Advice to Nooglers

New / Eng
blindor

New Eng

blindor
Jun 7, 2019 17 Comments

Current Googlers and Xooglers, do you have any advice to new Googlers (who do have substantial experience prior to joining G including having worked at other FAANG) on how to get up to speed as quickly as possible at the company (specifically Software Eng. orgs) to feel like you’re contributing and not getting imposter syndrome or experiencing an overload of information?

What are things you would have done differently early on?

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TOP 17 Comments
  • Google
    goooogl

    Go to company page Google

    goooogl
    Read a lot as part of your job - find sources to read: current codebase, past design docs, abandoned CLs, P0 bugs from last year. Write docs about the picture you are building in your head about your team's codebase and systems and then when comfortable, share with colleagues and ask them to verify that you are learning/interpreting correctly. That will help you ramp up superquick on the team.
    Also, be helpful to others whenever you can, especially if you have knowledge about tools etc that your teammates don't - gauge interest and if there is real interest, do a talk. Over communicate with manager and ask every 1:1 if they have feedback for you, or how to gauge if you are improving. Go to lunches with teammates, try to get to know folks
    Jun 7, 2019 5
    • Google
      goooogl

      Go to company page Google

      goooogl
      Communicate/work with high caliber managers at G: can't offer you advice. I work with L7-L9 routinely, but they are all deeply rooted in engineering and none of that "strategic vision" spewing folk. So things they appreciate are simple: is your understanding thorough, can you walk people through details when needed or summarize when needed, do you surfaced the right priority issues or hog airtime just because you want visibility?, Are you a good engineer when it comes to solving problems via first principles (this applies to TPMs too when they get hairy release questions, all TPMs I work without are good problem solvers), can you listen to others well and summarize their issues, do you share information with the team well etc etc.
      Jun 7, 2019
    • Google
      goooogl

      Go to company page Google

      goooogl
      Managing information overload: boils down to how good systems you have to track your work and what you are learning. How do you organize information that you pick up during the day? Take the Gmail 'inbox managemebt' training at Google, it will help you be more effective since so much info is shared over email. Carve out separate blocks of time to doyour study, plan your week ahead, and in these blocks, maintain your personal documents that track what you are learning
      Jun 7, 2019
  • Embrace the impostor syndrome and have fun with it (xoogler)
    Jun 7, 2019 3
  • JUUL
    flosstoday

    Go to company page JUUL

    flosstoday
    Op has good growth mindset and seems to embrace feedback well. While those are great qualities to have, you will search in vein. Some lessons will have to be learned through mistakes and it’s important to make them.
    Jun 7, 2019 1
    • New / Eng
      blindor

      New Eng

      blindor
      OP
      Thank you, and I do agree learning from mistakes is important. Just trying to kick things off with the right mindset and approach, I think that’s key, especially at a place like G.
      Jun 7, 2019
  • Cadence / Product
    tpml6

    Go to company page Cadence Product

    BIO
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    tpml6
    OP what level and ladder are you?
    Jun 7, 2019 4