Graduate Student Stories - Getting a Job at Google

I interviewed Tengyi Wang about his experience finding a job. Here is his story.

Hello everyone, my name is Tengyi Wang, who is an RIT student from China majoring in computing security. In 2018, I submitted applications to some universities. While I received offers from multiple universities, I chose RIT since it was highly ranked in the CS field. I was also majoring in information security before I came to RIT, so I thought it would be a good program to continue on to.

In the beginning, I was not that accustomed to how the academic structure is different in the US. Chinese universities are more likely to assign 30% of the scores and 70% of the scores in the mid-term exams and final exams. Universities in the US tend to grade students on more attributes: attendance, assignments, little tests from time to time, mid-term exams, final exams, etc. Faculty and Staff I met at RIT are so kind and friendly that students from anywhere won’t feel discomfort in the different educational style. One of my favorite classes was Computer Viruses & Malware Software, which was about reverse engineering.

Talking to professors and classmates within different countries and cultures is great chances to open your horizons. When you talk to them, you can feel how they react to you is based on their different cultures, experiences, and personalities. In addition, I also learned a lot of other knowledge when chatting with them and talking about their own cultures. I am the only Chinese student in computing security, however, my classmates are friendly and kind to me.

Besides classes, RIT also has a lot of events and clubs. For example, I attended CODE RIT, badminton club, Mahjong, swimming, and HACK RIT. I only regularly attended badminton club, though. I made some friends there and reserve the gym courts from time to time.

I started submitting my resume to every company I found at the beginning of 2021. I submitted many applications and finally got an offer from Google. During the beginning of my job hunt, I was not having much luck in the computing security field, so I decided to broaden my search and look into some software engineering jobs as well. I started to practice on leetcode.com in May, when there was a saying that leetcode everyday, keep unemployment away. I wanted to gain more skills in order to be a better candidate. In terms of Google’s process, I submitted the resume on August 28^th, and found somebody willing to write a referral letter for me at the same day, and I got an online assessment. During that period, I also got many other online assessments from many other companies. After that, I dedicated more time into leetcode to practice my data structures and algorithms. Finally, I passed the online assessment for Google on September 27^th, and scheduled the interviews on November 4^th. I passed the interviews, and received the email of offer on December 7^th. After reviewing the benefits and offer, I decided to sign the offer. Google is one of the largest companies and doing projects there have huge impacts on peoples’ daily lives, which can give you a great sense of achievement.

As an international student majoring in sensitive fields, it is super hard to find a job here. I changed my strategy to software engineering so I had to work to broaden my skill set. Balancing being a student and searching for a job was difficult, but it worked out in the end.

I suggest that students can prepare for their job search two years before their expected graduation date. For example, my graduation date is May 04, 2022, therefore, I am supposed to start preparation in Autumn 2020, and start to submit applications in Autumn 2021. From the timeline above we know that companies, especially large ones, can have a complicated hiring process and they usually prefer to decide the next summer’s candidates in autumn.

The job will be related to GCloud network infrastructure, which is a field that I am not familiar with. My expected start date will be June 13^th, and I will be planning a driving route from east coast to west coast after graduation.