So You Want to Work at Google | DevFest Seattle 2025

Seattle
Olivier Bourgeois
Developer Advocate, Google
So… You want to
work at ?
2025

What will be covered today
● Introduction
● Disclaimers
● Breaking into tech
● Preparing
● Applying
● Interviewing
● Verities
● Live Q&A

Introduction
● Hi, my name is Olivier!
● I’m a Developer Advocate at Google, focused on
Google Cloud runtimes (primarily GKE).
● I’ve been in the industry for ~10 years, with half of
that time at Google.
● I enjoy meeting new people and hearing their stories,
learning, and teaching others.

Disclaimers
● I am not speaking on behalf of Google.
● This talk applies to more than just Google.
● I am not a recruiter or a hiring manager.
● Your mileage may vary, I am just one data point.

Breaking into tech
● From the perspective of someone new, breaking into
tech can seem daunting.
● Paradoxically, it can seem like those who made it
found success easily.
● My perspective is that for most, it lies somewhere
between these two realities.

Breaking into tech - It’s not always glamorous
● I did two years of university in software engineering…
And was expelled for failing too many courses.
● Transferred to a little known liberal arts university and
started from scratch in computer science.
● Applied to many places multiple times, interviewed with
Google three times and was rejected each time.
● … Until after 3 different tech gigs, I ended
up getting an opportunity at Google.

Preparing — Resume
● Your resume is the first impression to hiring teams.
● You can be an excellent interviewee, but if your
resume doesn’t make the cut, that doesn’t matter.
● A tailored resume is always better than a generic one.
● Be as specific and metrics-oriented as possible.
● It’s not just about what you achieved, but also what
the positive impact was.

Preparing — Fundamentals
● Even with the advent of AI tools, knowing technical
fundamentals is crucial to thriving in tech.
● By fundamentals, I mean data structures, algorithms,
and syntactic intricacies for at least one language.
● This doesn’t necessarily have to be the typical
Computer Science degree path.
● But the curriculum of the CLRS book
should be covered, at minimum.

Preparing — Practice
● I told myself I wouldn’t talk about LeetCode.
● But practice is still important.
● And services like LeetCode can definitely help.
● Importantly, make sure to focus on learning patterns
and not learning solutions.
● That is where knowing fundamentals come into play.

Preparing — Projects
● Projects are typically not a replacement for industry
experience.
● But they can compliment it, and help fill a gap in an
application (especially early career).
● The best projects are the ones that solve a real
problem you’re having, not a hello world clone.

Applying — Finding opportunities
● You’re better off crafting a tailored application for 10
positions, than a generic application for 100.
● A large number of positions gets filled before a job
posting ever makes it online.
● If you stick to just online postings, you miss out on a
lot of opportunities.
● Ask peers, past classmates and
colleagues, and network.

Applying — Networking
● Misconception that it’s cold and inauthentic.
● If it feels like it is, you’re probably not doing it right.
● Networking is an organic, a slow-burning process.
● Like collaborating with peers that then remember you
as someone with good attention to detail.
● Or occasionally reaching out to past classmates, not
because you need something from them,
but to hear about their projects.

Applying — Coffee chats
● A common way to network is setting up coffee chats.
● Can be with acquaintances, or strangers.
● If to someone you don’t know, make sure the request
is well researched and doesn’t come off as generic.
● Have a plan. What do you want to learn? What do you
want to talk about?
● Be intentional and appreciative of the
other person’s time.

Applying — Referrals
● Referrals can be a good way to add a positive flag to
your application (but generally don’t help interviews).
● They are not guarantees of anything.
● It’s not encouraged to ask for referrals from someone
that doesn’t directly know about your work.
● If you ask for referrals, focus on asking those with whom
you have shared projects or
collaborated together.

Applying — Personal brand
● In general, I dislike the sales concepts in advices.
● But when applying, you are essentially “selling”
yourself, or rather your personal brand.
● What is your personal brand?
● If someone looks at your application and your resume,
what makes them not want you, but need you.

Interviewing
● Structure varies, but is fairly standardized.
○ Screening calls
○ Coding challenges
○ “Onsite” interviews (3-5x 1h)
● A good interview is a sincere conversation between
the interviewer and the interviewee.
● It should feel like a dialogue, not an exam.

Interviewing — Non-technical aspects
● Be courteous, patient, and happy to be there.
● Inquisitiveness and curiosity shine.
● Remember names and other details.
● Ask for clarifications if question is ambiguous.
● Have interesting questions prepared for the end of
the interview.
● There are no right answers, but your
thought process matters a lot.

Interviewing — Technical aspects
● Before coding anything…
○ Repeat the question in your own words to
confirm alignment.
○ Ask for clarifications on the question (input size,
output format, possibility of empty arrays, etc.)
○ State where your mind is going and what design
seems more suitable to the problem.

● Think out loud, especially when typing code.
● Don’t hesitate to start with a naive implementation
(but state that this is your intent).
● Manually walk through your solution with testing
input.
● Proactively mention the running time and space of
your solution, and suggest potential
improvements.

● Don’t be afraid to ask for a hint or some help if stuck.
● It may seem like a negative mark on your interview
feedback, but it’ll be much less negative than running
in circles not getting anywhere.
● A negative mark doesn’t mean the entire feedback is
negative.
● The interviewer is there to help as a
collaborator.

Verities — Variety of companies
● There is more to breaking into tech than Google.
● There’s also more to tech than just the Big 5 or Big 7.
● There are over 1,800 “billion-dollar corporations” in the
USA alone. How many can you name?
● Google is notoriously glamorized and romanticized, but
you can find many aspects of Google elsewhere too.
● Focusing on just one corporation can
more easily lead to disappointment.

Verities — Variety of technical roles
● There are more roles than just Software Developer.
● Many roles still involve programming and are highly
technical.
● Focusing solely on Software Developer roles closes a lot
of possibilities out there.
● Research what exists out there, you might be surprised!
● Here are a few examples…

Verities — Variety of technical roles
Developer Advocate (DA), Technical Program Manager
(TPM), Customer Engineer (CE), Solutions Architect (SA),
Security Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Product
Manager (PM), Data Scientist, Platform Engineer, Technical
Recruiter, Developer Programs Engineer, Technical Writer,
UX Designer, and the list goes on!

Verities — On luck
● Don’t underestimate luck and perseverance.
● For every little bit of expertise, there’s a sprinkle of luck.
● That doesn’t mean that successful people are where
they are solely on luck.
● But luck is a factor. And applying at the right or wrong
company at the right or wrong time has an impact.
● Many current Google employees
Including me applied multiple times.

Verities — Application callbacks
● There are a lot of reasons to not get callbacks.
● “Another qualified applicant applied earlier.”
● “The role stopped existing (for a variety of reasons).”
● “The position was filled internally last-minute.”
● “Multiple equally qualified applicants, had to roll a dice.”
● Not getting a callback doesn’t inherently mean that your
application was not good or that you
interviewed poorly.

Verities — Have a differentiator
● To thrive, you need a clear story-led differentiator.
● What’s your personal story and brand?
● What differentiates you from other applicants?
● What differentiates you from leveraging tooling or AI?
● In other words, why should we (the employer) spend
money to hire you, specifically?
● Worth spending time brainstorming
these questions for yourself.

I’d love to connect, hear your stories, and
help you succeed in your own journey!
linkedin.com/in/olivi-eh/

So You Want to Work at Google | DevFest Seattle 2025

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