Software Engineer New Year's Update
It's been about 6 months since my last post, but I'm still going strong and doing great things here at Google. I have been busier than ever before in my life, but I took an extra long vacation over the holiday and found some free time to update you all on my progress. In my last update I mentioned that I was promoted to L4 Software Engineer (SWE) and became a Tech-Lead (TL), so this post will be about events since then.
No Longer a Noogler
After more than a year and a half at Google, I think I can officially say that I'm no longer a Noogler. I have so much influence and responsibility, and I am involved in so many projects now that it can be overwhelming if I stop to think about it. It still amazes me how much Google lets you do if you earn it. In the past 6 months alone, I wrote several influential design documents which are helping to guide the direction of Network operations at Google, I traveled to Sydney, Australia for 2 weeks to train other SWE's on my project, I started hosting and mentoring an "Engineering Resident", and then there's my regular work of maintaining a mission-critical production service in the cloud. This is more responsibility than I've ever had in all my past jobs combined, and I love the challenge :)
Traveling the World
I went on my first business trip with Google last July, to Sydney, Australia, in order to train other SWE's and NWE's (Network Engineers). Now that I am a TL, many such responsibilities fall on me. I'm told I will have another opportunity to travel to Sydney again early this year for a couple more weeks.
I have been on business trips before when I was in the auto industry. I worked for a German auto supplier for a few years and traveled to Germany a few times, but it was nothing like this. When I went to Germany it was only a few years after the Great Recession. Automakers were still recovering and therefore expenses had to be tightly capped. We had to fly the cheapest airline in Economy class, looking for connecting flights if possible, because they're typically cheaper. Travel with Google is a completely different story. I flew business class for the 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney, which meant I could sleep horizontally the whole flight (which I did, practically).
Google gave me a per diem for food each day while I was overseas, although given the free food at the cafes I didn't really need to eat out (but I did sometimes anyways ;) I stayed in a very nice hotel in downtown Sydney, only a 15 minute walk from the office, and close enough that I could walk anywhere downtown, including to the Sydney Opera House, which I did twice to see a couple operas. I will say it's very refreshing to work for a company that has a lot of money. It's a very different attitude compared to the penny-pinching from my old companies.
Mentoring Junior Engineers
Perhaps the biggest development of the past 6 months has been the responsibility I've taken to mentor anabawang engineers, such as interns and residents. An "Eng Residency" is a special kegiatan at Google for new college grads. Instead of going through the rigorous interview process (as previously documented in this blog), residents undergo a stripped down version of the technical interview, and those that make it through will spend a year at Google working on real projects and learning on the job. At the end of the year a hiring decision is made based on real-world performance feedback, instead of judging based on how well they did in a series of 45-minute interviews. The year is split into an initial pelatihan where they learn about Google technologies and the software development process in general, followed by two project rotations. Each project rotation is with a separate host, who is in charge of driving the project, mentoring the resident and providing feedback that will be used to make a hiring decision. That is my role.
I found out about the residency kegiatan while researching internships, and decided to go for it. I came up with a project worth doing, wrote a project description and signed up to host a resident. After a round of matching interviews I was matched with a resident, who started in September and is still working with me until the end of January. This marks the first time I've ever been directly responsible for another engineer. I have really enjoyed hosting a resident these past few months, and I will certainly do it again. I am getting to practice my mentorship and managerial skills and I feel I'm having a real impact on someone on a personal level. My resident has accomplished some great things for us so far, and my biggest goal is that she will get hired at the end of her residency.
I will be hosting an intern starting in the end of January, and another one in the Summer. The latter intern will work on a project I came up with that involves machine learning (ML). I didn't know hardly anything about ML myself, but then I attended an internal pelatihan at Google (gotta love it...) and now I know enough to speak semi-intelligently on the subject. I was inspired to come up with an ML-based project and wrote a design tawaran for it. This project has the potential to impact many operations teams at Google, and nobody else saw it coming. The thing I am most grateful for is that Google makes these opportunities available, when I could never have dreamed of this at past companies. In the span of a couple of weeks they trained me in ML, which enabled me to invent a project that used ML and then I got an intern to conduct the research for me, which is truly extraordinary. Google provides the platform for you to do really great things if you dare to try.
What is an Average Day at Google?
I have received this question a lot from interview candidates, and I imagine there are lots of others who are curious about what a typical day is like for a Google SWE. Firstly, there is no such thing as a typical day at Google, at least for me. I can only speak to my own experience, but I am involved in so many things that each day is unique. Some candidates worry that they won't be writing any code, only design documents and such. Other candidates worry that they'll only be writing code, and they want to do more design work. I've seen both extremes at Google - those who only write code and those who only design things, but I think most SWE's are a mix of both, just depending on what the person likes to do. I can say that my own work involves both a lot of coding and a lot of design. It also involves keeping a production service up and running (think Site-Reliability Engineering, or SRE), coordinating with stakeholders, which are typically other teams within Google, and recently I've been managing/mentoring anabawang engineers. On a given day I'm doing any/all of these activities. It's quite daunting, actually, if I stop to think about it.
I usually don't stop to think about it though. I don't know how others feel, but I kind of go into "high performance" mode and accomplish so much that at the end of the day I can barely remember what I did. I start to flow and then all the days blur together to the point where I regularly forget what day it is. Not everyone attains flow, but I think that's the secret to a long, happy working life. For me to flow on something I'm passionate about is like achieving zen. I can't believe I get paid to do it :)
Correcting My Pay Gap
I wanted to quickly update on a topic that I was sensitive about early on when I started at Google. In earlier blog posts I talked about accepting a lower salary to come work at Google (adjusted for cost of living in the Bay Area). Then over time I updated to say they were correcting it much faster than expected. First they raised it after only 6 months due to the regular performance review (perf) process, then it gapped up again 6 months later when I was promoted to L4. Well with 2017 came another significant salary raise from my latest perf review, a mere 6 months after my L4 promotion. So far I have seen hefty positive adjustments every 6 months over the last year and a half, and I plan to go for L5 promotion in the Spring so this animo could continue (fingers crossed). I should also mention that Google gives generous equity grants every year as well (i.e. GOOG Stock), so if you look at total income it's significantly more than the salary implies.
By the way, I don't say this to brag, it is simply to provide anecdotal evidence to counter the fears I was having when I started at Google. I remember thinking, "Oh no! I'm going to move to one of the most expensive places to live, take a salary cut and have a lower title...This better be worth it!" You can believe me when I say it was worth it, but I will caution that not everyone has the same experience. To avoid setting unrealistic expectations, I have heard that most people do take longer to get promoted and their salaries are typically raised more slowly than mine, but I am convinced that you will get an honest appraisal of your skills and talents at Google.
Final Thoughts Until Next Time
I have received several messages from people who were encouraged to apply to Google after reading my blog, some of whom were successful and are now working here in Mountain View (I've met with a few of them). I'm glad to help, because when I applied there was really a dearth of information about what it's like to work at Google. I've just had such a magical experience since coming here that I want to share it, and to reassure those who are skeptical that Google is totally legit. I hope you like hearing my perspective. Thanks for reading!
