Can newly graduated European college students get an offer from a major Internet company in the United States?

author | Ludovico       translator | Meniscus

Produce | CSDN（ID：CSDNnews）

I am a newly graduated European graduate student , I will share my personal experience of looking for a job through this article .

Some people may say that the United States has many opportunities , Is it the same in other countries ？ The high-tech market is in short supply of technicians , But is it easy for entry-level programmers to find jobs ？

My answer is yes . However , The competition we face is much more intense , But we have to find a way to get an interview , But also need some relevant experience .

My background

My college major is applied mathematics , But in sophomore year , I find myself very fond of writing code . therefore , I experienced an unusual internship , This is also the most meaningful thing I did in College . Through practice , I found my favorite development field . I'm glad to study hard in order to get good grades , I also spent a lot of energy exploring my career development direction .

During this period, I participated in two activities ：“Julia Contribution season ” And “Google Code summer ”, Engaged in some open source software work , And write a library ：Surrogates.jl（https://github.com/SciML/Surrogates.jl）.

I thank you very much Julia Community , As an open source developer , I have achieved great growth , Learned the advanced design knowledge of software development technology and library used by many researchers all over the world .

at that time , I'm still hesitant to challenge for a doctorate after graduation . In order to strengthen our determination , I decided to continue using Julia, At the same time, cooperate with Allen Turing Institute to solve some open research problems . This experience made me realize that the academic environment is not suitable for me . This is another valuable experience ！

During that time , My girlfriend is studying in Gothenburg, Sweden , So I decided to move there , At the same time, I worked as an intern in Volvo car company , Continue to complete the master's degree related to computer vision .

Not long after , I moved to little Saint genepuy in France , stay CERN work 6 Months , And wrote many Python Code . That's it , I study hard , Explore your interests slowly , Consider your career development , And unconsciously entered the stage of job search and interview .

Preparing for an interview

My goal is machine learning software engineer and application scientist . I also applied for the position of data science , But no reply was received . I feel the competition for entry-level positions in data science is very big , Maybe it's because I'm just a less attractive candidate .

In preparation for the interview , I practiced two skills ： Knowledge of programming and machine learning .

programmatically , I made the following preparations ：

• 75 A random problem ;

• education.io The course I took Grokking the coding interview;

• It's painted leetcode and binarysearch Many questions on （ about 200 Avenue ）.
  

I realized , If you want to follow the pace of the market and pursue high salary , You may need to attend the interview again in a few years , So I took notes on every important programming problem （https://hollow-wood-560.notion.site/Coding-questions-FAANG-prep-9cdf280e5f30425fa188cbbaa6d1998c）. If you want to know which topics are worth brushing , You can also refer to my notes .

In machine learning , I made the following preparations ：

• read 《Introduction to statistical learning》;

• Grokking Machine learning interview course ;

• 《Data Science Prep》 volume I、II、III.

interview

I'm in 2021 year 9 Apply for a job around August . I also applied for many entry-level software engineer positions . The reason is simple , If you're lucky , I can get more offer, In this way, there is room for negotiation .

I summarized the companies I applied for and the final results , Two thirds of the companies directly rejected me . 

Although in the above companies , Only a few are engaged in professional AI research , But I still applied to these companies , For the following reasons ： These big companies have their own machine learning teams more or less , And my specialty is this , So I think I will finally find a satisfactory team .

Being rejected

My online test performed very badly , Because I feel bored easily , So most interviews quickly turned me down . and Helsing I was rejected during the interview , They asked me to finish a machine learning problem at home , And my performance is really bad , So I was unexpectedly rejected .

Offer

In order to relax during the interview , I will listen to some music , And put on your favorite clothes , Cheer yourself up .

Besides , I regard the interview as “ Work with another engineer to solve a small algorithm problem ” The little game , Don't worry about risks . There may be no guarantee that the best answer will be given every time , But I will try to express the process of thinking . 

Final , I received the following offer.

Meta

The first one I received offer come from Meta, The interview process includes ：

• Technical interview

• Virtual scene

• Technical interview 1

• Technical interview 2

• Behavior assessment  

Meta Your interview is very difficult , This is something I didn't expect . I need to 45 Solve it in minutes 15～20 A question , But my performance is not bad . about Meta Interview preparation for , I suggest focusing on reviewing some common problems .

A week after the interview , I got it offer！ Unfortunately , There is no room to discuss the salary of new graduates , But fortunately, Meta The conditions given are quite good .

I already have one in my hand offer, This made me very relaxed in the next interview .

UBS

A few days later , I received another message from UBS Of offer.UBS Your interview includes a technical interview 、 A technical test and a behavioral test .

However , I got offer Only the basic wage , No bonus , There is no subsidy . I communicated with the recruiter , The final answer is ：“ This is the best offer, It is impossible to raise it any more .” therefore , I refused , After all, this offer It's just an alternative .

Snapchat

During this period , I also participated in Snapchat Interview . The whole interview process is long and boring , The difficulty is no less than Google. For all that , Their team in Vienna is really first-class , If you like computer vision , Be sure to think about them ！

The interview process is as follows ：

• Behavioral tests , Mainly talk about the projects you have participated in before ;

• C++ Technical assessment ;

• Introduce a project to the team ;

• Virtual on-site interview ：

• Computer vision technology interview + Behavioral tests ;

• Computer vision and probability / Statistical technology interview + Behavioral tests ;

• Programming interview C++ And CS knowledge + Behavioral tests ;

• Programming interview C++ And optimization problem + Behavioral tests ;

• Programming interview Python And Machine learning problems + Behavioral tests .
  

A few days later , I got it. offer！ The salary they offer is more than Meta Slightly lower . I explained this to the recruiter offer Your basic salary is very low , And no bonus , They expressed understanding , But there seems to be no room for adjustment . Because I like this team very much , So I ask for a few more days to think about it .

Google

Google The whole interview process is extremely long ！ But I've expected it for a long time .

• Video call ： Brief technical interview ;

• Technology test ;

• Virtual scene （ Two days ）：

• Behavioral tests

• Technical interview 1

• Technical interview 2

• Technical interview 3

• Technical interview 4
  

After the on-site interview , The recruiter told me , Good feedback , We can move forward . later , I also accepted a telephone interview with a machine learning team . meanwhile , They also asked other companies about offer.

A few days later , I got it. Google Email from . I'm ecstatic , Because I not only got offer, And the salary is more than Meta！ This is also the best I have ever got offer！

honestly , I'm ready to accept this offer 了 , But I want to take this opportunity to exercise my negotiation skills . I cheer myself up ： I am here Google Your performance in the interview was very outstanding , And I have many others offer, So I still have bargaining chips .

therefore , I communicated with the recruiter , Our call lasted 30 minute . At that time, I was under great pressure , My heart is very flustered , But I pretended to be calm , Earn by reasoning . the second day , He brought good news , They gave it to me offer An additional equity .

Yelp

Yelp The interview process is very interesting .

• Online testing

• Machine learning design test

• Virtual scene ：

• Machine learning design

• Technical interview

• Behavioral tests 1

• Behavioral tests 2
  

After a round of negotiation , Final Yelp Given offer And Meta almost . I like it very much Yelp Culture , Everyone I met was very friendly . This is the most enjoyable interview experience for me .

It was finally decided

At the critical moment of making a final decision ！ To be able to get to this point , I feel very lucky . meanwhile , I am also proud of my efforts .

Final , I chose Google. Because their total salary is much higher , In addition, their team is mainly engaged in modeling of machine learning , And my goal is to become a machine learning engineer .

At first , I'm a little worried about my career development , And I got offer Also below the average . however , I understand, , In fact, low-level positions are done , Promotion and salary increase are not so difficult , So I feel at ease .

Maybe in a few years , I need to look for new opportunities , And reassess your position . however , At the moment , I just hope that in Google Study hard , develop and grow , At the same time, I also try my best to contribute my strength .

Original address ：https://ludoro.github.io/blog/career/2022/02/14/newgrad.html

This paper is about CSDN translate , Please indicate the source of reprint

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