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Important things to say first

Many of people may think that it is very difficult to apply for an internship at a big company like Google, and that they have no chance. Please don’t think that way. Finding a job is 10% your capability and 90% luck, and 80% of that luck depends on the market and current economic reality. So please apply with the mindset of buying a lottery ticket.

Don’t be afraid to apply for internships if you’re a freshman or sophomore

I also saw some people who think that they are only freshmen or sophomores, and that they don’t have enough training in computer science, so it’s best to not look for internships for now. I strongly disagree with this way of thinking. There are many types of internships. The main preparation is grinding leetcode, finding referrals, and preparing for interviews, and all three of them are optional actually if you want them to be. It will certainly take a lot of effort, but I don’t think it has anything to do with formal computer science training.

In addition to formal software engineering internships, many companies also have immersion weeks or insight days. These are designed for people who haven’t taken many computer science classes, so please don’t be afraid to apply. I had a friend who went to insight week host by Jane Street, JS paid them hotels and food for a week + 200 pound bonus. It really is like lottery.

STEP vs SWE

STEP

STEP internships are internship programs for freshmen and sophomores. They are also very encouraging to underresprented groups. Since they are only for freshmen and sophomores, the interview questions are relatively easier. I highly encourage freshmen and sophomores to apply for this program.

Students who are in their second year of a three-year program can also apply, but STEP internships cannot be converted directly to full-time positions. Students must convert to SWE interns first and then do another internship the following year in order to be converted to full-time.

SWE

You can apply as long as you are a college student. Interveiw is slightly harder since it is targeted at senior students.

Process Overview

This blog will discuss EMEA process only.

Google’s hiring process is long. It is okay to apply first and then practice coding questions.

Your manager/mentor during your Google internship is called a host. In this article, we will call them hosts.

Google does not recruit interns based on nationality or their location. You may be studying in the UK, but if your team is in Switzerland, you will be assigned to Switzerland. Of course, you can also choose your own location in the preference list. If your host allows it, you can also choose to work remotely. Google provides all relevant visa and relocation support.

Some countries do not allow remote work. For more details, please consult the recruiters.

Many of the things mentioned in this article may not be clear or make sense now, especially for students who have never do job hunting. I suggest that you bookmark this article and read it as you go through the application process.

Google Internship Intern Form glossary

Resume：Applied in November

First, go to the Google website to submit your resume. You can ask a Google employee for a referral at this point.

Note: If you are logged in to your Google account at this point, your account will be linked to your application and subsequent emails will be sent to your Google email address! Be sure to check your Google email regularly! It is very likely to be classified as advertising!

I was that unlucky guy who had my update email classified as advertising email…

As for how to write a resume, there are many resources online. I will not elaborate on this. The only thing I want to mention is that I personally think that you can try to mention as many Google’s own development tools as possible in your resume, such as gRPC and Angular, because they are likely to be used internally.

After passing the resume review, Google will send you a form to fill out. After filling it out, just wait for a response. Remember to check your spam folder! All my internship-related emails were classified as advertising by Gmail, their own product…

Interview: Received in January

The interview is a two-round back-to-back technical interview, each 45 minutes long. Since I have only done a mock interview with my host for the SWE internship, I will not elaborate on the SWE internship interview too much, so as not to provide incorrect information.

By the way, it is best to only brush up on recent questions when grinding Leetcode. If the questions in the question bank are found online, they will not appear in the interview.

You should pay attention to clean and consistent code style and edge cases.

STEP Interview

The interview felt relatively easy, and the questions were not very difficult. The first question was especially easy, a medium-easy at most. The follow-up questions were about medium difficulty, or slightly harder than medium. In my interview, there was 1 warm-up question and 2 follow-up questions.

Even the interview questions for STEP internships are relatively simple, and I could not find the original questions online. The key is to master data structures and ideas. For example, if it is a linked list, how to use two pointer technique. Then, for example, how to abstract a problem, such as package dependency, into a tree/graph, and then apply tree/graph algorithms to solve it.

SWE Interview

I only did mock interview for this. Medium to Hard. May have DP.

Team Match：March

The mysterious Team Match at Google.

You will be given team match after you pass the technical interviews.

The so-called Team Match is also a round of interviews, but it is not necessarily technical. It is a bit like a BQ interview with your host, more like a chat, the host introduces the project, and understands whether you are a suitable candidate for the project. This round you will know the technical stack of the internship project your host have for interns, your internship location, and most importantly, your internship mentor (host). Once the host decides to take you, you are secured for the offer.

After the technical interviews, you will receive an email asking you to provide your preferences, such as the country you want to work in, the direction you want to do, and the PA you want to do. (PA is product area, such as search, ads, and cloud.)

The form can be changed at any time after it is filled out.

The form is more important than your resume and personal statement. There are two pages of information about a candidate in the internal system. Some information on the second page may be missed by potential hosts if he is busy.

After filling out the form, it is time to wait…

The waiting can be very frustrating. I suggest that you can improve your personal project at this time, do some furtune-telling, draw a tarot card to relieve anxiety, or travel if you have money.

Google team match usually continue till April, so if you haven’t heard anything yet and do not have any other offer, don’t worry, just pray. If you have another offer you should consider about your placement carefully then. In my case, my JPMC offer expired while waiting for the update from Google.

During the interview, make sure you sound smart. Ask questions after thinking about them. Ask some questions such as technical stacks, or softskill questions such as what the host expects of interns. Let the host feel that you are reliable.

location

Here are some notes that are important to know. EU citizens can skip this section.

Some countries have additional requirements for internships, such as Switzerland, which requires that you cannot graduate without an internship in order to come to Switzerland. Policies change every year, and the recruiter will tell you at the time. Just pay attention when filling out the form.

Since I was studying in a very trashy third-tier city in the UK, I was thinking that since I would need to relocate no matter where I went, I might as well fill them all out.

My opinion on the downside of relocation is that it is very troublesome to apply for a visa and/or find a house, especially since the two things usually coincide with the exam season according to Google’s timeline. On the other hand, many hosts prefer interns to work in the office.

In terms of finance, the relocation bonus is more than sufficient to cover all visa, airfare, and internship expenses for three months.

After Team Match：Background Check and Work Permit

After team match you offer is basically secured, all you need to go through is background check. As long as you didn’t lie on your resume you should be fine. If you need a work permit(i.e you are located to other country) Deloitte(immigration helper) will help you to handle most of the things.