What do you wish you had known when you started working at Google (or similar company)
I have accepted an offer for an entry level software engineer role at Google, I'll be starting in early January. I'm wondering if anyone out there has some advice they wish they could have given their younger self when they were starting out at a big tech company. I'm still very early in my career, I graduated with BS in CS in May of 2018, but I've never had any experience at a large software company before. I interned at a start up and since I graduated I've been working for a consulting company. I imagine that succeeding and moving up at a company like Google requires more than just showing up every day and doing your work (although that's still important). What short term and long term goals should I be setting for myself? What are some mistakes you've made that you could have avoided in hindsight? Thanks in advance.
Take your perf writes and calibration notes seriously. Spend (Google's) time tracking and recording what you do and the impact. My younger self would have thought that a waste of time but my older self knows better.
My currently young self probably would have also thought that was a waste of time so thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to take those seriously
Interview the manager and make sure he has your back and cares about your career goals.
At Google: Start in December, not January. Your stock refresh is going to blow.
there are internal docs and presentations at Google that contain advice from very senior engineers. Sometimes when I’m bored I’ll search for terms like “engineering advice”, “advice”, “lessons learned”, etc. I’ve read some pretty interesting stuff!
Are you joining on receipt? Or you are not on H1B
Thanks, that's great advice. Can you elaborate a little bit on "don't be afraid to fail?" I feel like I've heard that phrase thrown around by silicon valley companies but what do they really mean? Don't be afraid of trying high risk / high reward solutions?