How I got to google [translation]

After I got into Google a little over two years ago, different people asked me to tell the story of how I got this job and what I had to do.

I promised that I will tell about it, but somehow it did not work out. I hope that it is not too late and it will seem useful to someone. I will try to summarize the experience that I received, everything that happened to me and give a couple of tips.
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Oh yes, one more thing. This is not a guide on how to get a job at Google. Based on my experience, I do not think that such a thing exists at all. I will not describe the interview in detail (you will not find out what questions they asked me for) in order not to disclose any confidential information.

The main purpose of this text is a story about my personal experience gained during the pre-Google period. I hope that this will be at least a little useful to any of you.

Berets and baguettes ...

If you do not know me, then I am a boy of 27 years old, born in a small city in the suburbs of Paris called Lagny. I spent the first 6 years of my life here, and then moved to the south of France where I lived and studied in several different cities, for example, in Toulon, Hyères, Arles and Marseille.

At the moment I am a designer in Google Chrome and Chrome OS projects, I live in San Francisco.

Study

I received a GED (General Educational Development - a test of 4 subjects at the end of high school) with a degree in sociology and economics, then I studied for 2 years at a general technology school and another 3 at a school for managing multimedia projects.

The common thing with these two institutions is that they taught me to work on everything — at once. They did not give anything specialized. If you go back, I would say that they made me an "army Swiss knife."

I taught basic social sciences and economics in conjunction with history and philosophy. And add math to this and get my GED.

The next two years were occupied with the fact that they directly explained to me what I can do with the computer, the camera and other things. From coding to directing and photos. A very wide range of subjects, to say the least.

The last 3 years it was management. People, projects, communication and learning ... how to wear a suit ... Yes ...

Looking back, the more new school courses appeared, the less I received the knowledge that I needed in my current job.

At school, I was taught not to do what I do not want.

School is not about studying, seriously. She is about to reveal you. I have already forgotten almost everything I was taught there, but they helped me to imagine and understand what I want to do and what I don’t.

It's like learning a subject, only to understand that it is not for you.

I had to learn mathematics in order to find out in time that I hate it, I learned to program and learned that it turns out worse than pixel alignment in a graphic editor. There was a time when I wore a suit, only to understand that this is not exactly what I would like to wear every day. I learned how to manage projects and people, and through that I realized that all I wanted to do was to spend all my free time in Photoshop, listening to Hans Zimmer and Amon Tobin’s background.

Perhaps this is not the best way to learn things, but I have one. Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot of useful things in school, but it turned out somehow that the things I hated gave me the most important lessons and abilities in my life.

In any project I worked on, I was always responsible for the design part, it was my personal island, so to speak. In the question of the possibility of acquiring new knowledge, I decided to concentrate on one thing.

Over 5 years of training (GED), I had to ignore a lot of knowledge past my ears to focus on anything related to interfaces and their details.

Is it good? I do not know. I do not grasp everything on the fly. I just found what I was good at and instead of expanding my range of abilities, I decided to improve those that were already at the proper level.

Let's summarize what I became after my studies:

Interface designer obsessed with what he does, focused on the design of web pages and applications for mobile devices. I could show my ideas with comfort and confidence to people.

I have a daily schedule of about an hour or so of browsing the Internet for searching, discovering and categorizing something inspiring, and then 8 hours of visual design in Photoshop and Illustrator. In addition, I spoke fluent English, which is important by the way.

Job

The history of my work is closely related to the school. Three years of multimedia project management have alternated internships. I spent a month at school and one more in another company where the newcomers were not so bad.

I was lucky to work in companies where I was given better assignments than to bring coffee or something like that, and I was grateful for that. The most I have learned from this, and what I certainly do not regret, is:

The best way to learn something is to work for real people, in real companies.

No, this does not mean that you will not learn anything in schools. You need it to get a foundation / base, of course you can know everything about the design according to the book, but the opportunity to apply the learned principles in real situations and projects is priceless. The combination of studies and live tasks - as for me, it is the best option to understand the subject, at least in our area.

First year

During the first year of internship, I learned how to print and design logos and business cards. As an intern, I was not bad. But in the opinion of a professional designer - I was terrible. My work was confused and full of mistakes. Fortunately, I got the right people, and everything worked out.

In your life, if you are very lucky, you will meet people who will help you in development. Substituting their shoulder, they will help you achieve what you thought was impossible.

This man was my boss in the first year. We were a company of two people, he had a lot of experience behind his back. He was patient and as soon as he noticed a little talent in me, he helped me develop it.

I did not expect this, I think that it is rare to meet someone who has to earn a living and at the same time he is still ready to help you with professional and personal growth. I'm trying to be like that, but still far away.
For this you need to be truly disinterested.

Second and third year

These years I spent practicing in another company. So, I left the first place because I needed to earn extra money, but he could no longer contain an intern and therefore it was time to move on.

The next company was a small web agency created by one person who was tired of executing orders and wanted to do cool things by himself.

Let's stop and I'll give another little tip for beginning designers who need work or practice:

Go ahead with a smile.

Yes, just like that. At that time, I was a shy guy, unsure of myself, especially when I had to introduce myself to someone. My presentation did not cause delight (to put it mildly). If an employee from this company did not support me, it seems to me that I would still be looking for an internship.

Okay, closer to the topic. Remember, I previously wrote about my first boss? So, I was lucky twice. Luck is an important factor in a career, but we'll return to this.

Over these two years I have grown a lot in terms of visual design. I worked on various projects, ranging from complex web design to phone apps. This is a good way to maintain the spirit of freedom in work while you earn a living. I even worked on the design of letters for mass mailings, which I am not very proud of, but this put me in a bit of a place. This, by the way, is important:

You will not always do something that you can be proud of, but you will definitely be able to take something for yourself from your experience.

Following the school logic, when you have to do something that you don’t like, you form some kind of backbone that makes you better (and as a designer including).

This job was beautiful. Most of the orders were interesting projects with a bunch of tasks for the young designer. I grew up with every order, and my boss was my insurance, the teacher who was always there at the right moment. He believed in me from the very beginning and therefore gave me complete freedom along with the responsibility for what I was doing.

Being an insurance for a person whose abilities you want to develop, make him feel the hard way, which means making responsible decisions.

After graduating, I was hired by this guy's company. There I spent a year before I got into Google, and to be honest, I love every second of this year.

Self study

In addition to study and practice (someone more experienced) there is one more important thing - self-study. Someone will even say that this is all you need in principle, especially in our field.

If you have a craving for something, then self-study should occur by itself. If you like what you do, then you are clearly on the right track.

My favorite activity was to monitor the work of other people, I took them. Psd files, and I looked at it and how, and what to say - I still do it now . A way to return the favor ...

There are always people more talented than you. Look at them and learn.

Teamwork and design community

Know, I hate working with someone. But I'm used to it. To date, I certainly gained experience in this, but I'm still very bad. When I have to work with some people, an inexplicable expression appears on my face that makes people think that I hate them. I do not know ... maybe so, but if only a little bit. In general, I think that this is all just shyness ...

Anyway, very early on I realized that this very cooperation is a very important thing for the development of your career, especially in our industry. Denis Coven in his post told me better and better about this subject, so I will not dwell on it.

This is all the power of the Internet, you can work with someone without intersecting in the real world. You can become a designer and leave your mark simply by participating in communities. Seriously, if you are a loner living on some island, you have the exact same chance of being hired as any other.

Okay, okay, a sociable person from San Francisco has much better ability in this regard than a brown bear from a cave in sunny France with poor internet, but you understand what I mean.

Fortunately, I was not a bear, I had a more or less normal Internet and I had to start somewhere. And I started with a little blog on a tambler.
It was a simple blog where I shared all sorts of designer content and notes about it. Something like personal Pinterest. Just a few readers, but it's a small thing. I was fascinated by this. Here's a note for you:

If you like to share something with others, even with a very small audience, keep doing it as long as possible.

So I continued to write to my little blog and somehow I was contacted by a large French website tied to web design and various things for which artists, etc., take inspiration. The number of visitors certainly jumped. The blog has become more famous, and I also moved from posting other people's things and notes to my sketches (after stumbled upon the work of Orman Clarke - Premium pixel ). But what to say, I'm still his fan. A blog was a great option for self-development, carving out my love for pixels and the simple opportunity to share different things. I also studied by reverse engineering for the work of others. After that, I even started writing tutorials.

And once the owner of this French site asked me:
“Maybe you want an invite to Dribbble?”

Dribbble

Dribbble deserves a separate mention, simply because this resource has played an important role in my career, and in the careers of many people in our industry.

I registered on March 6, 2011 and published this screenshot here:



And he immediately brought a lot of new subscribers. At that time, I published a new job once a week. It took a lot of time, I just sat all week in Photoshop, doing content for the blog. I had no idea what this would lead to ... People from outside France began to get involved with me, which was unexpected.

Oh yes ... and so did Google go to me.

Bit of freelancing

At that time I was working at a web agency. And just this first working year, I began to receive offers through Dribbble from various foreign (non-French) companies. The very first order was from a printing company from Sweden, it was cool and very important to me. I understood and spoke enough English to communicate with them, but the conversation focused mainly on all sorts of business pieces ... and I just graduated from school and was not so immediately ready for my own / personal projects.

Therefore, I suggested to my boss to make this order a project of the company. He started bookkeeping, and I did the rest. And this is how my first “freelance project” started.

Based on my experience, if you are a young designer and you have the opportunity to work on some third-party projects for real people, be sure to undertake this, you will learn a lot.

I managed everything with the first order, they were satisfied with the result, I did everything on time and we had a good relationship. This project was added to my portfolio, and I was also very pleased that I was able to leave the comfort zone and did not bother.

Coming out of the comfort zone will add to your confidence.

I continued to constantly post something on Dribbble, spending half a day in Photoshop, designed sketches for websites, letters and applications for the iPhone and iPad. Honestly, I designed everything from video players to file upload forms (why? I have no idea ..). And subscribers and orders became more and more.

I took on projects from France, Denmark and the United States. Each of them opened up new horizons / territories. I mean, there were very different orders, such as the design of a social platform or software for DJs .

There were so many orders that I began to choose from them only those I would like to work on. At the same time I started a couple of my personal projects. With freelancing everything went well, mostly for one simple reason - the customers I chose knew what they wanted and roughly imagined what they would get at the end (I thought the portfolio was clear). In general, the ability to choose customers is a luxury. And I could choose, because I already had the main work.

If you have free time and the situation allows you to take third-party projects as a freelancer (that is, you already have a job) - I advise you to try it, all of a sudden it is for you. But be careful, you have to work for a long time without raising your head.

Having all of these clients also helped me build a large portfolio. Which led me to the following.

We work for free

Before continuing, I advise you to read the article from Dan Petty .

I know that the question is delicate. Every job deserves payment. And that there will be a lot of people who will use this logic and we will see ads like “I need a designer for a site like YouTube and there is $ 200 - I’m waiting for suggestions” or “well, we have 5 designers working on it, and I will pay only one of them” .

Work for free - for yourself.

For a start, pay in advance for the Internet. By the way, this approach has one plus - you can choose, because you will be from what. You will be able to work on what you like, on what you will not be ashamed to show as a sample. Well, if you suddenly get to the right person in this process, then perhaps this will open the door for you to something else.

That's why I took free orders, any student party for which you need a poster, any small website that needs a design, but the owner has almost no money, and I know him - it will come down.

Hold on to it while you are a student, as long as you have free time and the opportunity to do anything. Yes, it is difficult to work without payment, but as a young designer you will receive an invaluable experience, just be careful.

I mean, since you can choose customers, then at least don’t grasp what it is. And if you have no support from the side (I had a family, a job, a boss who treated me well, just like a student), then think about whether you pull this approach.

Can we talk?

A year has passed and I received my first job offer in a company from Spain. It was strange ... For the first time, someone wanted to hire me to work in a large foreign company. The one who contacted me, wanted to find out if I would be opposed to meeting them, and right in their main office.

I told this to my boss, to which he replied: “well, let's go ahead!”. Then remember what I told you earlier about the very type of people who will help you in your development.

I agreed to the meeting, just to talk with them (ie, there were no guarantees). Why did I just agree? I didn’t particularly like the city in which I lived, but I liked my work and decided not to miss the new opportunity.

If you have an opportunity, but the question “What if?” Hovers in your head, just try.

They paid me a plane ticket and a hotel. I know that now it sounds normal, but then it was very, very unusual for me. I lived in a world where people didn't want to pay more than a couple of hundred dollars for the site design ... if they wanted to pay for it at all.

I met interviewers and figured out a little what kind of people they were. Time passed and I began to take seriously the fact that I could move from France to Spain. Anyway, these guys I liked and did not go too far. But a week after I returned home, I received another letter.

I decided that this is spam

BECAUSE the letter was from Google, you guessed it. I seriously decided that this is spam. It's just ... well, it just doesn't happen.
But I answered ... well, you understand ... just in case.

Americans had holidays at that time, so I received an answer only 5 days later, and this broke all my theories about spam and I was looking forward to what would happen next ..?

The recruiter asked me about various things, including the possibility of moving to the United States, and then informed me that I would need to talk further on the phone with their representative.

At this point, I mentally said a million times thanks to the heap of time that I spent at home listening to various American TV shows while working. But during the conversation I had to really try to understand anything. It was difficult, because live conversation and passive language learning are two different things, and TV shows, along with two weeks of school travel in the United States when I was 14, didn’t help me.

I thought that the conversation was terrible, but apparently not so terrible so as not to continue our acquaintance. The next step was a creative task.

This part was very challenging for me. I was given the opportunity to show how I think and how good I am in what I am doing. The process was not very different from how I did the work for clients, except that the result was much more important than usual ...

I sent them the result with my fingers crossed and hoping for a positive response, as well as trying to force myself not to imagine how they laugh at my work.

Two weeks passed and they told me that they wanted to meet me in person, in Mountain View.

What am I doing here?

At this time I was on a two-week trip to New York with a friend. The trip of those that "we finished with our studies, we need to drive somewhere" and was planned 4 months ago. And here is the letter confirming the meeting, I received being in the United States. I went to Starbucks twice a day to check email. In response, he wrote to them that I was in New York and it would be nice to meet in the next two weeks, because crossing the Atlantic and then returning would not be very convenient.

They agreed and two days later I flew to California.

My plane got into San Francisco and still not fully understanding what was happening, I already drove a rental car along one of the tracks, which would then become my daily way to work. He came to himself with the thought “What am I doing here?” Just passing by the signs with the inscriptions San Francisco, Palo Alto and Cupertino. The sensations were strange.

The next day I was interviewed. Everything went pretty quickly and ended before I could understand it. All I remember is the moment between the two interviews where I was asked - When did I decide to get a job at Google? I answered, they say, I never intended to, I could not even imagine that I would be here. Coming back, the answer was not the best, to put it mildly, but it was true. I was very tired and exhausted to come up with something more suitable.

Be honest.

Thinking about it now may be better. My answer was simple, but I think that I’m not the only one who would respond to such a proposal in a similar way. You can say that the whole secret of applying for a job is the ability to correctly answer questions, but believe me, at the end of the day there will come a time when you don’t find the right words.

Every time I laugh, remembering this story.

That's all, then I just waited for their decision. I boarded the plane back to New York, and on the way I looked at San Francisco, the city, which next time I would be in search of a place to live.

If you want to know more about the Google hiring process, go here . There you will find many useful things.

Luck

I got a call on Friday and asked if I was interested in joining the Chrome team. Yes, better could not be. I did not hesitate to agree. The Internet has created me, and now I will make it a better class.


My post on Dribbble on Google

I want to say that the fact that I got into Google is undoubtedly a lucky coincidence. I was lucky to have education where I could get the items I needed in the future, both bosses in my first jobs helped me, I got an invite to Dribbble at the right time and already because of Dribbble I was found by the Googleer who offered me the job, I was also lucky to find myself in the United States at the very moment when they invited me to an interview, and did not have to additionally suffer with a visa or something else.

Luck played a huge role in what happened and I would not write all this if I did not think so. And something else:

Be careful, if luck gives you a chance - grab it.

Conclusion

I read this story, and it sounds like a kind of fairy tale with a rainbow and unicorns, or at least - an advertisement from a Google fanatic. Of course, you may disagree with what Google does, and even if you read all this to the end, you probably lost a lot of time. But this is just my opinion.

I tried to tell truthfully what I felt and how it all happened.
I like being in a place where a lot of people are smarter than me. Is it beautiful every day? Not. Here it is unbearable and, like everywhere else, you often feel opposed to the whole world. But you are part of a giant machine that creates products of unprecedented size. And sometimes the realization of this causes some kind of tremor.

Will I be here forever? I do not know, there are ups, there are falls, but I like what I'm working on - Chrome, Chrome OS, and those with whom I work - my team and Google in general. So now I'm not going anywhere.

I think that just being here (not in Google, but in the Bay Area - the San Francisco Bay area) is an unusual experience. Every time when I feel that I look like a spoiled child, I say to myself - “Calm down, otherwise they will decide that you are a crook and will send you back to France by the same plane.”

Feedback

I did not seem to forget anything, even though the story is not small.
If you have questions or just want to chat with me, here is my social self-advertisement from the links.

Twitter
Dribbble
Portfolio
Work Showcase
Google+
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Original: https://medium.com/medium-long/9bdb2d8bcb60