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So today I got an offer for software engineering internship from none other than Google today (yes, Google!) I'm very excited about this  Now I don't have to worry about finding internships for this summer anymore (sort of)! The location isn't my first choice, but it was a reasonable decision on Google's part because I picked a really far away location (west coast -> east coast) for my first choice. (long story...sigh) Instead, I was placed at local office which is max 30 minutes away from home. And will be working on something really cool too.
I thought the interviews weren't as gruesome as some people described it on the webs. Maybe interviews for full-time positions are more intense? I don't know. Anyways the technical questions weren't too hard... but I did get nervous at times and gave bad answers but overall it wasn't too bad. It was my first interview ever so I can't really compare it to other ones.
I have another interview with Microsoft next week, which I might also consider. I don't want to work for Amazon. Facebook is alright, but I sent in my resume and never got a response back. So I wanna ask which company would you rather work for?
Poll: Google or Microsoft
(Vote): Google
(Vote): Microsoft
(Vote): Amazon
(Vote): Facebook
(Vote): Others
Good luck to others looking for internship!
And tonight we have jaedong vs. flash.. I'm so hyped Today's awesome!
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Google no doubt.
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United States12607 Posts
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What positions are they, and what are you looking for? Can't really make a decision based on this. Keep the interview with MSFT (unless you are hella behind schoolwork and are 100% with google), at least you get a free trip to Seattle/Redmond with 70$/day on food and free taxi-rides anywhere.
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Google... they are the hot spot now
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United States20665 Posts
ah, recruiting season.
all you tech people, then all them bankers, then all those management consultants
oh, joy
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Google..
and I hope you don't get the Microsoft position; making the right decision will be easier
which "local office"? I work as a sw eng near the mountain view office.
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I hope you don't get swayed by all the random people who probably don't have a clue what you want to do, and just jump on the Google bandwagon cos everyone said so :o
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On January 23 2010 14:14 phase wrote:
I hope you don't get swayed by all the random people who probably don't have a clue what you want to do, and just jump on the Google bandwagon cos everyone said so :o
Google!
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Oh, very very cool. Good for you! If you don't mind my asking, what school do you go to, and what would your position/responsibilities be at Google?
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My brother's mate works at google and he said it is the greatest thing ever.
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Google, although I'm not sure if your local office has all the perks as the Googleplex up in Mountain View. Facebook would actually be a decent company to work for, especially since they have to expand their workforce right now. However, seeing as you did not get a response from them, and google is that much nicer to their employees, Google all the way.
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Definitely Google.
That's like the best place you could work.
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Calgary25998 Posts
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congragulations to you sir.
you should definitely go with google.
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I got a friend who interned google. That shit was ridiculous. He'd tell me he'd definitely work hard but it was like heaven on earth. Gourmet chef meals, work out rooms, movie theater, basketball courts, massage therapy, you name it.
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please share your resume. I'm curious the people they are interested in.
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Google is a much nicer place to work at than Microsoft, and their job security has been much better over the last couple of years as well; you have less of a chance of getting laid off at google than Microsoft.
Other than boring realistic reasons, GOOGLE FTW
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United States4991 Posts
On January 23 2010 16:19 Navi wrote:
Google is a much nicer place to work at than Microsoft, and their job security has been much better over the last couple of years as well; you have less of a chance of getting laid off at google than Microsoft.
Other than boring realistic reasons, GOOGLE FTW
Do you really have any clue what you're talking about? If you actually look stuff up, Microsoft is generally reckoned to be a better place to intern at...
Link
No people who were newish hires were laid off from Microsoft, so the demographic he's in has fine job security too (also if you look up who was laid off, it's not the core engineering disciplines which I assume he's in). You get tons of free stuff during internships at Microsoft and do fun intern-only events, just like at every place you intern. Ultimately all these places are interested in pampering you so you'll join them, and all the big tech companies do it.
People who don't work in the field and don't really know anything about your situation just jump on the bandwagon because "OMG GOOGLE SO COOL"
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I don't think you are getting valid responses from this forum, as most people probably have never had CS internships.
This is my response, I've had six internships, and have very close friends who have interned at all of the places you mentioned.
Both places are great resume builders, no tech company will value one significantly over the other. And also, since you managed to get into Google/Msft/Amazon, you shouldn't need to worry about finding future internships/jobs.
Internship at Microsoft is *much* more organized, they are really experienced with having and training interns. They will organize various events and assign mentors, but you do have to put up with Redmond (assuming that's where you'll be working like 90% of the interns).
Google has better perks like free food and drinks (but NY cafe is much better than Mountainview), and you will meet some really smart people. However, as an intern, they will not expect you to do much, and you will most likely not learning as much as you would from other places.
I actually prefer Amazon over the other two, and I might end up there this summer. From what I heard, they work you very hard at Amazon, and you actually get to work on useful projects (unlike Msft and Google) that may impact customers directly, which is a big plus for me.
edit:
Interview-difficulty-wise:
Google and Amazon are about on-par (I've never interviewed with Facebook); Msft looks for different things other than just your ability to solve quaky problems. For internships, Google does two rounds of interviews on campus at my school, if you pass, you are hired. It's actually not that hard to get an internship SD position from Google. For full time position, you have to pass two rounds of interviews for a chance to interview at Mountainview, which consists of three to four technical interviews. So it's definitely more difficult.
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United States4991 Posts
On January 23 2010 18:28 Cambium wrote:
I don't think you are getting valid responses from this forum, as most people probably have never had CS internships.
This is my response, I've had six internships, and have very close friends who have interned at all of the places you mentioned.
Both places are great resume builders, no tech company will value one significantly over the other. And also, since you managed to get into Google/Msft/Amazon, you shouldn't need to worry about finding future internships/jobs.
Internship at Microsoft is *much* more organized, they are really experienced with having and training interns. They will organize various events and assign mentors, but you do have to put up with Redmond (assuming that's where you'll be working like 90% of the interns).
Google has better perks like free food and drinks (but NY cafe is much better than Mountainview), and you will meet some really smart people. However, as an intern, they will not expect you to do much, and you will most likely not learning as much as you would from other places.
I actually prefer Amazon over the other two, and I might end up there this summer. From what I heard, they work you very hard at Amazon, and you actually get to work on useful projects (unlike Msft and Google) that may impact customers directly, which is a big plus for me.
edit:
Interview-difficulty-wise:
Google and Amazon are about on-par (I've never interviewed with Facebook); Msft looks for different things other than just your ability to solve quaky problems. For internships, Google does two rounds of interviews on campus at my school, if you pass, you are hired. It's actually not that hard to get an internship SD position from Google. For full time position, you have to pass two rounds of interviews for a chance to interview at Mountainview, which consists of three to four technical interviews. So it's definitely more difficult.
Microsoft has free drinks too. It's not really free food, but ultimately Google doesn't give you free food either... it's just coming out of what they'd otherwise pay as salary. Personally I'd rather get paid more and get to choose how I spend my money.
You can choose where you'd like to intern at when you apply to Microsoft, though I don't think it's guaranteed that you'll get it -- you can definitely express preference, however.
Nice to see someone who actually looks at the situation rather than going with what company is cooler in pop culture
If the OP has questions about interning at MS (or just working there in general), I'm happy to answer :D
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Thanks everyone!
On January 23 2010 13:55 phase wrote:What positions are they, and what are you looking for? Can't really make a decision based on this. Keep the interview with MSFT (unless you are hella behind schoolwork and are 100% with google), at least you get a free trip to Seattle/Redmond with 70$/day on food and free taxi-rides anywhere.
I'm applying for a software engineering internship for every company that I'm going to apply to. I'm not really looking for anything particular - just an internship at a big (well-known) company that looks good on resumes. I do hope it turns into a full-time position in the future. I live in Seattle  but I do want to move out of there when I graduate (no not Silicon Valley).
On January 23 2010 14:11 rwong48 wrote:Google.. and I hope you don't get the Microsoft position; making the right decision will be easier which "local office"? I work as a sw eng near the mountain view office.
Kirkland, WA!
On January 23 2010 14:29 tarpman wrote:
Oh, very very cool. Good for you! If you don't mind my asking, what school do you go to, and what would your position/responsibilities be at Google?
I go to UW (University of Washington), the position is going to be software engineering intern, and they assigned me to work on Chrome (the browser), something to do with HTML5 and support for video rendering.
On January 23 2010 16:08 artofmagic wrote:
please share your resume. I'm curious the people they are interested in.
They seem to be interested in students who have really high grades and have done most of the basic CS classes (data structures, algorithms, OS, etc.). The only other guy I know that also got in and I have a GPA of >3.9 on a 4.0 scale, and we're both 3rd year undergrads. There are exceptions, like if you've done projects related to Google, or have interned (Google or elsewhere) before. I have not done any internships before though. Google uses C++, Java, and Python a lot so it would help if you know them. Of course, you will also have to do reasonably well on the interviews. This is just my impression of what kind of people they're interested in based on the people I know that got accepted/rejected.
Thanks Cambium and HnR)Insane for giving info on other companies. I have no problem with Redmond - it's a 15 minute drive from my home My friend said that Microsoft is better at training interns too, so I will definitely consider it, but I will have to decide quick (if MS gives me an offer that is) since I only have 2 weeks to decide.
Money isn't really an issue for me right now, since it's just an internship and I won't make significantly more money if I went to either one. MS actually has offices just 5 minutes away from my home, so it's better in location (well, because I didn't get my first choice from Google). In terms of what to work on though, I don't really know for Microsoft, even though I've been using their products since I was 5....
HnR)Insane, I do have a question about MS - Have you interned there before, and what did you worked on when you were an intern? and how about now?
Cambium - that's good! I don't know much about Amazon, are you going to be in Seattle if you pick Amazon? At our UW, it's always Google, MS, Amazon that people want to do for. But I am not too excited to be working for Amazon because I went to one of the info sessions and it didn't really impress me for some reason :\
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On January 24 2010 17:55 imDerek wrote:Thanks everyone! Show nested quote +On January 23 2010 13:55 phase wrote:What positions are they, and what are you looking for? Can't really make a decision based on this. Keep the interview with MSFT (unless you are hella behind schoolwork and are 100% with google), at least you get a free trip to Seattle/Redmond with 70$/day on food and free taxi-rides anywhere. I'm applying for a software engineering internship for every company that I'm going to apply to. I'm not really looking for anything particular - just an internship at a big (well-known) company that looks good on resumes. I do hope it turns into a full-time position in the future. I live in Seattle but I do want to move out of there when I graduate (no not Silicon Valley).
haha, i didnt know u were in washington to begin with. In that case, if you're already set, you probably wouldn't see that many perks in going to interview, other than the free meals. :o Anyways, I ask about wat you're looking for because typically theres 3 roles at Microsoft: SDE, SDET, and PM. Also, at least when they came to my school for first rounds, they asked me which of their business groups I would prefer (and I chose anything more hardware related cos im not even CS lulz, which pretty much meant embedded devices or xbox). If u are still going to interview with them and havent specified already, you can be a bit more choosy now that you already have an offer.
oh yea, and typically if a company wants you, deadlines are not an issue. tell them that you need more time (or to hurry up) because you are in the recruiting process with another company and they should be able to accommodate your schedule.
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I've interned at Google and MS. Both companies are big enough that the experiences will vary widely. But what I do know is that if you go to Google, you should join the starcraft mailing list, because we play every Friday.
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On January 23 2010 17:15 HnR)Insane wrote:
People who don't work in the field and don't really know anything about your situation just jump on the bandwagon because "OMG GOOGLE SO COOL"
this is precisely what im going to do.
GOOGLE OMG
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I don't know man, all the luxury you're talking about sounds just like they're compensating. I'd rather work in a smaller company, much smaller, who were still more about boldness than about money. I don't think that working with such amount of people is particularly fun either.
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EPT
