Inside My Google STEP Internship

Hey all!

I’m Prakriti Vashishtha, a 3rd year UG from IIIT Allahabad. During the summer of 2023, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at Google India through the STEP program and in this blog, I’ll be sharing my journey, starting from the application process to my experiences while working over there.

What is STEP internship?

In there own words

“STEP (Student Training in Engineering Program), is a 12-week internship program for first and second-year undergraduate students with a passion for computer science.”

Recruitment Procedure

In India, the selection process consist of 2 phases:

1. Resume shortlisting
2. Two rounds of technical interviews (45 minutes each)

• Minimum qualifications

1. Currently in second year of study, enrolled in a Bachelor’s program, majoring or intending to major in Computer Science or related technical field.
2. Experience in one or more general purpose programming languages.

• Application process

The application window opened in mid-December on the Google Careers Page, which is where I submitted my application. Additionally, Google also conducts on-campus recruitment at various colleges during the same period. Therefore, I recommend reaching out to your Training and Placement (TnP) cell for the details. Given the immense competition when applying off-campus, simply meeting the minimum requirements is not enough. It is crucial to build a compelling resume and secure a referral to enhance your chances of success.

Key aspects to consider are:

1. Create your resume using Latex and try to sum it up in a single page.
2. Mention information in the form of single-line bullet points rather than paragraphs.
3. Highlight important pieces of information by making them bold. Though don’t overdo it.
4. Give links wherever necessary and rather than mentioning qualitative sentences, mention your impact in numbers and quantify stuff.
5. Ensure it is perfect without grammatical errors and typos. Also, make sure that the indentations are uniform and your resume is readable.
6. Last but not the least, never lie on your resume.

• Interview Process

After resume shortlisting you are called in for 2 technical interviews depending upon our availability (you can also have both on the same day itself). Securing an interview was a significant milestone and for me it came in around mid February. They stick to the clock and the interviews were purely DSA based. There was a shared google doc on which the question and solution was to be typed. Though I cannot reveal the exact questions, in my first interview they were based on hashing and binary search. They were both medium in terms of clarity, edge cases and technique. While, in the second one, there was a logic based question similar to one on codeforces with different improvised versions having levels of difficulty ranging from medium to hard.

The interviewer looks for your problem-solving skills by asking you edge cases and doing dry runs. I would recommend writing clean readable code with proper naming schemes and indentation. Be interactive and speak out loud. If in the middle of writing one solution you get the idea for a more optimized approach, definitely mention that. Also, in case of doubts or blockages, do ask them for help. I didn’t hear from them until March end when I got the final result. I can only describe the feeling as pure and immense happiness :))

Work Experience

It was a ten week(you can also opt for 12 weeks) internship for me in one of the Google Cloud teams. My first week as a STEP intern was a whirlwind of information. I was introduced to my team, given access to various tools and resources, and assigned my initial tasks. Every passing day augmented me with so much learning experience, not only technical but also personal and professional. The work culture was extremely open and everyone was very helpful which was pleasantly refreshing. All interns worked in teams of two and overall the entire project was very well planned with the expectations being clear for us and managers being accessible for any doubts we had. Both me and my co-intern had a common host and co-host who were both full time Google engineers of high stature.

Regarding social interactions, I must say it was a truly enriching experience. I had the pleasure of interacting with interns from a diverse array of colleges and different FTEs. It was a really amazing experience overall. I not only gained new insights but also had the opportunity to interact with a multitude of individuals, all while relishing my time at Google amidst the delicious food and the captivating office interiors.

Now, here’s the exciting part: all STEP interns working with Google India become eligible for a return intern (RI) offer. This offer paves the way for them to intern with Google again in the following summer, this time as Software Engineering interns (SWE interns). The eligibility for this incredible opportunity hinges entirely on mentor feedback and performance throughout the internship period.

Whew, this has turned out to be quite a lengthy piece from where I initially started. If you’ve managed to read all the way to this point, I sincerely appreciate your time and hope that this information proves helpful! 😄

PS: Don’t forget to 👏 if this blog gave you some insights and clarity regarding STEP internship.