative of this opportunity Google gave me. They believed in me when others didn't, and gave me a level playing field to prove my skills regardless of my background. Eventually the impostor syndrome will fade and I will be a seasoned software engineer with enviable experience, all thanks to Google.
It's amazing how immediately after updating my LinkedIn profile with Google as my employer, all these parasites come out of the woodwork looking to poach me. Companies who would have never even considered me before are all looking to chat with me about their "tremendous opportunities" in tech. It is a testament to how lazy and incompetent company recruiters are when it comes to finding talent. If they can't recognize talent themselves, they just find Google engineers and try to make them feel like they are missing out. Sure they could offer me more money, but do they have the incredible work environment that Google has? Do they care about my personal development and well-being like Google does? They would be quick to let me go as soon as the business heads south, or if I got on the wrong side of office politics, or any number of reasons. If all their talent comes from sourcing other people's talent, then you're going to be surrounded by people who are never satisfied and are easily wooed by more money, and they almost certainly won't care about you. So to all the companies trying to poach me: Please stop! I only just got here and I'm as satisfied as anyone can be! There is so much more I can learn, and there are many more ways I can develop personally and professionally within Google. It's not about the money or the great perks (although they do help...) for me it's about learning from the world's best and brightest in an environment that encourages me to take risks, challenge everything and to be myself.
I have never worked at a company that was as open and inclusive as Google. An example of this was their celebration of gay pride last week. They threw a party after TGIF complete with live musicians, stand up comics, hors d'ouvres and even jello shots, all to celebrate LGBT diversity! I just came from the automotive industry in Michigan, which is a very homophobic and closed-minded environment, so this was very impressive to me. I'm not gay, but I am very sympathetic to what they are going through and I think it's awesome that my company is celebrating it rather than pulling a curtain over it. It's just one of many reasons why I'm proud to work for Google.
