Given the COVID-19 situation, unfortunately this year’s Google STEP (formerly known as Engineering Practicum) internship was significantly different from previous years! Throughout this article, I will be going through my application process and how I was able to land this opportunity. I was a STEP intern during the summer of my Sophomore year.
Check out Part 2 where I go over the first half of my remote internship experience! Stay tune for part 3 :)
Timeline Overview:
- September 16, 2019 — Applied on website.
- September 18, 2019 — Heard back from recruiter to schedule interviews.
- October 9, 2019 — Two back to back 45 minute technical interviews.
- October 18, 2019 — Application moved to Hiring Committee.
- November 1, 2019 — Received offer.
Tips: If you’re interested in participating in the STEP program, remember to apply as early as possible, as recruiters evaluate application on a rolling basis!
Preparing Application Materials:
For the STEP internship, you will need to have the following documents ready when you’re applying.
- Resume
- 5 Short Answer Questions (Max 200 words each)
- High School and College transcripts (unofficial ones are okay)
The most difficult part to prepare for me was the 5 short answer questions.
Insight: Since there are so many applicants each year for the STEP program, and most STEP interns do not have a lot of previous technical experiences, I believe recruiters place a heavy emphasis on the responses to short answer questions.
Short Answer Questions
I spent quite a lot of time on my responses as I knew how important they were in determining the outcome of my application. The questions during the year when I applied consists of the following:
- How were you first introduced to Computer Science? How have you continued to develop your technical skills and seek additional exposure to the field?
- What is your strongest programming language? How much experience do you have using the language? Go into detail about how you used this technical language. If talking about a group project, be specific about your role in the final product. (Examples can include projects, coursework, competitions, websites, previous internships, etc.)
- At Google, we believe that a diversity of perspectives, ideas, and cultures leads to the creation of better products and services. Tell us about your background and experiences and how they make you unique.
- List the technical courses you will be taking next semester, and please note which programming language(s) will be used, if applicable. If you have not registered for classes yet, please list the courses you plan on taking.
- List any clubs and/or organizations that you participate in.
Here is my response for the third question if you’re interested.
I spent the majority of my childhood growing up in Taiwan despite being an American citizen. I would speak English to my dad while switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese to my mom. For as long as I can remember, I was constantly gawked at regardless of whether I am in Taiwan or the US because of the different ways I speak to my parents. I was ashamed to speak outside, afraid of being different.
It wasn’t until the day when a waitress at a Chinese restaurant came up to me and spoke with admiration at my fluency in both languages that I began to realize what I had been ashamed of, what made me different, is a strength I should treasure.
I began learning Spanish in middle school, and there I was fascinated by language, by humankind’s capability of developing sounds that portrays diverse ways of life. I furthered my exploration of language by taking Japanese. A few years into studying these languages has made me realize that learning language may not necessarily be about communicating but understanding and acceptance of a culture and heritage different from my own.
These languages are my treasure — a part of who I am.
Resume
Since the STEP program is geared towards CS students without a lot of technical background, don’t worry too much about not having previous internship experience!
The STEP program is opened to all freshman and sophomore, but take note that most STEP interns are sophomores going in to their junior year. The few freshmen who are part of the program were mostly a part of the Google CSSI program during the summer of their senior year.
The experiences on my resume back when I was applying for the internship program were:
- During summer of my freshman year, I worked at the HCI Research Group as a paid summer research intern.
- Part of the Super Mileage Vehicle team
- Webmaster of HKN (Electrical Engineering Honor Society)
- Part of IEEE Student Group
I did not put any projects on my resume, but if you have space, projects are definitely a great addition!
Tips: Remember to check how they want you to submit your resume and short answer responses. In my year, they wanted you to attach the short answer responses to your resume in one large pdf file, and many people forgot to do that!
Interview Process
Preparations
I had about two weeks to prepare for my two technical interviews. Prior to my STEP interview, I had never done any technical interviews before, so I was very nervous.
After some quick research online and learning from former upperclassmen who were STEP interns, I realize that the questions will be about Leetcode Easy ~ Medium level.
I started doing Leetcode questions on a daily basis, starting from the most basic questions such as Two Sum. In addition to practicing on my own, I did mock interviews with upperclassman and friends. I think it’s very important that you practice thinking out loud!
Prior to my interview, I did ~40 leetcode questions with about half easy and half medium. I did ~3 mock interviews.
Actual Interviews
My actual interviews were conducted through two separate (45 min) phone calls and I wrote my code on Google Document.
In both of my interviews, I was first asked some simple behavioral questions, followed by a coding problem, and then a few minutes left to ask my interviews questions I have.
Some sample behavioral questions they could ask:
- Why Google?
- What product would you want to work on the most at Google?
- Tell me a bit about yourself.
The technical questions they asked were all fortunately around Leetcode easy levels.
Some sample questions of similar difficulty:
- Pascal’s Triangle (Leetcode #118)
- Add Strings (Leetcode #415)
Lastly, always prepare questions to ask your interviewers at the end! It could help them get a better impression of who you are.
The Long Wait
Google is known to be notoriously slow about getting back to interviewees, so don’t be too anxious if they haven’t gotten back to you yet.
It took me exactly two weeks to hear back from my recruiter after the interview, not to say that I got an offer, but to tell me that they have moved my application to the Hiring Committee.
What is the Hiring Committee?
The Hiring Committee (aka HC) consists of software engineer volunteers from Google who gather together and evaluate candidate packages to decide whether the candidate should receive an offer from Google or not.
It is definitely a good sign that your recruiter have moved you on to the Hiring Committee because I have heard people being rejected prior to moving on to the Hiring Committee.
After I moved on to the Hiring Committee, I had to wait almost exactly two weeks to hear back about an offer. My recruiter called me out of the blue one day to congratulate me on the offer!
Check out Part 2 where I go over in detail the first half of my remote internship experience!
