Graduation, then Google
By Grace Carballo ‘17
I met Evan Brown on a Peaks and Professors Hike this semester and upon hearing he was a senior, asked the (for many) dreaded question, “What are your plans after graduation?”
I was ill equipped for his response, “starting at Google Tokyo in August as a software engineer” because he had made no mention of his accomplishments until someone else brought them up and I pried; humility is a beautiful thing.
Naturally, I had a plethora of follow-up questions, especially after I saw the Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson movie, The Internship, a comedy about Google’s highly competitive internship program. I asked Evan to meet me for an interview because I believe there is a lot we can learn from successful people- that’s why I have so many quotes on my walls at home.
If you, too, would like to one day answer “Google” as your future employer and not just your primary search engine or the greatest thing since sliced bread, read on:
The USC Computer Science program has grown a lot in recent years, thanks especially to Professor David Kempe who has redesigned and updated the curriculum.
Though the courses have become more difficult, Evan explained the material is better now and more applicable. One important result of USC’s program’s increased name recognition is students are finding it much easier to get jobs at big name companies like Facebook or Google.
“It’s easier this year than it was even last year,” Brown explained.
Evan, like many others including myself, came to USC as an Undecided major, still choosing between Film and Engineering at the time. As a spring admit, he started as a Computer Science major at BU for his first semester, but it wasn’t until his sophomore year at USC that he heard about the hybrid degree in Dornsife he will graduate with in a few short days, Physics/Computer Science. This major, with core courses from Computer Science in Viterbi, is ideal (if you like physics and computer science) because it gets you out of certain classes you wouldn’t want to take in each of the programs it combines.
Last summer, Evan interned at Google in New York, working in ad exchange. I was unfamiliar with the concept, but he explained it as essentially “a real time auction house for ad space.”
How does one get an internship like that?
Well Google has junior internships for freshman and sophomores and my friend did that the summer after sophomore year and he recommended me at the end of the summer.
I did all the interviews the day before going back to school and found out I got it around October.
What were the internship interviews like?
There were two phone interviews where you write code to solve computer science problems in a Google doc so the interviewer can see what you’re doing.
What about for your full-time position?
For full-time jobs, there are five forty-five minute interviews in-person, and you do the problems on a white board. But for interns like me, there is a conversion to full-time program in which you only have to do two interviews at the end of your internship.
What helped most with the technical interviews?
The USC Programming Contest, which we have every semester, was very helpful because you can work on problems more difficult than the ones they give you in technical interviews. There are six problems to do over four hours and anyone can compete.
Anyone? Even me?
Of course! Anyone can take courses in CS or in the Information Technology Program (ITP). Also, I think that programming is easier to learn online than most other subjects (and you can Google any questions you have).
For the USC Contest, you can use C, C++, or Java and any student can compete, up until age 23. The USC Contest is for individuals, but in the fall, there is a regional programming contest for all of southern California where students compete in teams of three.
A team from USC has won the regional contest for the past 4 years, beating teams like Cal Tech and UCLA and advancing to the International Collegiate Programming Contest. Last year, they were 5th in North America and beat Stanford, all of which demonstrates how well USC’s Computer Science program is building a name for itself.
Did you get to choose where you started? What made you pick Tokyo?
If I hadn’t been an intern, I’d probably have to start somewhere in the United States, but in the conversion to full-time application, I got to list my top two choices of offices to work in, and I put Tokyo as my first choice.
I watch a lot of Japanese movies, and I took three semesters of Japanese. In the summer after my sophomore year, I went to Tokyo for three weeks studying abroad through the Global East Asia program, and I was able to spend the rest of the summer in Kumamoto in Southwestern Japan doing physics research. I was able to do this because I do research with a USC professor, Aiichiro Nakano, who’s Japanese, and he collaborates with a professor at Kumamoto University so he was able to set up this opportunity for me. If I hadn’t have spent those 3 weeks in Tokyo, then I wouldn’t have known I wanted to live there.
So now for the hard-hitting questions: How much was your Google internship actually like The Internship?
Well, you aren’t competing with the other interns like in the movie. You work on a team with full-time people, but there are programs to meet the other interns.
If everyone does a good job and passes their technical interviews, then everyone will get a full-time offer. They aren’t limited in the number of people that they can hire.
Is the food as good as it looked in the movie, though?
It was so good, and it’s all free! There were three cafeterias in the New York office, and then they opened a fourth one two weeks before I had to leave; it was depressing because the new one was so good.
There was also a guest sushi chef who came twice a week, and it was the best sushi I’ve ever had. The food I eat at school is pretty terrible because I can’t cook.
What was the coolest thing that happened over the summer?
There was an early screening of Guardians of the Galaxy for Google employees in the New York office, and the next day they got Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana, and Chris Pratt to come for a Q & A! I was like six feet from Vin Diesel so that was really cool.
Do you have any advice for underclassmen?
Get involved in research working with a professor; it’s a really valuable experience. If you go to office hours and talk to your professors about what you’re interested in, then they can help you find something because professors know each other. I told Professor Kempe that I was interested in high performance computing and supercomputers, and he put me in touch with Professor Nakano.
If you’re interested in computer science, please participate in the USC programming contest (contest.usc.edu). You’ll get to see problems that are more difficult than the ones in technical interviews so the interviews will be much easier. I only solved one out of six problems at my first couple contests, but I got to see and work on all of the other problems, and that was a really valuable learning experience.
Try to go abroad over the summer if your major doesn’t let you go for a full semester. The summer that I spent in Japan really changed my life.
Not only does Evan do ten hours of research each week in addition to his coursework, he also somehow gets plenty of sleep (generally 8 hours!) and makes time for movie screenings at the Cinema School.
I’ve really enjoyed being at USC because there are free screenings open to anyone, and I mentioned how much I love film. I try to go to those once or twice a week. It’s a unique opportunity here that I think more people should try to take advantage of.
(Check out cinema.usc.edu/events, and you can get on their email list.)
His love of learning will no doubt take him far, as it already has. He has even begun learning about pure math simply out of intellectual curiosity!
Professor Len Adleman does pure math research, and I started sitting in on his research meetings after I took his algorithms class. He’s like a philosopher and just a really interesting guy. He’s also the A in the RSA public key cryptography algorithm which is how https connections work whenever you connect securely to a website.
Last week, we went on another great hike, yesterday was Evan’s birthday, in a few days, it’s his graduation, and in a few short weeks, he will move to Tokyo to start his career. Needless to say, this is a very exciting time and I believe the best is yet to come.
In his own wise words,
“In physics, people search for truth in the universe. In math, people just search for truth.”
I want to wish Evan the best of luck in his search, (though, of course, he does not need it), and safe travels as he embarks on this new journey. The entire Trojan Family is so proud of you and all the amazing graduates and we look forward to seeing all you accomplish at Google and beyond!
Fight on, Evan! And thanks for the great advice and friendship!
-Grace
