My Second (Non-)Interview With Google
A year ago, I interviewed with Google. Google has been my ideal employer for a while, and I greatly appreciated the opportunity and enjoyed the experience.
Unfortunately, my algorithm skills were not quite up to par. I was told to work on them and interview again in a year. Based on my own analysis of how well I did with the questions, I walked away from the experience with the impression that I was very close to getting the job, but not quite up to snuff.
When I had applied to Google in the first place, my attitude was that I probably wasn't good enough for Google and I would send my resume along just to "see what happens." After coming within inches of the job, I realized that I actually was good enough for Google (or at least, almost good enough). Discovering I was almost good enough for my dream job gave me a great deal of motivation to improve and try again.
The year following this experience was All About Google. I left my job to take a new job that I felt would help make me a better candidate at Google. I began doing TopCoder sessions in my spare time. I took on some extra projects. I purchased and read a number of books to help me become a better engineer, and I focused specifically on books about algorithms.