doctor_sherlock's blog

Offer from Google still worried
By doctor_sherlock, history, 4 years ago, In English

Hi, community

I got an offer from Google for the SWE L3 role. I am a new grad who is from a non-CS background and am about to graduate. I worked hard on my DS and Algorithm skills to get that offer and I am extremely happy and thankful to codeforces for helping me. Now the reason for my worry is that I do not know anything other than DS and Algo and in college, I mostly focused on competitive programming. I still have about 2 months before I join Google. What should I do in this available time so that I do not look like a complete dumb in front of other googlers?

Should I learn some web development, machine learning, or what...I need guidance please help me.

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +52 Vote: I do not like it
  1. https://workplace.stackexchange.com
  2. You mean, the whole team (including leads and system architects) have interviewed and accepted you? And your worry is that they will suddenly think low of you because your head is not full of buzzwordy shit?
  3. Why don't you ask the team what they expect you to do in those two months?
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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +50 Vote: I do not like it

You got the offer so you know enough. I think many people who join Google have about the same situation.

Still, if you want to learn something, data science (machine learning etc.) could be a good choice.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Yes, thankyou. Its just that competitive programming is not much used in the corporate world. Sorry I don't want anyone to demotivate but it's the hard reality, keep coding.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      The important thing in competitive programming is that you learn problem solving and thinking. Those skills are needed also in software engineering.

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4 years ago, # |
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If you really wanna do something, ask your recruiter to connect you with someone on your team so that you can ask them about the work. Although, If I were you I would just chill :D

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +239 Vote: I do not like it

Look at the new Codejam website and you should realise that Google isn't as good as you think.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Maybe you should join Google and fix all the things that you keep complaining about?

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      Are you complaining about complaining?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    ... Google isn't as good as you think.

    Whatever, they still have the diversity of "socially underrepresented groups."

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4 years ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +92 Vote: I do not like it

You will be fine. Relax.

Background in CP should mean that you can solve problems and learn. That's enough. For the first couple of months, you will learn everything that is needed.

You can read about the impostor syndrome. I am pretty sure almost everyone experienced it at least once in their life.

Congrats on your offer! I bet it was even harder to get one in these strange times.

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4 years ago, # |
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Unrelated, but two months later, when you join Google, please add the support for C++17 in Google Competitions.

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4 years ago, # |
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Somebody need to join TopCoder to solve all those problems! PLEASE!

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4 years ago, # |
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Talk to your future manager, they'll know better. Random suggestions from online strangers being like "learn this and that" have a high chance to cover something completely unrelated and useless for your future role and project.

You are definitely not expected to start working before your first day. Depending on the perspective, "Learn frameworks X and Y, and languages A, B, C" may be considered part of your job. Most likely there will be not much you can learn in advance, as you won't have access to internal stack and tooling — but this depends on what team you are on.

It is OK for people joining at L3 to have little clue at the beginning. I was in a situation similar to yours — not working anywhere prior to Google, and not doing any projects or stuff like that on my own. It is all good, and it will be made clear to you from the very first day that it is all good. If you want to work on anything, you may look into things related to self-esteem issues, your insecurities etc. You probably don't want to deal with impostor syndrome, and I guess there is such risk in case you are already asking questions like this before you even started to work.

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4 years ago, # |
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Just relax. Let me tell you my story.

I joined a software developing company more than a decade ago, and just like you, I only knew algorithms and data structures, with no real experience in software development, and I have never even heard of SQL. I started studying the PowerBuilder IDE and SQL syntax the night before I started working. I pretty much sucked at everything for the first couple of weeks and my co-workers had to explain very simple things, like what a datastore was or how to do a simple SELECT or UPDATE using SQL. But it turns out I learned pretty fast, and by the time 2 months had passed, I knew my way around the PowerBuilder IDE and SQL pretty well, and was the programmer they relied on for the most difficult tasks, despite being the "new guy". Anyway, I quit the job after 6 months because I wanted to move out of the city and have been developing software on my own ever since.

So don't worry, you'll be fine. Don't quit Google though, hahaha!

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4 years ago, # |
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You think they spend a lot of money for your interviews if they don't see anything in you :). Google is one of the very few companies that care more about your potential rather than what you know right now (as a new grad).

So no worries :). Congrats on the offer =)).

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4 years ago, # |
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What's your actual rating right now?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    To all those people who are asking about my rating/codeforcesId in my inbox I want to clear some things.

    I will not reveal my rating/Id as I don't want to set any stereotype that this much rating is required to be in Google. Your rating does not matter, you can be in Google even if you are unrated (yeah why not) as long as you can write clean code and have good communication skills so that the interviewer follows what you are trying to explain. Just try to solve problems and enjoy coding. Interviews are very different from competitive programming, although having a good practice in the later will surely help in developing thinking ability.

    I hope that clears it. Cheers and have fun coding.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      this indirectly implies that u must be master or above..or else u would have simply revealed yr identity coz it would make up for a motivational and inspiring story if u r a specialist or an expert....( for me at least)..

      Congrats on the offer tho.

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        Lol no. Infact it implies that he is <=pupil. No one would like to be called as "A pupil who made it to google" and be famous/inspiring.

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        Or he's fake ...

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      I need some confidence in life, that's why I asked, btw congrats on the offer.

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4 years ago, # |
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I'd recommend to take this opportunity to take some time off and have a nice vacation or something like this ;)

Another thing you can do which is probably a great time investment is to work on soft skills.

Third, I recommend "Clean Code" book. It is easy to read and actually covers quite a lot. My friend once said "I have learned more from this book than from a year in university".

And if you are interested in AI, I would recommend fast.ai course. It is very hands-on and quite exciting.

Another small thing you can try to work on is technical writing. I think it is an important skill for an engineer in a large company, and it's easy to make a lot of progress in a short time.

Most importantly, don't worry, if you can learn competitive programming you will definitely be fine. And nobody is going to push you to perform from the day one. I think 6 months is considered to be normal ramp-up period.

Welcome to Google!

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4 years ago, # |
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Just chill bro !!

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4 years ago, # |
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Can i get google offer as a Pupil , i will do anything they want , will put my whole hardwork for them .

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