Senior Google programmer on working in the US and skills necessary for IT specialists

Talai Jumabaev, 35 years old, city — Austin, @dtaalai

About Me

My name is Talai Jumabaev, I am from Kyrgyzstan, and I studied at the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics in Saint Petersburg. I have worked at many international companies, and for the past four years, I have been working at Google as a Senior Software Engineer.

The Beginning of My IT Journey

My journey in IT began with the International Mathematical Olympiad. At university, I made simple games for myself and studied programming. Since I understood that practical experience was necessary because the theory provided at university was insufficient, I constantly interned: I completed two internships in Cambridge, England, and started working in my field during my fourth year. I have been programming for over 15 years now.

About the Profession

My specialty is highly loaded scalable systems. For seven years prior to this, I built such systems on Wall Street, and I came to Google also because of the scale. On Wall Street, we had billions of events per day, while at Google, there are trillions of events per day. The cost of a mistake in such work is very high, but on the other hand, the value of optimization is also very significant, meaning you can win millions of dollars through small changes.

About Mentoring and Social Projects

Aside from my work at Google, I have a social project called "Eneler-Maria." This is a project on mindful child-rearing for mothers and teachers. The project has been operating in Kyrgyzstan for three years, and we plan to launch in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan next year. This is a non-profit program funded by me and my friends.

I also run a mentoring program where I help people achieve career breakthroughs: both beginners and established professionals holding positions such as Team Leads and Directors participate in it. An individual plan is created for each person, where they can learn and understand how to get a promotion, join an international company, and much more.

Recommendations for Beginners

In the modern world, there is hardly any business without IT; this field will always be needed everywhere, and everyone needs to know at least basic programming. But if you want to become a great programmer, you need to work hard. Working hard means going through difficulties and surviving the "valley of death." Often, young specialists need help and support from senior colleagues who can help resolve various issues.

Getting Hired at Google

When I was looking for a job in America, I applied to various companies: as a result, I received seven offers out of seven. To achieve this, I prepared according to my own system for about two months. And it is precisely this system that I teach people during mentoring.

The selection criteria at Google are interesting. The more experience you have, the higher the expectations. It is easier to get into top companies when you are a student. For this, you simply need to get an interview. To get a job as a beginner, you need to have basic knowledge of Computer Science. But the more experience you have, the harder it is to get hired there, because the company has the idea that they should hire only the best. And if you were not the best at your previous workplace and did not achieve any heights there, this indicates that you are not the best.

For top companies, employees are talents they invest in. Google conducts a thorough selection of candidates due to high demand, and if you fail even one of the seven interviews, you simply will not be hired.

Required Skills

The ability to negotiate with stakeholders is one of the most important skills. The more complex and larger the systems you build, the more you need to interact with neighboring teams, users, and other clients who are interested in this product. The ability to explain and justify your decisions is an important skill.

It is also important to develop emotional intelligence. The IT industry is an international field, and any person, of any race, with any faith and background, can become your colleague. Therefore, it is always important to treat everyone with understanding and respect.