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 details of the first half of my remote internship experience. I was a STEP intern during the summer of my Sophomore year.
In Part 1, I went over details of my application process and some tips for potential applicants! Feel free to check it out here if you haven’t :)
Changes in Intern Projects and Internship Structure
Before I dive in to details of my remote internship days, I want to first go over how Google announced the internship going remote and their changes to intern projects.
What was supposed to happen…
In previous years, once a STEP intern accepts an offer for the internship, they go through this process known as “Project-Matching” where they are match to two hosts that they’ll be working with on a specific project over the course of summer. A successful match occurs after a phone call with a potential host, on the occasion where you like the project and the host wants you. Project Matching is guaranteed for STEP interns (unlike for first time Google SWE Interns). Your project match will determine your internship location and what team you will be on.
I matched to my host and project about two weeks after I accepted my offer. The matching process could go on for a couple of months depending on your luck. Some people talk to several hosts, but some match with the first host they talked to (which is my case).
Tip: To speed up project matching and to match to a project you like, make sure to feel out the Project Match Preference Survey with as much detail as you can!
The team I was matched with was the Google Play Analytics team based in Mountain View, where I was told I would work on a project with a podmate that relates to user segmentation in Play data. The project will either be in C++/Java. Honestly, I had no idea what the project was about, and to this day, I still don’t know because I did not actually get to work on this project.
And then Covid-19 happened…
Much to my excitement to eat as much free food as I can on Google’s beautiful campus in Mountain View, I did not get to experience any of that.
I remember clearly: it was right before Spring Break when I was told that I had to pack everything and leave campus for good. I started worrying about whether Google will cancel our summer internship because I started seeing news of other big tech companies cancelling their summer internship program.
On March 25th, I received an email from Google titled “An update on your Google Internship”. Luckily, it was not to tell me that I don’t have a job over summer anymore, but to inform me about the internship transitioning into a virtual model. The email didn’t say much about what would happen to our projects, so I assumed I would be working on the same project, just not from the office.
Note: Even though the internship was transitioning to a remote model, they told us we could still keep our relocation bonus :)
A month later, I started seeing messages in the intern discord group where SWE interns were being moved to open source projects instead of their original projects. Those SWE interns were all first-time Google interns. I then started to think of whether I would be transition to an open source project as well given that I was also a first-time Google intern.
Come May, I received another email titled “STEP Internship Update” from my recruiter. I did not get transition to an open source project. Turns out, they announced changes to the entire structure of the STEP internship program.
Changes to the STEP program…
- We will no longer be working on our original projects, instead all STEP interns will go through the same set of individual starter projects in the first 6 weeks of our internship targeting web development technologies (HTML/CSS/Java Servlets). For the last 6 weeks, STEP interns will work on a group Capstone Project.
- We will no longer be working in pods of 2 interns, instead we will be working in pods of 3 interns.
- We were not guaranteed to have the same host, a lot of interns were switched to different pods and hosts.
I wasn’t very happy with the changes as I was looking forward to my original project, but luckily I still had the same host that I was matched with.
Disappointing as it was, I was still very glad to still have an internship over the summer.
Onboarding Process
Setting up remote work location and other logistics…
Since all interns were going to be working remotely, we each had to fill out a form stating where we will be working remotely from, so they know where to send our equipments to and for tax reasons.
Tip: As long as you’re working from within the US, your pay on your contract doesn’t change, but because different states have different tax policies, your post-tax pay does vary by location. As a result I earned less than my friend who was working from New Jersey.
I also had to pick out my internal username, which was quite exciting! As if you end up returning for an internship, or even returning as a full time employee, that username will stay with you throughout your Google career. In the username form, you get to put your top three username choices, as it is likely that the username is already taken.
I ended going with a combination of my first and last name. Rumor is that the shorter your username is, the “cooler” it is hahah.
Receiving my equipments…
My internship started on June 15th, 2020. About a week before my internship started, I received my equipments! They were sent to me through Fedex and arrived in two separate packages.
Tip: Since Google uses Fedex to ship almost everything, to ensure that your equipments are not lost in delivery, you can sign up for Fedex Delivery Manager to track your packages for free.
I received the following equipments from Google:
- Pixelbook Go
- Dell UltraSharp 27 USB-C Monitor — U2719DC
- Logitech Keyboard + Mouse (not wireless)
Receiving my pre-internship swags…
In late May, I received an email from Google to fill out the swag form! I was told to fill out a shirt size, so I didn’t really know what else is going to come.
The swag came around the first week of my internship. I was pretty satisfied with the nice quality swags they sent us :)
Signing up for that first onboarding appointment…
Once you receive your corporate laptop, it doesn’t mean that you have access to login. For onboarding, interns have to sign up for a one on one onboarding appointment before they get their login credentials. The signups for this appointment was sent out a couple of days prior to my first day.
I knew to sign up for an appointment as soon as I can because I heard from interns who already started that you can only start working after your onboarding appointment. I wanted to start as soon as I can so I don’t waste the first couple of days doing nothing, so I signed up for an appointment on my first day.
Tip: Try to sign up for an onboarding appointment as soon as you can!
There is also the I9 appointment for you to show your work permit, but I remember that wasn’t as crucial to starting your work as the onboarding appointment. Even so, you should try to get these appointments out of the way as early as you can!
Week 1 / Orientation
After my onboarding appointment, I successfully logged into my corporate laptop and access my corporate account for the first time :) It was quite exciting seeing my profile in the internal system.
Throughout the first week, there were a couple of live orientation sessions on Google Meet and a quite a few videos that I had to watch on my own time. I also met up with my two hosts and two other podmates for the first time. They were all very nice people, so I was excited and quite relieved.
Once I was done with all the orientation sessions and videos, I began browsing internally since I had a bit of free time as work actually starts on the second week. It was then that I realized I was a “restricted” intern, which means that I didn’t have access to any internal code or documentations.
Turns out, all first time, non-returning interns were classified as “restricted” interns.
The First Six Weeks
We worked on what is called the “Starter Projects” for the first six weeks, which consists of following tutorials to build a portfolio website with both front and backend features. Here’s a brief timeline of what we worked on each week:
- Week 1: Orientation + Intro Videos
- Week 2: Frontend Technology (HTML/CSS + VanillaJS)
- Week 3: Java Servlets
- Week 4: Database
- Week 5: Using APIs
- Week 6: Unit Testing
Each week involved following a pre-made tutorial that is on Github, and then there’s a portion afterwards where you utilize the skills you learned to add features on your website.
What I liked about the Starter Projects…
- They weren’t particularly difficult or time consuming, so I had time to attend intern events and schedule coffee chats with many Googlers.
- The code we wrote weren’t particularly complex, but it was a good time to learn about following style guides, going through code reviews, and writing quality Google standard code.
- Some of the technologies and concepts we learned are very useful for our future endeavors. Ex: I think how Java Servlets work is very applicable to many backend HTTP request endpoint frameworks.
- Learned to be very familiar with Git and Github (ex. branching/merging/rebasing), which is one of the most important skills for software engineers!
What I didn’t like about the Starter Projects…
- Writing frontend code with pure HTML/CSS and VanillaJS is quite antiquated and I think it would’ve been better if we could’ve learned to use more modern frameworks like Angular.
- I didn’t like how the project was all done individually. I think they could’ve been more collaborative with our podmates, so we could’ve gotten used to working together more before the final project.
- Some weeks were pretty slow, resulting in a lot of interns finishing early and not having a lot of things to do. I think they could’ve packed all the topics we went through in 4 weeks, so we had more time for the final project.
- I didn’t like how we didn’t have access to any internal documentation or code, and how the projects we were working on wasn’t related to our team and any of Google’s product.
Note: In a typical, in-person STEP internship, you would spend about 2~3 weeks onboarding and learning about internal tools and technologies your team uses.
Another part of work: attending meetings…
Our pod consists of 5 people: my two hosts and my two other podmates.
Over the course of the summer, we met every single day for around 15 minutes to an hour. We would talk about what we worked on, any challenges we faced, or just anything random that came up! A lot of the times we ended up talking about one of my host’s cat or my host’s latest boba adventures.
These daily syncs, just chatting casually with my podmates and hosts, were one of the top highlights of my summer at Google.
Besides our daily pod syncs, STEP interns were required to meet 1–1 with each host on a weekly basis. These meetings gave me a chance to ask my hosts about their work, experience at Google, technical questions I had… etc. I also made sure to ask for feedback weekly to make sure I am constantly improving.
Tip: I always prepare a list of questions/topics I was ready to discuss with my hosts to make sure that I make the best use of me and my host’s time!
We also attended weekly team meetings. The team I was on was a sub-team of the Play Analytics team (consisting ~10 full time employees). They meet on a weekly basis to talk about their work and just catch up with everyone on the team for ~30 minutes.
Even though the work we did in the first six weeks had nothing to do with the team, they still always tried to include us in the meetings by asking us to share something interesting that we did :)
I really appreciated how inclusive my team was even to interns. It just shows me how much Googlers care for each other.
There were also monthly bigger team meetings (ex. the whole Play team) and product area (ex. Platform & Ecosystem) meetings that we could attend. These weren’t mandatory, but I made sure to always attend them because they talk about new products and challenges that people faced.
There were also the famous occasional All Hands meeting (everyone in the company attends the livestream) where we got to see Sundar live and the top top execs give company wide announcements!
Non-work related activities…
- Intern Speaker Series
These are weekly panels where execs in Google from all over the world talk about their work experience, what they do at Google, and answer questions from interns. - Product Area (PA) Specific Activities
The PA I was a part of is Platform & Ecosystem (P&E). P&E hosted a lot of intern events, such as P&E Speaker Series, demo sessions, and even a P&E Intern Spirit Week! I was able to win some swags during the P&E Spirit Week and attend a talk held by Hiroshi (Exec overseeing all of P&E). - Speed Friending / Magic Shows / Games
These were events where interns were encouraged to get to know each other and attend fun activities. I didn’t really attend these because I felt like it was difficult to form solid connections with other interns through these events. - ERG (Employee Resource Groups) Events
There are many ERGs within Google based on interest, culture, alma maters, and lots more! Some of the bigger ERGs will host intern specific events, such as virtual lunch or speaker series.
The main ERG I was involved with is called GWiC (Google Women Intern Community). They hosted a lot of intern speaker series as well as sent out really cute swags! - Team-Specific Socials
The team I was on had socials once every two weeks where everyone on the team (sometimes other teams are invited as well) play games together. We played Codenames and Skribbl quite a few times! It’s a great time to get to know people on the team better in a casual way. - Coffee Chats
These are casual 30 minute conversations with a Googler where you can talk about anything you want. You can arrange these yourselves by messaging Googlers internally, which I did with everyone on my team and managers up my team’s ladder.
You can also sign up to have these coffee chats automatically arranged by an internal tool where the tool will pair you up with another Googler who’s willing to chat! You can also set preferences for these automatic arrangements (such as interests, gender, or even positions!).
I found these coffee chats with Googlers to be a great way to understand Google’s culture and what being a full time employee at Google is like.
Midpoint Evaluation
All tech Google interns go through midpoint evaluations half way through their internships. This usually occurs in Week 6 and you will receive email from the intern team to fill out a form that consists of the self evaluation. The Self evaluation section is typically a few questions about your accomplishments, areas of improvements, and what you think you’re best at. Once you have finished your self evaluation, your hosts will look through them and write your evaluation.
Midpoint Evaluation differs from Final Evaluation in that you are allowed to see your feedback from your host!
This gives you a heads up if you have any areas you need to improve on. It’s also a good time to make sure that you know what your hosts’ standards on. Since their final evaluation will highly impact whether you receive a return offer from Google or not!
Stay tune for Part 3 where I will be going through the last half of my intern experience!
