Google STEP 2017 - Summer Trainee Engineering Programme

OP

Original post by bigboateng_

I ended up not applying to facebook or any software engineering company for that matter. Mostly because I thought I wanted to try a different field, but then after 2 months of applying to "normal" companies, I realised that every company is actually garbage, like the jobs they give to interns, hiring process and salary. I study aerospace engineering after all so i thought it would be cool to try out boeing or airbus or something but nah they're pretty bad. I actually declined some interview I was meant to have this week.

& which ones did you apply to apart from Google?

Yeah I've found the same tbh. I feel my whole idea of a "good job" revolves around either software engineering at one of the cool tech companies or front office within investment banks, consulting firms or trading companies.

Might have to settle for something else if I can't get into any of the above tho tbh

Good luck for the host matching!

Went for PayPal, Two Sigma Freshman Internship, Duolingo and FitBit

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Reply 83

Original post by thecsstudent

Well done to you too! Especially since you made it for a second year. Were you in Zurich last year? How was the experience overall? Also, if you've done STEP in your first year I'm guessing they'd let you do it another year as well? Or would they expect you to apply for the regular software engineering internship? :smile:

Good luck with the US offices!

Thanks. And after STEP (assuming you impressed your host and did well on your internship), you auto qualify to regular internships, so you dont have to do any more technical interviews. So they put you in host matching like beginning of September. However if you decide you want to try the USA instead, then it'll take some time as they have to find you a new recruiter, and ask for your 1st year grades etc but nothing major.

In terms of zurich office, it is the best in europe I think. There are lots of teams there so you will probably find a project you're interested in over there. The office has all the Google fun stuff you've heard about, theres a slide from one of the floors to the canteen, which is a ritual that every intern has to slide down during first week. theres a gym with gym classes like 8am in the morning (lmao who wakes up that time), theres a place where people are meant to demo products but my team and I just went there to watch movies lmao. basically the office is great. But the Zurich city itself is even more awesome. There are always events going on, there was about 3 festivals, Zurich Fest, Street Parade and some other one. Travelling there is easy too, I commuted 40mins every day but had no troubles as there was a tram or bus. The city itself is expensive though, like a big mac meal from macdonalds cost like 18£ but in uk its £4.99, however the office provides breakfast, lunch and dinner so the only time you have to get your own food is weekends. The office has electronic bikes so sometimes in the weekend we hike and go to some of the lakes in zurich to swim and tour around. Also since Zurich is in the middle of europe one weekend we went to Barcelona for 3 days, another one we rented a car and drove to italy, went to Milan then spend 2 nights in Venice, Venice is AMAZING. Basically Zurich is the best office xD

If you have any questions you can PM.

Reply 84

thecsstudent

13

Original post by bigboateng_

Thanks. And after STEP (assuming you impressed your host and did well on your internship), you auto qualify to regular internships, so you dont have to do any more technical interviews. So they put you in host matching like beginning of September. However if you decide you want to try the USA instead, then it'll take some time as they have to find you a new recruiter, and ask for your 1st year grades etc but nothing major.

In terms of zurich office, it is the best in europe I think. There are lots of teams there so you will probably find a project you're interested in over there. The office has all the Google fun stuff you've heard about, theres a slide from one of the floors to the canteen, which is a ritual that every intern has to slide down during first week. theres a gym with gym classes like 8am in the morning (lmao who wakes up that time), theres a place where people are meant to demo products but my team and I just went there to watch movies lmao. basically the office is great. But the Zurich city itself is even more awesome. There are always events going on, there was about 3 festivals, Zurich Fest, Street Parade and some other one. Travelling there is easy too, I commuted 40mins every day but had no troubles as there was a tram or bus. The city itself is expensive though, like a big mac meal from macdonalds cost like 18£ but in uk its £4.99, however the office provides breakfast, lunch and dinner so the only time you have to get your own food is weekends. The office has electronic bikes so sometimes in the weekend we hike and go to some of the lakes in zurich to swim and tour around. Also since Zurich is in the middle of europe one weekend we went to Barcelona for 3 days, another one we rented a car and drove to italy, went to Milan then spend 2 nights in Venice, Venice is AMAZING. Basically Zurich is the best office xD

If you have any questions you can PM.

Wow that sounds like so much fun! I hope I get contacted from a host in Zurich! And the fact that if you do STEP you don't have to do technical interviews for the regular internship is so awesome lol
thanks if I end up going to zurich i'll probably have more questions

Reply 85

Original post by thecsstudent

Wow that sounds like so much fun! I hope I get contacted from a host in Zurich! And the fact that if you do STEP you don't have to do technical interviews for the regular internship is so awesome lol
thanks if I end up going to zurich i'll probably have more questions

yup if you get zurich lemme know, I can give tips about housing cos it was something I got stuck on. Good luck!

Reply 86

sweeneyrod

Finally got rejected from STEP pre-interview (as did most people I know)... Hopefully I'll get some offers from at least one of the other places I applied to! Good luck to anyone with interviews.

Reply 87

OP

Original post by sweeneyrod

Finally got rejected from STEP pre-interview (as did most people I know)... Hopefully I'll get some offers from at least one of the other places I applied to! Good luck to anyone with interviews.

I still haven't heard lol

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Reply 88

sagar448

4

Well, I haven't heard back either, and for the people who haven't heard back...I got some bad news, you're not going to hear back. If you've waited this long and haven't heard back it probably means you're rejected. I applied last year as-well and never heard back so gg.

Reply 89

OP

Original post by sagar448

Well, I haven't heard back either, and for the people who haven't heard back...I got some bad news, you're not going to hear back. If you've waited this long and haven't heard back it probably means you're rejected. I applied last year as-well and never heard back so gg.

GG indeed

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Reply 90

Nick Lks

I have a few questions and i hope you know how to answer them. Firstly does Google gives you some kind of place to stay while you attend this course? If not, will the money they give you be enough for you to pay rent and eat normally?
Secondly I'm studying computer science but my university learns us C in the first year so i don't have knowledge for c++ or python or java. Will I have a problem?

Reply 91

OP

Resume Bertrand ARNAUD - V2 (1).pdf188.2KB

Original post by Nick Lks

I have a few questions and i hope you know how to answer them. Firstly does Google gives you some kind of place to stay while you attend this course? If not, will the money they give you be enough for you to pay rent and eat normally?
Secondly I'm studying computer science but my university learns us C in the first year so i don't have knowledge for c++ or python or java. Will I have a problem?

1. They give you enough money to rent somewhere

2. Doesn't matter what specific language it is as long as you know *an* object oriented language (c++, Java, python, C etc) and are aware of how to implement algorithms and data structures

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Reply 92

Nick Lks

Thanks for the info, appreciate it.

Original post by Princepieman

1. They give you enough money to rent somewhere

2. Doesn't matter what specific language it is as long as you know *an* object oriented language (c++, Java, python, C etc) and are aware of how to implement algorithms and data structures

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Reply 93

Elchapojr

1

My bro got rejected from this STEP thing, he also applied to PayPal and some local start up

Reply 94

ceasars

Hello everyone, I applied at google STEP on 16 december and didn't get any returns. I guess it's already over for me :biggrin:

but i'd like to get reviews on the CV i posted for it and why not little tips to improve it :smile:

Reply 95

Original post by ceasars

Hello everyone, I applied at google STEP on 16 december and didn't get any returns. I guess it's already over for me :biggrin:

but i'd like to get reviews on the CV i posted for it and why not little tips to improve it :smile:

I would say you should apply early, typically for internships at the top 4 (Facebook, google , microsoft and amazon) you should apply within first week it opens. I know mircrosoft and Fb applications open end of august and some of my friends got interviews in august. And for the CV, I'd say make it about 2 pages, mine is 3 pages and I think its fine. Explain what you used in your projects. You do mention about NodeJs but go a bit further and say maybe you used passportjs for authentication of the webpages or maybe you have a token based authentication so users dont have to sign into the website that much, or maybe you use a certain algorithm so hash passwords and user data before you store in database. For your api project, mention what things you did to make sure its secure, do you use ssl to make sure api in secure? Mention the key technical/algorithmitic parts of your project. for example dont explain what binary search tree is, just say how you used it.

Good luck in future applications

Reply 96

sweeneyrod

Original post by ceasars

Hello everyone, I applied at google STEP on 16 december and didn't get any returns. I guess it's already over for me :biggrin:

but i'd like to get reviews on the CV i posted for it and why not little tips to improve it :smile:

Looks pretty good! Typos/minor grammar things: "Software Ingineer" should presumably be "Software engineer", there are some inconsistencies with capitalisation ("php"/"PHP", "express.js"/"Express.js"). If PackOffice is the French name for Microsoft Office (as a quick search seems to suggest) I would rename it (presumably you are applying to non-French companies). I think you should change "Agile method SCRUM" to something like "Agile development", and check your bullet points in projects to make sure they are grammatically consistent (e.g. "Creation of communication plan" is past tense but "Sponsors research" is present). I think your descriptions of what you did in each project are mostly decent, although it might be good to go into a bit more detail and be a little more specific (mention user numbers etc.). You should definitely expand "Solution proposals to difficulties encountered by the service" to explain what solutions you actually proposed.

You could take out the hobbies section, it's generally unnecessary. You could rework swimming competition stuff into an "other achievements" category. There are two obvious improvements I can see. Firstly, add a section with the languages you speak (presumably at least French and English). Secondly, make it clear what grades you got in the education section, I can't tell.

Reply 97

ceasars

Thanks for your help and your advices ! That's good to have a foreign point of view, for example, in France we usually say a CV must be only one page but it's quite hard to get everything in so few.

Also i have two questions :

For STEP, Google let an input for a cover letter. I was wondering if it's necessary to fill it or not ? In your opinion, do they really read it ? I did one to explain in details my motivation and my interests for this internships but tried to turn it in an original way.

I have an internship of 6 months next year and I'm wondering if its a good idea to make a 'portofolio' (I don't know if it's the english correct term) where i would talk more in details about my projects, experiences... And then link it on my CV.

Reply 98

Original post by ceasars

Thanks for your help and your advices ! That's good to have a foreign point of view, for example, in France we usually say a CV must be only one page but it's quite hard to get everything in so few.

Also i have two questions :

For STEP, Google let an input for a cover letter. I was wondering if it's necessary to fill it or not ? In your opinion, do they really read it ? I did one to explain in details my motivation and my interests for this internships but tried to turn it in an original way.

I have an internship of 6 months next year and I'm wondering if its a good idea to make a 'portofolio' (I don't know if it's the english correct term) where i would talk more in details about my projects, experiences... And then link it on my CV.

I personally didnt write a cover letter when I applied, but I suppose its good to write something.

& Yes my mentor at Google last year recommended me to create a website to demonstrate my projects so people can actually use them if its web based or maybe screenshots/youtube videos of your projects, so I will recommend creating a website, you can github pages for hosting for free. Also if you can, make your github repo's public for the projects you talk about, another Googler who interviewed me said he went on my github to check code I had written so I recommend putting link to your website and github on cv too.

Reply 99

sweeneyrod