Google Student Blog: August 2017

My Path to Google: Zaven Muradyan, Software Engineer

August 16, 2017

Welcome to the sixth installment of our blog series “My Path to Google”. These are real stories from Googlers highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.
Today’s post is all about Zaven Muradyan. Read on!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I was born in Armenia and lived there for about seven years before moving to Dallas, Texas. After several subsequent moves, I eventually ended up in the Tri-Cities area of Washington, where I went to the local community college to study computer science and graduated with an associate degree. What’s your role at Google? I'm a software engineer on the Google Cloud Console team, working on the frontend infrastructure. In addition to working on framework code that affects the rest of the project, I also work on tooling that improves other developers' productivity, with the ultimate goal of improving the experience for all users of Google Cloud Platform. What inspires you to come in every day? My colleagues! It's a joy to work on challenging and large-scale technical problems with so many talented and kind people, and I am able to learn from my coworkers every day. I also get to work with several open source projects and collaborate closely with the Angular team at Google. When did you join Google? I officially joined Google a little more than two years ago. I had always admired Google's product quality and engineering culture, but prior to starting the recruitment process, I had never seriously considered applying because I didn't feel like I had the formal credentials. How did the recruitment process go for you? It started, in a sense, when one year I decided to try participating in Google Code Jam just for fun (and I didn't even get very far in the rounds!). A little while later, I was contacted by a recruiter from Google who had seen some of my personal open source projects. To my surprise, they had originally found me because I had participated in Code Jam! I was excited and decided to do my best at going through the interview process, but was prepared for it to not work out. I studied as much as I could, and tried to hone my design and problem solving skills. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the interviews, but when the time came, it ended up being an enjoyable, although challenging, experience. I managed to pass the interviews and joined my current team! What do you wish you’d known when you started the process? Prior to going through the interviews, I had the idea that only highly educated or extremely experienced engineers had a chance at joining Google. Even after passing the interviews, I was still worried that my lack of a 4-year degree would cause problems. Having gone through the process, and now having conducted interviews myself, I can say that that is certainly not the case. Googlers are made up of people from all kinds of different backgrounds! Do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers? Don't assume that you won't be able to succeed just because you may have a "nontraditional" background! Go ahead and apply, then prepare well for the interviews. What matters most is your ability to problem solve and design solutions to complex issues, so keep practicing and don't give up.
Can you tell us more about the resources you used to prepare your interviews? I started by going through "Programming Interviews Exposed," which acted as a good intro to my preparation. After that, I tried learning and implementing many of the most common algorithms and data structures that I could find, while going through some example problems from sites like Topcoder and previous iterations of Code Jam. Finally, one specific resource that I found to be very helpful was HiredInTech, especially for system design.

The results are in for the 2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge!

August 15, 2017

More than 600 professors and 12,000 students from over 65 countries competed in the 2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC)...and the results are in!
This year we introduced a new AdWords Certification award and algorithm evaluating performance across more campaign types, delivering some of the most impressive work seen in the history of GOMC. Check out our AdWords Business, AdWords Certification, and Social Impact Winners below, and reference our GOMC Past Challenges page for a full list of the 2017 Team Results.
Congratulations to the winners and a big round of applause for all teams that participated! Thanks to all of the support from professors and the thousands of students who have helped businesses and nonprofits in their communities, we have had much to celebrate together. Over the past 10 years, more than 120,000 students and professors across almost 100 countries have participated in the Google Online Marketing Challenge, helping more than 15,000 businesses and nonprofits grow online.
Though we are taking a step back from the Google Online Marketing Challenge as we know it and exploring new opportunities to support practical skill development for students, we are continuing to provide free digital skills trainings and encourage academics to keep fostering a learning environment that connects the classroom with industry. For resources that will help you carry on project work like GOMC, a place for sharing feedback to help us continue to provide useful student development programs and a way to stay updated on our latest offerings, visit our FAQ page on the GOMC website.

2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge Winners

AdWords Business Awards Global Winners

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Michelle Mullins, George Shtern, Caroline Galiwango and Raquel Sheriff

Client: Arts Council of the Valley

Regional Winners

Region: Americas

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Jonathan Nicely, Ken Prevete, Jessica Drennon and Jesse Springer

Client: Cradles to Crayons

Region: Asia & Pacific

School: University of Delhi | India

Professor: Ginmunlal Khongsai

Team: Prakriti Sharma, Raghav Shadija and Ankita Grewal

Client: Tour My India Private Ltd.

Region: Europe

School: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań | Poland

Professor: Wojciech Czart

Team: Michał Paszyn, Marek Buliński, Kamil Poturalski, Aneta Disterheft, Damian Koniuszy and Kamila Malanowicz

Client: SOLVE Elektronika

Region: Middle East & Africa

School: Kenyatta University | Kenya

Professor: Paul Mwangi Gachanja

Team: Peter Wangugi, Jackson Ndung'u, Selpha Kung'u and Antony Gathathu

Client: Garden of Hope Foundation

AdWords Certification Awards Global Winners

School: University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt | Germany

Professor: Mario Fischer

Team: Tobias Fröhlich, Lorenz Himmel, Sabine Zinkl, Thomas Lerch, Philipp Horsch and Maksym Vovk

Client: Garten Fräulein

Regional Winners

Region: Americas

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Nicole Carothers, Emily Vaeth, Annalise Capalbo and Brendan Reece

Client: Virginia Discovery Museum

Region: Asia & Pacific

School: Indian Institute of Management Indore | India

Professor: Rajendra V. Nargundkar

Team: Kalaivani G, Swathika S, Chandran M, Akshaya S, Sadhana P and Mathan Kumar V

Client: Bhalaje photography

Region: Europe

School: University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt | Germany

Professor: Mario Fischer

Team: Matthias Schloßareck, Michelle Skodowski, Lena Thauer, Yen Nguyet Dang, David Mohr and Sebastian Kaufmann

Client: Fred von SOHO

Region: Middle East & Africa

School: The Federal University of Technology, Akure | Nigeria

Professor: Ajayi Olumuyiwa Olubode

Team: John Afolabi, Adebayo Olaoluwa Egbetade, Olubusayo Amowe, Israel Temilola Olaleye, Raphael Oluwaseyi Lawrence and Taiwo Joel Akinlosotu

Client: Stutern

AdWords Social Impact Awards

1st Place

School: The University of Texas at Austin | United States

Professor: Lisa Dobias

Team: Kaitlin Reid, Ben Torres, Zachary Kornblau, Kendall Troup, Kristin Kish and Angela Fayad

Client: Thinkery

2nd Place

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Michelle Mullins, George Shtern, Caroline Galiwango and Raquel Sheriff

Client: Arts Council of the Valley

3rd Place

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Jonathan Nicely, Ken Prevete, Jessica Drennon and Jesse Springer

Client: Cradles to Crayons

Student Blog

My Path to Google: Zaven Muradyan, Software Engineer

The results are in for the 2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge!

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