My experience attending a Google career event at 42Tokyo

Google is a prime example of a popular company.

Google ranked 2nd in the 2023 'Best Places to Work' ranking chosen by employees.

This ranking is based on data compiled by OpenWork Inc. from employee and former employee reviews regarding their work environment posted on the 'OpenWork' site, measuring employee 'job satisfaction'.

It also ranked 2nd in the 2022 Most Popular Companies for Job Changers ranking.

Attractive working styles, such as the '20% rule' where employees can spend 20% of their working hours on projects they are passionate about, as well as comprehensive benefits, are also factors that attract job seekers.

However, it is said that in the US, the competition rate for a job at Google is 25 times higher than that of getting into Harvard University.

For an ordinary person like me, Google feels like something out of reach.

However, I attended an event that made the prospect of changing jobs to that 'out of reach' Google feel much more concrete and accessible.

It was an event held at 42Tokyo where former Google employees taught us exactly 'how to get hired at Google'.

The speakers were people full of open-source spirit who were volunteering to give advice to help increase the number of Googlers.

And they weren't just people who had worked at Google; they had actually helped several people get hired there.

Moreover, they have a high level of credibility, having successfully helped 11 out of 13 people get hired.

After the event, I genuinely felt, 'Could I actually make it to Google?'

This is because I experienced a 'paradigm shift' similar to the one in Dragon Zakura, and joining Google no longer felt like something requiring special talent, but rather something achievable.

So, I would like to introduce some of the things I learned at that event.

The most important thing in an interview is 'whether you have acquired what is considered common sense at Google'.

In other words, it is important that you 'fit in' even when you are among a group of experts like Google.

When broken down, that 'common sense' seems to consist of the following three things: ・West Coast culture ・Professionalism ・Entry-level CS

'West Coast culture' can be summed up as not discriminating.

Judging people by their skin color, country of origin, or gender is, of course, a no-go.

It is also a given that one should avoid bringing up topics like religion or politics, which is standard practice in the Japanese business scene as well.

Regarding "entry-level CS," it was mentioned that the computer science curriculum at the University of Tokyo is well-structured and serves as a good reference.

Furthermore, along with knowledge, "coding ability" is also essential.

What I found interesting was the idea of working on problems until you reach a level where you can do them "effortlessly, like multiplication tables."

Specifically, this means working through recommended problem sets on LeetCode.

The recommended problem sets are as follows, and they are said to be full of high-quality problems.

Arai 60 https://leetcode.com/list/xo2bgr0r/

Blind 75 https://leetcode.com/list/xi4ci4ig/

The specific approach is to first take your time on the first pass, solving them even if you have to look at the answers.

Then, on the second pass, try solving them without looking at anything and start timing yourself, while refining your code to make it simpler.

Then, repeat this until you reach a point where you think, "I can't write this any faster!"

It reaches a level where you no longer find it tedious and your hands move automatically. That is the level of being able to do it "effortlessly, like multiplication tables."

This concept of reaching a level where you can do it "effortlessly, like multiplication tables" makes sense, because once you actually start working as an engineer at Google, writing 1,000 lines a day becomes the norm, and whether or not you can accept that as standard is crucial for doing the job.

Ultimately, it was an event that made me feel that since I have nothing to lose, I should just go ahead and challenge myself to get a job at Google.