Sahil Gaba interviewed at Google three times before landing his current software engineering role. Sahil Gaba
- Sahil Gaba, a software engineer, landed a job at Google after two prior rejections.
- Gaba felt less stressed the third time because he had more interview and coding experience.
- He also felt that having a good current job helped take away some of the pressure of his interview.
Sahil Gaba was four years out of graduate school and working as a software engineer at Amazon when a recruiter contacted him to interview at Google.
Gaba had interviewed at Google twice before, in 2016 and 2018 respectively. Neither round of interviews turned into an offer.
“I had been struggling to get a job for a long time at that point and had faced hundreds of rejections by then,” Gaba told Business Insider about his two interview experiences. “It was just another rejection for me.”
This time around, he wasn’t worried about the outcome of the application.
“I had kind of stopped caring about the results of the interviews because I had taken and failed so many of them,” Gaba said. “In a way, it’s quite liberating when you go in with a mindset that you’ve seen it all.”
So he decided to go for it.
After eight rounds of interviews, he got a job offer with Google in 2021 as a software engineer. Here’s what his years of interview experience taught him about big tech interviews.
Build interview experience
In the coding rounds of big tech interviews, there are two parts to solving a question — coming up with the solution, and writing the code.
“While I was new, I would be under more pressure while writing the code,” he said.
The extra years of experience took away part of the stress, he said: “Now writing the code is not the challenge — as long as I could come up with the solution, the writing part was straightforward.”
The third time he interviewed at Google, Gaba switched his programming language of choice from Java to Python in interviews — a move that’s still debated in the industry, he said.
“That sped up my coding ability in the interviews a lot because it’s very easy to think about,” he said, as compared to Java. “Even to this day, I don’t use Python at work, but let’s say if I have to interview tomorrow, I’ll be using Python.”
Interviewing in low-pressure situations
Interviewing while he had a job he was happy with took away some of the pressure of the process, Gaba said.
The second time he interviewed at Google, Gaba said he was looking for an immediate exit from his job at the time, which put a lot of pressure on him.
This time around, he liked his job, which helped him stay calm at interviews.
“I was enjoying working with my coworkers at Amazon,” he said. “I didn’t really have any problem staying back either.”
Buying negotiating power
During his third round of interviews at Google, Gaba followed a common practice in the tech industry.
He set up interviews at Meta, Google, and Uber close to each other so that offers — if he got them — would roll in around the same time.
That would give him a “slightly upper hand in negotiation,” he said.
“So that helped me be able to negotiate my salary with all the companies,” he said.
Relying less on referrals
Gaba said he used to rely heavily on referrals to apply for jobs in big tech.
When he had exhausted his network and still hadn’t landed a job, he started applying to companies directly through their job portals. When he applied to Amazon, he applied to not one, but to 10 or 15 positions on the same day, he said.
His strategy is that one recruiter has multiple openings: “Essentially you’re not applying for a job, you’re applying for a recruiter.”
If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider on Microsoft Start.
News Related
-
Anyone who’s purchased gift baskets to hand out to loved ones this holiday season might need to find a backup present after the latest food recall that involves festive cookies. Gift basket company Wine Country Gift Baskets just announced that it is voluntarily recalling all gift baskets that feature Acorn Baking ...
See Details:
Recall Just Announced For Popular Cookies Featured In Holiday Gift Baskets
-
LOS ANGELES: Quarterback Jalen Hurts ran in an overtime touchdown to give the Philadelphia Eagles a 37-34 NFL win over the Buffalo Bills Sunday (Monday in Manila) and move them to 10-1 on the season. The Eagles, who lost the Super Bowl to Kansas City last season, trailed at half-time ...
See Details:
Eagles rally past Bills in overtime as Chiefs win
-
Yen Makabenta First word WHILE UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other promoters of the climate emergency are preparing to convene the 28th conference of the parties (COP28) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the United Arab Emirates, starting on November 30 and stretching to December 12, ...
See Details:
Reality bites the green energy agenda
-
Sandigan orders Marcos Sr. pal to pay workers The Sandiganbayan has ordered the enforcement of a July 2023 ruling ordering a Marcos Sr. associate to pay a lumber company’s workers P2.1 million in damages as well as return 60 percent of their company’s shares and pay all unpaid benefits. The ...
See Details:
Sandigan orders Marcos Sr. pal to pay workers
-
DSWD: Shear line, LPA affect 1.2 million people; over 18,000 families evacuated MANILA, Philippines – More than 18,000 families have fled to evacuation centers across flood-affected regions in the country due to the impact of the shear line and low pressure area. Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) gave ...
See Details:
DSWD: Shear line, LPA affect 1.2 million people; over 18,000 families evacuated
-
-
MANILA, Philippines: The entire Luzon, including Metro Manila, is expected to experience isolated rain showers and thunderstorms as the northeast monsoon (“amihan”) and easterlies will be affecting the country over the next 24 hours, the state-run weather agency said on Tuesday. Weather specialist Patrick del Mundo of the Philippine Atmospheric ...
See Details:
Rain showers, thunderstorms over Luzon, including Metro Manila — Pagasa
-
Attention, Naruto fans! You can soon watch the famous anime’s live-action adaptation as it finally has a confirmed writer. According to a Variety report, the beloved manga and anime series is set to head to big screens for its live-action adaptation under Lionsgate. It will be written by Tasha Hao, ...
See Details:
'Naruto' live-action film adaptation is in the works
-
Attention, Naruto fans! You can soon watch the famous anime’s live-action adaptation as it finally has a confirmed writer. According to a Variety report, the beloved manga and anime series is set to head to big screens for its live-action adaptation under Lionsgate. It will be written by Tasha Hao, ...
See Details:
NASA Highlights Stingray Nebula
-
Attention, Naruto fans! You can soon watch the famous anime’s live-action adaptation as it finally has a confirmed writer. According to a Variety report, the beloved manga and anime series is set to head to big screens for its live-action adaptation under Lionsgate. It will be written by Tasha Hao, ...
See Details:
Manila's Lagusnilad underpass opens
-
Attention, Naruto fans! You can soon watch the famous anime’s live-action adaptation as it finally has a confirmed writer. According to a Variety report, the beloved manga and anime series is set to head to big screens for its live-action adaptation under Lionsgate. It will be written by Tasha Hao, ...
See Details:
China probes debt-ridden financial giant
-
Attention, Naruto fans! You can soon watch the famous anime’s live-action adaptation as it finally has a confirmed writer. According to a Variety report, the beloved manga and anime series is set to head to big screens for its live-action adaptation under Lionsgate. It will be written by Tasha Hao, ...
See Details:
China's VUCA situation
-
Attention, Naruto fans! You can soon watch the famous anime’s live-action adaptation as it finally has a confirmed writer. According to a Variety report, the beloved manga and anime series is set to head to big screens for its live-action adaptation under Lionsgate. It will be written by Tasha Hao, ...
See Details:
Unraveling the mystery that is diabetes
-
Attention, Naruto fans! You can soon watch the famous anime’s live-action adaptation as it finally has a confirmed writer. According to a Variety report, the beloved manga and anime series is set to head to big screens for its live-action adaptation under Lionsgate. It will be written by Tasha Hao, ...
See Details:
Bangladesh's nuke plant is not going to steal PH investments
OTHER NEWS
ALIW Awards Foundation Inc. President Alice H. Reyes has released the names of finalists for the 2023 Aliw Awards to be presented on Dec. 11, 2023, at the Manila Hotel ...
Read more »
WhatsApp Web gains the feature of single-view photos and videos (Photo: Unsplash) The WhatsApp Web, the desktop version of the popular messaging app from Meta, has received an update allowing ...
Read more »
Young athletes’ time to shine in Siklab Awards MANILA, Philippines — The future heroes of Philippine sports will be honored during the third Siklab Youth Sports Awards on Dec. 4 ...
Read more »
Graphics by Jannielyn Ann Bigtas A local government official said Monday that five to 10 barangays in Northern Samar are still isolated following the massive flooding in the area last ...
Read more »
DyipPay app lets you pay jeepney fare, book tricycles “Barya lang po sa umaga.” Everyone who rides jeepneys knows this rule: it may not be an actual law, but it’s ...
Read more »
Updated In-Season Tournament Bracket ahead of pool play finale Tuesday will mark the last day of pool play for the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament. From there, six first-place teams and ...
Read more »
PCG forms teams for maritime emergency response MANILA, Philippines — Recent incidents of fishermen lost in the waters off Southern Tagalog have prompted the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to form ...
Read more »