Amid the difficult technology job market in the US, Bui Quang Huy, 23 years old, was recruited to Google thanks to his early experience.
Huy officially joined the software engineering team, Search Experience department (user search experience) of Google, USA, since February. This is one of the prominent departments of Google, owning a search toolbar that reached more than 84 billion visits in 2023.
Huy's job is to develop software and features that make the search process easier and more enjoyable. Before that, he was also invited to work officially by many large companies, such as ServiceNow.
According to Huy, to convince employers, it is very important to set up a long-term plan and prepare early. At companies like Google, getting to the interview round is a process of effort. Huy has accumulated experience working on many large and small projects, for more than 4 years, to show that he is a suitable candidate.
"Opportunities never come, so I proactively practice my skills and accumulate experience, preparing myself to seize them when the opportunity comes," he said.
Quang Huy on his graduation day at Miami University, USA. Photo: Character provided
Quang Huy has been passionate about technology since high school. The boy in the Math 1 class of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted has participated in many science competitions. Huy's outstanding achievement is the first prize in the ASEAN+3 Odyssey Science Camp for teenagers from 13 countries, organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Vietnam in 2017.
Huy then studied abroad in the US, majoring in Computer Science at the University of Miami and earning his degree in 3.5 years with a GPA of over 3.7/4. During this time, to satisfy his passion, Huy participated in many programming competitions. He twice attended HackOHI/O, the largest annual hackathon in the state of Ohio.
Quang Huy was also accepted as a Google intern, for the first time in his second year. According to Huy, Google's recruitment standards are very strict with many selection rounds, from resumes, professional assessments, and interviews.
"To catch their eye, your profile must be outstanding and meet their criteria," Huy said, stating that Google does not care whether candidates have worked for large or small companies, but rather values contributions and understanding of technology.
Huy shared about his internship at Rakuna, a recruitment support software startup, when he returned to Vietnam to study online due to Covid-19. In addition to his experience in directly programming new applications, Huy also showed that he constantly tries and takes advantage of his time to learn even in difficult times.
Next were two rounds of programming interviews. Huy assessed these as the most "brain-tough" rounds, as knowledge of technology and programming was not limited to school curriculum but was close to reality, requiring candidates to self-study and practice a lot.
First, the company gave Huy two programming tasks, asking him to complete them in an hour and submit them via a self-scoring platform. After achieving the required score, he was interviewed twice by phone, asking in-depth questions about programming. In addition to answering questions about data structures and algorithms, Quang Huy also asked the recruiter questions in return.
"There was a question, I spent the first 30 seconds not thinking of a specific solution. Instead of thinking further, I said that there were 3-4 directions, could they suggest which direction I should think next, from there opening up knowledge to get the result", he recalled.
Huy came up with this "strategy" when learning about Google's selection criteria, including communication and teamwork skills.
He was then asked more about his behavior in the work environment. For example: Tell me about a time you encountered difficulties in a project and how you overcame them; Have you ever disagreed with a colleague?; How did you deal with new technology and how did you respond?... As a former deputy secretary of the Youth Union and head of the organizing committee of the 2018 Talent Festival, one of the school's most prominent activities, Huy had no difficulty with these questions.
This was also the situation Huy encountered during his first days of internship. He was assigned a project that did not have enough details and requirements, and at the same time the person responsible for product design left. Huy immediately started to research on his own, showed how to program the parts that were not clearly described, and proactively made an appointment to meet with colleagues to ask for their opinions. After that, he came up with a general data system design that could be easily expanded when more details about the project requirements were available. The final product met all the requirements and was successfully tested.
At the end of 2022, Huy finished his first internship at Google, right at the time when American technology companies were laying off a lot and tightening recruitment, even for interns. However, with careful preparation, he succeeded once again. In his second internship, the display language conversion product that Huy participated in programming was officially used.
Huy in the Google headquarters campus, USA. Photo: Character provided
Graduating at a time when the job market was difficult, Huy acknowledged that there was no job or company that he "didn't like". The reason is that the technology industry in the US has many different segments, in many fields.
According to Huy, building professional relationships is very important. Asking for letters of recommendation from acquaintances working at the companies he applied to is how Huy got into the interview round many times. "Spreading applications" is also an experience of Huy. For example, if the average rate of passing the application round is 2%, it means that candidates have to apply to about 50 positions to have a high chance of getting into the interview round once.
Mr. To Duc Thien, technology director of Rakuna Company, had a special impression of the intern a few years ago. According to him, Huy is a careful, hard-working, progressive and thoughtful person.
"Huy is not only good at technical aspects but also has the ability to organize work, know how to connect, cooperate and support people. He finished his internship a long time ago but always tries his best to help with work at the old company," he said.
Joining the world's leading technology corporation, Huy realized that he still had many things to improve. He set a goal to learn more about technology in general, search engines in particular, and continue to develop his programming skills.
"I will observe and learn the working style here. I hope that in the future I can bring that knowledge back to work at domestic companies or at my own company," Huy shared.
Phuong Anh
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