Google Résumé, The

by Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Vanessa Hart (Reading)

The Google Resume is the only book available on how to win a coveted spot at Google, Microsoft, Apple, or other top tech firms. Gayle Laakmann McDowell worked in Google Engineering for three years, where she served on the hiring committee and interviewed over 120 candidates. She interned for Microsoft and Apple, and interviewed with and received offers from 10 tech firms. If you’re a student, you’ll learn what to study and how to prepare while in school, as well as what career paths to consider. If you’re a job seeker, you’ll get an edge on your competition by learning about hiring procedures and making yourself stand out from other candidates.


Covers key concerns like what to major in, which extra-curriculars and other experiences look good, how to apply, how to design and tailor your resume, how to prepare for and excel in the interview, and much more
Author was on Google’s hiring committee; interned at Microsoft and Apple; has received job offers from more than 10 tech firms; and runs CareerCup.com, a site devoted to tech jobs
Get the only comprehensive guide to working at some of America’s most dynamic, innovative, and well-paying tech companies with The Google Resume.

Genres: Business, Technology, Nonfiction, Programming, Computer Science, Self Help, Google

MP3 CD

First published January 25, 2011

About the author

Gayle Laakmann McDowell is the founder / CEO of CareerCup, and the author of Cracking the PM Interview, Cracking the Coding Interview, and Cracking the Tech Career.

Gayle has worked for Microsoft, Apple and Google as a software engineer. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Computer Science, and an MBA from the Wharton School. She currently resides in Palo Alto, CA.

Reviews

[Rod Hilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Decent advice in here and good material, it gave me some insight into some "behind closed doors" aspects of Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon's hiring process. It was worth reading for someone interested in a job at one of these big companies.

I think overall the book skews more toward college students and recent graduates than folks like me who have been working in tech for a while. There were plenty of parts that I just skimmed because I felt like they didn't apply to me.

I felt like the advice in general skewed young as well, and I kind of felt like the author did too. There was one section of a Q&A where the question was something like "my parents tell me I should take down all the facebook pictures of me underage drinking, are they right?" and Author Gayle McDowell's response was not to bother, if anything underage drinking makes the submitter look more sociable which Google might want to balance out all their nerds. Uh, no dude. Delete the pictures. Holy smokes what terrible advice.

Overall, book was full of good insider info but for someone at my point in my career there was a lot that didn't apply. I'd definitely recommend it to younger folks or college students who want to get into one of these big companies, and it's worth a quick skim for graybeards like myself.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely fluffy. Some good content, but could've been 30 pages long, rather than 200.

[Sandhya Chandramohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gayle Laakmann McDowell is a household name in the world of Tech recruiting, an ex-Googler, Microsoftie and Appleite. This book is more of a companion book to her better known book "Cracking the Coding interview" and gives every aspiring Googler/Microsoftie/Appleite an inside look into what life is like at one of the Big 5, how their recruiting process works, how to approach each stage of it and general career advice to top it all. A valuable resource for every engineer looking for a career change.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I opened this book I assumed that my reaction to it would be somewhere in the spectrum from 'meh - another useless would-be advice book', to 'I hate this and everything about it'. I thought the latter was a possibility because in the blurb photo the author looks like an earnest Young Republican (not a good thing in my world), and early in the book we learn that she comes from a wealthy family: 1/3 of her high school classmates went on to ivy league schools; her mother is a CEO. In other words: a privileged one percenter. Oh, and she's writing this book based on 3 summer internships at Microsoft and Apple, and three years employment at Google.

But much to my surprise I found this to be a really excellent overall guide to getting hired at top tech companies. She offers a lot of specific practical advice (aimed at people in high school and college, mostly) about how to prepare oneself to be employable: focus on a relatively narrow area and really accomplish something in that domain; be really good at what you do; make sure that what you do is relevant to your future career.

She also stresses the importance of being prepared for the phone screen and on-site interviews. Prepare; practice; have a story for each statement in your resume (which implies actually knowing what's in your resume when you go to the interview - amazing how many people don't); prepare technically. Her idea of a 'preparation grid' is really interesting.

She also does a nice job of walking through typical technical questions for software engineers, and demonstrates five techniques for thinking about such problems.

I would probably give this book five stars if I didn't have lingering doubts about that whole Young Republican thing.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't gone through the technical interview process and wants a technical job - it's pretty accurate (and not just for the big name companies listed in the title).

For people who've been there, done that - it's a good refresher if you need it. I find it useful as a checklist of things to be on top of (the "must know" data structures, algorithms, concepts, etc.).

The website has alot of useful information as well (careercup.com), resume template and sample interview questions.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised, although I agree with some of the other reviewers - if you've been around the block a time or two, don't expect anything new or earth-shattering.

[Marjori Pomarole · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone in the interviewing process. Already update my resume with her advices. Now I need to start reading her Cracking the Code book . Just wished it was on the Kindle :)

[Bob Kozik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing particularly special, these days you can get a lot of the information contained in the book free on the Internet, but in saying that, it's not all in one convenient place the way it is in this book. You'd have to really absorb yourself in a career forum like /r/cscareerquestions for weeks or months to really get the same level of knowledge of the process.

Another thing worth pointing out here is that paying somebody to write a resume is a real thing, and they already take into account a lot of the information from this book on composing a really solid resume. If you're smart of financially in a decent position you can outsource a fair bit of process.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read (if you don't stop and try to think out the sample interview questions / brainteasers). Gayle's writing style is clear and concise.

The advice for resumes, interviews, etc. is nothing I haven't read before, but she presents it well, with specific examples that one can follow, and adds some embellishments relevant / specific to the big tech companies.

I also liked the short Q&As at the end of every chapter.

[Lastoadri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coincidence alone lead me to this book, and I have to thank my luck.

[Eugenia Turculet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, like many other book of its kind, is a very useful book if the steps are followed.
The structure of the book helps make it clear how to choose activities strategically, both in terms of internships and extracurriculars.

[Ahmad Hussain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can be considered a handbook for building a great resume and it contains great advice for both professionals and students and I'll certainly be re-reading several parts of it again.
The book is similar to other Gayle Mcdowel's books when it comes to getting ready to apply to top tech companies but with more emphasis on building a great resume.

However, the book is very similar to Gayle's book "Cracking the Tech Career" that many chapters share the same name, so it's not worth reading the whole book if you have read "Cracking the Tech Career" before.

[Vishesh Agarwal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated the book.
This book basically says to get into Google, everything you do in your life, think about will this get me into Google.
I despise such thinking.
I tore the book into pieces and burnt it. I feel better now.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly - I felt like this book was far more helpful to me than "What Color is Your Parachute?" A ton of helpful information that was interesting and easy to read.

[Maxat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for people who are inexperienced with US tech job ecosystem. 13 chapters cover a lot of material. First chapters focus on which courses to take that’ll help you land a dream job at tech giant. Chapters in the middle focus on application and interview process. Last chapters focus on steering your career in the right way to land a dream job. Although hiring process is extremely stressful and diverse, the author does a tremendous job helping applicants focus on really important stuff. For example, whatever question recruiter asks, keep in mind that recruiters want to know two things when they pick up your resume:
1. Where would you fit at our company?
2. Would you do a good job?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s well structured, easy to read and full of practical advice.

[Tram Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend for those who want to get into the tech industry but still new to the field (myself included). Reading this makes me feel so naive back when I made my first attempt blindly applying for these companies. I didn't know job searching and applying have their own working system that not a lot of people knows about. The author wrote with such a witty tone yet not sugar-coated about anything, which I really love and feel so connected with her. I'm in the middle of learning and applying for jobs, which would be a perfect opportunity to see if her advice will do me any good :) 5*/5*

[Stephen Masters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book, I've wished I had it at the start of the university. It doesn't only cover the right resume structure, but also the career navigation to have an actual good resume that companies like Google would be interested in.

There are two main messages:
It is important to have some projects done, ideally those should resemble actual products.
Second, when reasoning about accomplishments, the candidate should think in the following way: I've made the feature X, that improves Y, to gain the value of Z.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author penned several other tech job haunting guides, including the well-known Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions, this book. This book could be a starting point for reference regarding mindset and planning to find a tech job.

[Alexhunter969 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A resume for companies such as Google or Microsoft should be written very harmoniously and attractively, and ats resume checker will help you quickly obsolete all your inaccuracies and unnecessary information in it, so be sure to use this service and then you will definitely get the desired position.

[Emilia Greendevald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep your resume to one page if you have less than 10 years of experience. Be selective with what you include. Prioritize quality over quantity. For this purpose, I recommend using a free resume builder. A concise resume demonstrates clarity and focus. It’s better to be impressive with less than dull with more.

[Johny Wuijts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, taught me a bit about every aspect of finding, getting, keeping, and changing jobs. Recommended for anyone starting out on their job searching journey (and not just for people who want to work at Google or other big tech companies).

[Abhi Chaurasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains Some key Insight points which could be beneficial for the Reader. Though the book is a bit boring at certain points, I would still recommend it!

[JR Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been a 3 stars, but I realized that a lot of the content is repeated in the later Cracking the Tech Career. Just read that, instead.

[Vibhor Rawal · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading her second book, I understand why Gayle is such a popular name in hiring in tech industry.

Followable advices, and well thought out before writing. This book can be read by people not just to improve their resume, but to understand the hiring process and leverage the insights.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bible for software engineers until they become manager or lead.

[Ben Stenhaug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing revolutionary but a good skim to surface good ideas most people know but can get lost in the shuffle

[Federico · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I read a few reviews complaining that this book is a copy of another book from the same author, this is the first one I read from her and I found it full of good advices.

[Helen Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some great tips in this book from an insiders perspective.
The assumed audience is recent grads. I wish the author scoped the content for a larger audience.

[Talie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice read for someone starting a tech career. Good pointers about job searching and career development.

[Rameswar · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books on resume making among all the articles or books I have read regarding effective resumes. This book helped me throw away my old resume just to create another one single page resume embedding my day to day activities effectively nonetheless also quantifying my efforts. The first job that I took with this, the interviewers complemented me that they've not seen a single page resume before. I was glad reading this book and taking effective cues and applying it to my cv.

PS: Could have been shorter few pages.

[Michael Koltsov · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all i should say that i deeply appreciate what Gayle Laakman usually does. Last year i spent a lot of time on her careercup.com website. Also i’ve read another book of her, which is «Cracking the coding interview». After that don’t blame me if i’m too much biased.

What this book is about is obvious if you’ve read it’s title. The book is about how to write a resume to take a job in one of the top-notch tech companies of our time. There’re not so many companies every fresh grad dreams about, but the author promises that after reading this book you would certainly land on an interview in one of them.

Is it true? If you’ve reluctantly searched for a job for a year or two this book is definitely not for you. First of all i believe that Gayle’s main audience are not-so-long-graduates or those who search for their first IT job. The main reason for that is a fact that Gayle doesn’t write anything new for an experienced job seekers. Things she says may seem obvious for those who’s got some job experience corollary some experience of searching for a new employer.

If you’ve eagerly read all Lifehacker’s and LinkedIn job searching articles for a month or two you would get much more experience in writing a resume. But if you don’t have so much time or your skills seems a bit rusty this book is a perfect resource!

It’s doubtfully that you can find all the recipes Gayle Laakman writes in her book in one place. I’m sure you won’t be able to read all these books or articles in a day or two. This book i’ve read for a few days. If you need a quick source for refreshing your job-placing experience i would totally recommend this book to you.

SCORE 3/5