How I Got Into Google Without a CS Degree

A guide to making your own study plan to crack the coding interview

Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels

I’ll be honest, I started writing this “how I got a job at Google” article before I even got the offer — in fact, before I even got to the final interview. It’s not that I assumed I would get it; it was more to document the process for my own uses and to understand how to improve for next time. And, welp — I got the job! How’s that for positive visualization (accidentally) working?

Besides, during my own preparation, I read any and every article just like this I could get my hands on. I figured I’m a software engineer, I’m good at seeing patterns, if I read enough success stories, I’ll see a pattern for people who did well, and I’ll come up with my own amazing study plan.

And it worked! I was able to grab bits and pieces of advice from each article and apply them to my own studies. Some worked, some didn’t, but all of them grew my confidence by making me feel like this was an achievable goal.

So without further ado, I couldn’t be more honored to add my story to the mix. I hope it helps someone out there.

First: A Note To Those Without a CS Degree

When I announced the job on LinkedIn, I was struck by how surprised many people were that Google would hire someone without a CS degree. I’m here to dispel the rumor that it’s a necessary requirement. Because it’s not. Since I started at Google a week ago, I’ve met software engineers from all types of backgrounds (e.g. electrical engineers, lawyers, animators). I got my bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, which I definitely think helped from a resume perspective. But to be clear, I never took any courses on data structures or algorithms. (I learned most of my coding through the Udacity Full Stack Web Developer Nanodegree boot camp. And honed my coding skills for 2.5 years at tech startups.)

But thankfully, we live in an amazing, revolutionary time when it comes to knowledge. Knowledge is everywhere. It’s at the tip of your fingers. There used to be all kinds of hurdles to jump through — whether socioeconomic, geographical, etc. — to get access to schools…