Let me start this by saying that 3 months ago I had never programmed anything before. Yes, besides an Introduction to Programming class done in 2013 at Codecademy (9y ago), my first 'Hello World' was on April 21, 2022.
Now last Saturday (Jul 7, 2022) - just two and a half months later - I was googling some Python question I had and suddenly, the search bar unraveled and a this blackish banner appeared!
I honestly thought it was some kind of Google's homepage commemorative day and moved on with what I was doing but, fortunately (!), something caught my attention and I decided to left that tab open to come back later, only to realize that it was a Google Foobar Challenge!
For those who are not familiar with the challenge, this is Google’s invite only secret hiring process for programmers and developers all across the world, that you can do with Python or Java.1
Apparently that are only two ways to do it, one is trough Direct Invitation (like happened to me) and the other is with a Personal Invitation sent by someone who had previously participated. Once invited, you get to solve coding challenges and if you complete them, some say you'll get a shot at a direct interview with Google.
I am pursuing a new career and I've been learning programming, doing AoC and CodeWars so, as soon as I realized what it was, clicking at I want to play was a nobrainer!
There are 5 levels in total2 to complete and so far I've solved Level 1 and challenge 1 of Level 2. Once you request a challenge, the clock starts ticking and you're in for a ride!
I don't know where this will take me and I have no illusions here. I'm not a genius and probably wont be at their desired level but so what? This is freakin' awesome anyway!!
I'm very excited with the challenge itself, but also very happy and proud of what I've accomplished. I can look back and humbly say that (so far) I've solved 2 challenges of Google and damn, that feels good :)
Level 1 status
Level 2, Challenge 1 status
Lastly, a special thanks to my Senpai, Kiwi, who have been challenging me for the last couple of months! Without your mentoring, I wouldn't had made such progress in such short time. Thanks man!
So I am a subscriber of The Pragmatic Engineer and lately, Gergely Orosz (the autor), have been talking about hiring freezes and Layoffs across the industry. Most recently he shared that "Google put a two-week hiring freeze in place" and this week (The Scoop #20) he stated that "Google froze entry-level (L3) software engineer positions entirely.".
Well this means only one thing for me: opportunity! I'll have more time to prepare myself!
Whitout this freezing, my odds of being called for an interview, were already minimum, I would even say, almost null. Now I'm sure are zero! So, instead of keep doing the challenges that I still have ahead, I'll take this as an opportunity to buy me some time, learn, become better, get stronger while waiting for better news. Then, when the wind changes, I'll be more prepared and have better odds (At least not zero 😅).
So, if you're reading this, no, I did not gave up. I will catch the 🐇 😁
I'll keep in touch! Enjoy your holidays!
Footnotes
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https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/google-foobar-googles-secret-hiring-process-bc92f011c6ad#:~:text=What%20is%20Google%20Foobar%3F,individual%20who%20cleared%20the%20challenge. ↩
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Please notice that as there's no official source about this challenge, the information posted here is from my own experience and from what I've found on-line from other users. ↩