Yesterday, Google AlphaGo defeated the top players in Go, which was beyond the expectations of many people. I believe that everyone has been swiped, and the circle of friends cannot be calmed down for a long time. Today, I will not talk about Go, but about life. This article is about an interesting personal experience. A person with a high school education became the designer of Google Chrome through his own efforts. Behind the simple and unpretentious style of writing is a thorough and intelligent dry goods, which inspires some impetuous humans. Your original intention and the scenery along the way.
Personal experience
When I joined Google two years ago, a lot of people asked me to write an article about my experience and how I did it.
I promised to write but never got around to it. Maybe it's because I'm shy, maybe because I don't have the time, maybe I just think, probably wrongly, that my experience isn't that interesting.
I finally decided to face up to this promise and start writing.
I hope it's not too late to give you some help.
I will do my best to sort through my experiences and stories and draw some advice from them.
Oh, one more thing. This is not a Google job search guide. From my experience, this is basically impossible. The interview process (such as what questions were asked) will not be described in detail, nor will any confidential information be revealed.
The only topic of this post is to talk about some of my experiences before joining Google. I hope it helps everyone, even a little bit.
baguette and beret
If you don't know me, I'm 27 years old and born in a small town called Lagny around Paris, France. I spent the first 6 years of my life there before moving to live and study in Toulon, Hyères, Arles and Marseille in southern France.
Now, I'm a visual designer for Google Chrome and Chrome OS, living in San Francisco.
Learn
I got a high school degree in "Society and Economics", studied for two years at a normal polytechnic college, and then for another three years at a multimedia project management school.
What these schools and programs have in common is that they teach you some general ways of dealing with problems. It doesn't give you any expertise. Looking back, I think I was taught how to be a good Swiss Army Knife.
I started studying social sciences and economics, but also history and philosophy. Add a little math and I got my high school degree.
The next two years teach you everything you can do with a computer, monitor, and camera. From programming and design to video recording and videography. Very broad curriculum.
The last three years of multimedia management led me to a master's degree. Mainly about people management, projects, public speaking and... Dressing up.
Looking back, the longer I was in class, the fewer skills I learned to use in my day-to-day job.
Through school I realized what I didn't want to do.
School is not just teaching, not quite. It helps you open your eyes. I had forgotten most of what I learned in school, but it made me see and recognize what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do.
It's only after taking a course that you realize it's not for you.
I learned math before I found out that I hated it, and I learned programming only to find that I'm more interested in arranging pixels.
I was wearing a formal suit only to realize that I didn't want to wear this every day. I studied project management and people management before I realized that all I really wanted to do was spend all day doing Photoshop and listening to Hans Zimmer and Amon Tobin.
Maybe it's not the best way to see things, just my way. Don't get me wrong, I also learned a lot of useful stuff in school, but it was these things I hated learning that taught me the most important lessons, and they pointed me to my core competencies.
In every given project, I always apply to do the design part, and it's my sanctuary. I'm focusing on the same thing instead of trying to gain more knowledge.
In the five years since I got my high school degree, I gave up learning a lot of other things to get absorbed in the details of the interface.
Is this a good thing? I have no idea. I am not a fast learner. I'm good at this and I maximize my strengths rather than seeking to acquire a broader knowledge.
After talking about my studies, let's summarize what kind of person I am:
A dedicated interface designer with a focus on web and mobile design. I can put my ideas in front of people very relaxed and confident.
I had a schedule that consisted of an hour and a half of browsing the web, finding things on the web that inspired me, saving them, cataloging them, and then eight hours of visual design in Photoshop and Illustrator. Also, I am fluent in English, which is the key.
Work
My work experience and school life are closely linked. My first 3 years of multimedia project management studies were intermittent. I can only stay at school for a month and then work for a month at any other company that is friendly and willing to bring new people.
I've been fortunate enough that, in addition to serving the coffee, these companies have given me some hands-on work for which I'll be forever grateful. This is the most important thing I learned and I have no doubts about it:
The best way to learn is to work in an actual company and learn from the real people around you.
These people make a living from this, and the benefits of studying and working with them are many times greater than in school. More than any course, an internship will teach you what a real-life job is like.
I'm not saying that school doesn't learn anything. You need it to teach you the basics, book design methods and skills, but it's rare to be able to apply these learned principles to real-world situations and projects. For me, the best way to take a class is to combine school study with a corporate internship, at least in our field.
the first year
In the first year, I learned to print, do logo and ID design. From an intern's perspective, I did well. But by the standards of a professional designer, I suck. My work is messy and has a lot of errors. Fortunately, not bad, I followed the right person.
In your life, if you are lucky, you will meet people who help you grow. Standing on their shoulders, they will help you do many things you thought were out of reach.
That was my boss for the first year, we were a two-person company, and he had a lot of experience and was happy to share. He was patient and good at capturing my tiny talent and helping me make it bigger.
I wasn't expecting any of that, and I find it hard to meet someone who needs to make a living and is willing to help you grow both personally and professionally. I'm trying to pass on that spirit now, but I haven't reached that height yet.
This requires a very selfless spirit.
2nd and 3rd year
During the second and third year of the discontinuous study, I worked for another company. I left the first company because I needed to make more money and he couldn't pay an intern better, so I left.
The company was a small web agency started by a guy who got tired of following other people's orders and wanted to make something cooler for himself.
Let's pause for a moment and give a short piece of advice to aspiring designers looking for a job/internship:
Smile and engage.
It's that simple. At that time, I was still a shy boy, and when I introduced myself, I was a little lacking in self-confidence. It would be an understatement to say that my self-introduction was unimpressive. If it weren't for the support of my colleagues at this company, I think I would still be looking for an internship right now. Anxious to find a network job or pulling a network cable.
OK, back to the topic. Do you remember my first boss I mentioned earlier? Well, you can't answer here either. It's definitely lucky to have two great bosses in a row, lucky indeed. Luck is also a very important factor in a career, which I will talk about in a moment.
In the past two years, my visual design level has improved incredibly rapidly.
I work on a lot of different projects: from complex web designs to mobile apps. There is a good balance between self-learning and client projects. Work to earn money and also have some free time. I even did a lot of email design for Mass Mail, which I didn't think was great, but it made me realize what's really going on in the industry. This one is also important:
You may not always be particularly proud of what you do, but you can also learn something from it.
Just like in school, doing something you don't like will shape you and help you become a designer.
Fortunately, these jobs are rare. Most of the work is a challenging and interesting project for a young designer. Every project makes me grow quickly, because I have the freedom and responsibility. My boss is a safety net, like a knowledge wizard when I need him. He trusted me from the start and assigned me so many responsibilities that I felt involved in everything I did.
Create a safety net for the people you want to nurture. Make him feel his influence and control over projects and decisions.
I finished my studies while working full time for this company. I spent another year at Google before going to Google, and I loved every minute I spent here.
self-study
In addition to school courses and studying with professionals, self-study is an important aspect of your career. Some people say it's enough if you can teach yourself, especially in our industry.
If you are passionate about something, self-study is natural. If you're having fun learning something, then you're on the right track.
My favorite way to learn is to look at other people's work and learn from the material they share, which is why I still share material to this day. A kind of feedback.
There will always be someone more talented than you.
Look up to them and try to catch up.
Human Relations and Design Forum
One thing I need to tell you: I hate socializing with people. I did in the past. It got a little better later, but until now, I'm still pretty clumsy. I have a weird look on my face that can sometimes feel annoying. I don't know, maybe I do. But I think the main reason is shyness.
In conclusion, I learned early on that relationships are important for career development, especially in our industry. That's the beauty of the Internet, you can communicate with people without actually having to touch them. As a designer you can shape yourself, just join the forum and you can build your online presence. Even if you are alone on an island, you have as many chances to be recognized for your work as anyone else.
Of course this is not entirely true, a very extroverted person living in San Francisco will definitely have better relationships than a brown bear with poor internet connection living in a cave in southern France. But you see what I mean.
Luckily, I'm not a bear anymore, I have a good internet connection and wanted to share something. I use Tumblr to make a blog.
The blog is mainly used to share some design aspects and also write a lot of notes. Similar to personal photo sharing. There are few readers, but that's okay. I am enjoying it. One important thing about it:
If you are willing to share, even if the following people are really very few, as long as you like it, stick to it.
So I kept on writing my little blog, and then a larger French website about web design and designer inspiration got in touch with me. With it, my attention suddenly exploded. The blog has also gained more exposure. After seeing Orman Clark and his work on Premium pixel, I started switching from sharing inspiration to creating my own design assets, or "free services".
For me, this is a great way to improve, satisfying my pixel obsession and giving me something to share. I've learned a lot from other designers' free sharing, and it's my way of giving back. I even started writing instructions for use.
Then the owner of this blog site asked me the following questions:
"Would you like to be invited to Dribbble?"
Dribbble
Dribbble has played a big role in my career, and I think that's true for a lot of people. I joined it on March 6, 2011, and my first post made my followers soar. I also post a free design every week. It takes up a lot of time and I do very little every week other than work and create Photoshop items to share and update my blog. Doing so has brought me a lot of unforeseen opportunities. For a time, many people began to ask me to work abroad.
Oh, and google found me here too.
Freelance
I remember working for a website agency during that time. It was my first year working full-time and through Dribbble, the first order outside of France was received. The first copy I got was from a Swedish printing company. This is a big deal for me. My English is good and I can understand them, but we are talking about business. I had just come out of school at the time, and I didn't have much confidence in doing projects on my own.
So I proposed to my boss to make this job a company project. He can teach me the business part and I do the rest.
That's how my first "pick up" started.
From my experience, if you're a young designer and have the opportunity to actually do projects for people, take that opportunity. It can teach you a lot.
The project went well, they were happy with the results, my delivery was on time, and we had a great relationship. This project increased my strengths and I became more confident as I got out of my comfort zone and made it.
Getting out of your comfort zone will greatly improve your self-confidence.
I went ahead and posted my free templates on Dribbble, then spent half a day in Photoshop, designing mockup after mockup for website, email, iPhone apps, and iPad apps. I design everything from athlete videos to upload controls (why? I don't know). I am getting more and more attention and orders.
I have received projects from France, Denmark and the United States. Each has different application scenarios. From social platforms to DJ software.
With more and more orders, I started to filter the projects I wanted to do, and while receiving orders for the company, I also did a lot of projects myself. Everything went smoothly for one simple reason: all my orders came from Dribbble, those clients knew what they wanted, they had seen my previous work, and they knew what I could do. Being able to pick and choose clients is a luxury. I can do this because I still have a full-time job.
If you have the time and your circumstances allow it, it's a good idea to take some personal work while working full-time to see if it's right for you. Be careful though, as you may not have time to see the sun.
These clients also helped me do one very important thing, building a portfolio of representation. Which brought me here.
free work
I know this is a delicate topic. Every job should be paid. A lot of people are taking this opportunity to exploit young designers, I've been in situations like "I want a site like YouTube, $200 should be enough" or "Here are 5 more designers doing this project, I only pay for the one I choose."
Free work is to build your portfolio of representation.
Of course, the premise is that you have to be able to pay the Internet fee to do so. One advantage of doing this is that you can do the projects you want. You can do what makes you happy, which can serve as a reference for future job choices. If you follow the right people, it will also open more doors for you.
That's why I get a lot of free jobs, like the student club needs a poster, a small website, a small budget, but I know this guy, things like that.
When you're a student, when you're willing to work passionately for hours and try different things, do it. Yes, they'll get some stuff for cheap or even free, but, as a young designer, you'll get, invaluable experience, you just have to be serious.
Since you can pick your own clients, working for free is a luxury that doesn't work for everyone. I can do this because I have a supportive boss, family, and a full-time job. If you can, consider doing it, but for the right people.
"Want to chat?"
The year has passed and I have received my first recruitment email for a company in Spain. Kind of weird. For the first time, someone was willing to ask me to work for them, and it was a big foreign company. He wants to know if I'd like to "talk", and they want me to go to headquarters.
I actually told my boss about it and he said to me, "Go for it!" Remember the guy I mentioned earlier who helped you grow?
So I went and promised to chat there. why not? I don't particularly love the city I live in, I absolutely love my job that's for sure, but I see an opportunity to grow.
If you see an opportunity, but you have a tinge of uncertainty or "what if" in your head, that's ok, just let it go.
They reimbursed me for airfare and hotel room just to talk to me. I know to some people it sounds normal, but to me it's pretty incredible. In my world, clients are not willing to spend more than a few hundred dollars to design a website...and they are willing to pay for anything.
So I went to this interview and learned more about them. Soon I was thinking about maybe moving from France to Spain. It's not that far after all, and the people there are really nice. But a week after coming back, I got another email.
I think it's spam
As you may have guessed, this email is from Google. I thought it must be spam. It came so unexpectedly.
I replied anyway...you know...just in case.
It was a holiday in the US at the time, so it took 5 days to get a reply, which also made me more convinced it was spam.
It turned out to be true and I can't wait to know more.
At the beginning, I received a call from a Google employee, and after confirming some things, if the agreement was successful, I would be willing to move to the United States to work, and the recruiter notified me that I had entered the recruitment process.
At this point, I am grateful that I have spent so much time listening to various American dramas while working from home. Otherwise I would definitely not understand. Although still difficult, there is a real difference between passively learning a language and communicating with a real person, and a brief 2-week campus trip in the US at age 14 didn't help.
I think I was terrible on the phone, but obviously not so much, they still want to keep this recruiting going. The next step is a design exercise.
This part is very exciting for me. I have the opportunity to present my thoughts and present the processed video. It's really not the same feeling as working with clients before, maybe because its results will be about a change of fate...
I sent out the final version of the exercise, put my hands together, and prayed that I would get an affirmative answer instead of being ridiculed by them.
About two weeks later, they told me they wanted to meet me in person at Mountain View.
What am I going to do here?
At that time, my friend and I had planned to go to New York for two weeks four months ago. Like a 'we graduated' trip, we wanted to explore New York and America.
The confirmation email was received at this time. I stop at Starbucks twice a day, get on WiFi, and check email. I'm stating that I'm in New York right now, and it's better to meet up in two weeks, you know, so I don't have to cross the Atlantic and do it again.
They agreed, booked me a flight, and two days later, I was flying to a place I'd never been to, California.
I got off the plane in Los Angeles, and before I recovered, I was driving down the freeway in a rental car. This later became my daily commute. When the idea of "what am I doing here" entered my mind, I was on my first drive to California, passing a lot of city signs that said San Francisco, Palo Alto and Cupertino. For me this is an amazing thing.
The next day was an on-site interview. The interview went so fast that it was over before I felt it. One thing I remember is that between interviews, I was asked when I planned to join Google. I answered that I never thought about it, I never thought I would be here, it's a little bit unreal to me.
Looking back, it was a weird answer if that wasn't bad, but it's true. I'm too tired to think of what would be a good answer.
Be honest.
If you think about it, maybe that's the answer. It sounds corny, but I think it applies to a lot of situations, a lot of job applications. You might be able to get a good job at the right time with a good answer, but you're running the risk of not finding the right job, perhaps not for you or your employer.
I didn't forget to smile this time.
This is the end, I just have to wait for the final decision. I flew back to New York and looked back at San Francisco from the window, I had never been here before and was going to find a place to live here.
If you want to know more about Google Jobs, go here. You will find many useful details.
Lucky
I got a call on Friday. Ask me if I'm interested in joining the Chrome team. It could not be better. I gave an affirmative answer without hesitation. This site helped me, and now I'm going to help make it better. You might say I'm very lucky to be at Google. Luckily I learned what I wanted to do by studying, luckily I met two great bosses in a row, luckily I got an invitation from Dribbble and a Googler happened to be looking at my work, luckily they wanted to see mine I happened to be in the US at the time and luckily there were plenty of visas available when I applied, yes, you were absolutely right.
Luck plays a big part here, and if it weren't for it, I wouldn't be writing this here right now. Just to add:
Always be prepared, and if luck strikes, make sure you take your chances.
concluding remarks
I read the story myself, and it sounded like I was describing a fantasy story woven of rainbows, ponies, etc., and I was advertising it like a big fan. You may disagree with what Google is doing, and read it as a waste of time. These are just my own opinions.
I try to be as realistic as possible to restore my thoughts and events at that time.
I am grateful to be here, surrounded by people who are much smarter than me. Everyday is cool, right? Do not. It can be frustrating at times, and you may not agree with everything. You are part of a huge machine that operates at unimaginable speeds. It's also exciting.
Will I stay here forever? I don't know, I've had my ups and downs, but I do love Chrome, I love Chrome OS, I love my team and Google.
Now, I don't want to go anywhere.
I think just being here is an extraordinary experience, not just for Google but for the entire Bay Area. I try to remind myself that I'm just a pampered child. Deep down, I was thinking about putting me on the first plane back to France when they realized I might be a fake.
This article is transferred from: Code Agricultural Network