I was born and brought up in Dubai but had my schooling from the age of 12 to 18 in India via the CBSE curriculum in the city of Kolkata. I started coding at a very young age as a part of my interest in computer science. In high school, I attended a seminar on ethical hacking, which piqued my interest in both computer science and ethical hacking. From then onwards, each decision in my academic and professional life has been directed toward becoming a good ethical hacker one day. I was clear to choose college abroad since back then no college in India was providing such courses and also competition to get into top engineering colleges in India is way tougher than getting into good colleges abroad. Currently, I am in my 4th year of college studying Cyber Security as my major with computer science as a minor. I am a highly extrovert person and enjoy meeting new people, going out with friends, swimming, debating, and many more.
Tell us about your selection process at Google?
The process in the US is quite different from India and there is no such thing as a campus internship recruitment. However, you can have all the resources to get prepared for applying for internships, like the professors can guide you, the seniors can help, but you have to apply and get it on your own. After my first internship at a quantitative firm, I thought of applying to Google with very little hope of getting a reply. But to my surprise, they might have liked the personal projects that I did at the start of the pandemic instead of cribbing about the crisis, and a few weeks later, I received an email for a technical interview. Google looks deeply into your technical acumen and cultural fit, for which multiple rounds of technical and cultural fit and team matching interviews take place. I was really happy to clear all of them as I had prepared well and finally had my first offer letter from Google as an intern.
Tell us about your roles and responsibilities in your internship?
Since this is the second term of my internship, which is at the Google office in California, it is super engaging and a great experience for me. But in the first term of the internship, which was working from home, things were different, and it was something that made me more disciplined in a sense. Work timings back then were distributed between coding, and team meetings mainly. This part of the internship is more of a research internship, and my job is to try and hack Google. The atmosphere at the office is no less than what I expected with all the amenities present. I am more focused on learning from the best and making the best use of this internship.
What are the key skills required to get an internship at Google?
It's all about marketing what unique skills you have on your resume and presenting them in a good way. The most important skill is to demonstrate your skill, and in the end, Google looks for a great work fit and adaptability. They look for an individual with an attitude toward learning and implementation.
Most of the STEM internships outside India are paid, and one of the most important reasons for that is that demand is greater but supply is lower. But the situation in India seems to be completely reversed. Irrespective of the brand value Google adds to your CV, it is very much supportive to its interns when it comes to providing stipends, 3 meals a day at the office and many more.
The stipend varies from company to company. For example, NGOs won't be able to pay you that much, but an MNC can. One more thing is that you will also have to be qualified and skilled enough to negotiate over the table.
Tell us about the importance of internships?
Internships should be compulsory for everyone if you have the resources at your disposal. I would say try to diversify your internship experience in college because college is the right time to take up such responsibilities and learn a few important things. Once you are in a full-time role, I think it will be tough for you to do so.
Do you think it's easier for an international student to get an internship at Google than for an Indian student?
The chance of landing an internship at Google is not discriminatory at all. They try to maintain a ratio all around the world, and the best are given the chance to excel irrespective of their backgrounds.
According to you, what weightage should be given to competitive coding and project-based coding?
This depends on student to student and what their interests are and where they want to end up doing. Again, I don't enjoy doing competitive coding to a certain extent. I think everyone should, at least once, try every aspect of coding and then choose the one they love. My interest lies in project-based coding, and I try to ensure that I am continuously growing my skills in that aspect.
What suggestions can you give to fresh grads/ students applying for internships or jobs?
My suggestion would be to have a flexible approach to learning various skill sets and take up different domains of the internship so that you can develop an attitude of learning quickly and adapting to your roles since these are two main things companies like Google look for in an individual.