Are You Ready for the Career Fair? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Our Visit to Google

…and I’m not talking about the homepage. 

 By: Rachel Redmond

Career Services Marketing Intern 

I can only imagine what Charlie felt like before he entered the Chocolate Factory but I felt something similar as we approached the Google office. The Career Services staff had the opportunity to tour the Google office in Ann Arbor location last Tuesday (July 23rd). 

Everything about Google excites me; their philosophies, their branding and especially how their products impact my daily life. (I’m writing this blog in a Google Doc.) If you logged on to your Oakland email today, you’ve used a Google product too since OU’s webmail is powered by Gmail. 

Two Googlers we met graduated from Oakland University in 2012. They shared some great insight with us about what it takes to get hired by Google and how they got their jobs.

Here are some key takeaways:

• Have confidence! No one will give you the job if you don’t apply for it.
• Exhibit a problem-solving attitude.
• Apply online. That’s how our alumni landed their jobs there.
• Google values; trust, integrity and diversity.
• They consider people with engineering and IT degrees but they also look at candidates from a variety of backgrounds as long as you have knowledge and passion for technology. 
• Google is doing things they don’t teach you in school so the ability to adapt is more important than the title of your major.

Rob, the corporate engineering manager, gave us a great tour and advice for students who are interested in opportunities. He told us that he sees a lot of basic resume and interview mistakes from talented people. That’s why it’s important for Google job seekers to present themselves as well-rounded individuals in a resume and interview and to show that you have the motivation to teach yourself technical skills. Do yourself a favor and work with Career Services to look over your resume. Then come see us to practice interviewing just in case everything goes according to plan.