In HEC 101 at 7:30, ACM held a presentation by Jason Gauci, Greg Tener (Google Engineers), and Kat Leung (Google Recruiter) about what it takes during the application process to stand out to the Google team. The room was packed with eager students itching to find out more.
ACM News
Before beginning the Google Presentation, Shane Chism (our ACM Vice President) informed all attendees of some important dates to keep in mind:
- UPE is offering a 1,000 “cash” money scholarship for Computer Science students. Applications are due October 14th; you can find more information here).
- October 5th from 10AM to 3PM is the Fall Career Expo at the UCF Arena. Attendees will be able to meet with potential employers and show off their talents. Don’t forget to dress professionally!
Google!@UCF
Following the ACM announcements, Jason covered many key points about a great resume. Some general tips include: having your resume ready in digital format (such as a .PDF file), listing any major projects you have been involved in, languages that you know (in the order of proficiency), personal and open source projects. Also don’t forget to list any honors, papers, conference presentations, placement in computer science competitions, or achievements outside the areas covered by computer science.
After reviewing what makes a resume stand out, Jason handed it over to Greg to speak about what to expect and how to prepare for the interviewing process. The best way to prepare is to develop a strong computer science foundation and to learn languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, or Go. Also try to gain experience outside of the classroom such as joining computer science clubs, participating in programming competitions, internships, and open source projects. These will allow you to embellish on your technical skills outside of your academics.
During the interview, expect to provide a short introduction about yourself. Next you will be given a technical assessment and the chance to ask your own questions. You will be asked questions that test your analytical skills, your sense of sound design, and proficiency in algorithms. One of the most important things you can expect and prepare for is to stand up in front of a white board and to write code on the spot.
When they ask you to write code, they rarely prefer pseudocode so practice writing fully, written-out code on paper or on your own whiteboard. Some more tips they gave is to practice ahead of time through websites such as Top Coder and during the interview to think out the process. This allows the interviewers to better help you out as you write and to provide tips. Don’t be afraid to ask questions such as “Can I use this?” and do not expect to write perfect code! How you got to your answer is more important.
Aside from writing code on the board, PhDs can expect an additional interview to speak about their thesis and more standard algorithmic, design, and coding topics.
Wrap-Up
At the very end of the presentation, the Google team gave a sample interview question to those in attendance: “reverse the words in a sentence.” The challenge is to write a function that takes a string and reverses the order of its words without reversing the order of the letters. They then allowed attendees to come up to the whiteboards and try to answer the question and get feedback on their efforts. Attendees went to the board, spoke to the Google representatives, and received Google gear at the very end.
Next Week
Thursday, October 6th at 7:30-8:30 in HEC 117
General weekly meeting (+Possibly $1 Bowling at Oviedo Lanes)