Google Student Blog: My Path to Google: Jesse Melhuish, Software Engineer

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My Path to Google: Jesse Melhuish, Software Engineer

September 20, 2017

Welcome to the eighth installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.
Today’s post is all about Jesse Melhuish. Read on!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I grew up in a small town in Kentucky called Berea, which is known for its arts and crafts as well as Berea College. I then attended the University of Kentucky and earned a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Computer Engineering. Outside of work, I like to go hiking when I can, collect Lego sets, play racquetball, and read. I’m also deeply interested in Computer Science education and try to encourage high school students from my hometown to pursue computing.
What’s your role at Google? I'm a Software Engineer (SWE) on the Newsstand Web team, which delivers the Newsstand WebApp found at newsstand.google.com. I'm just getting started on this team, but I’m excited about all of the improvements planned for the news experience.
What inspires you to come in every day? Lower income areas, such as my hometown, can be greatly benefited by Google's products and I enjoy knowing that indirectly I can help with that. I’m really excited about the spread of Chromebooks that should help to improve access to technology, and I recently found out (while working on Docs Offline) that the high school I went to switched to Google Apps for Education!
Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process? Google has been where I've wanted to work since almost middle school. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it through and would need to work locally for a few years and apply again, so I didn't apply until I was contacted.
How did the recruitment process go for you? I was contacted by a recruiter that got my name from a friend that had applied my senior year of college. I went through the hiring process during November/Christmas/New Years and had a lot of anxiety — decisions were delayed due to people on vacation and end of year hecticness.
What do you wish you’d known when you started the process? I wish I would have had more examples of my work to be able to show on my resume.
Can you tell us more about the resources you used to prep? I did practice coding problems for about three days leading up to my phone interview.
To finish, do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers? Don't assume you're not good enough, or you'll panic or not try in the interviews. On the opposite side, don't assume you don't need to prepare. Most likely you're good enough to make it, but you should also refresh yourself beforehand.
Want to learn more about the Engineering Residency? Watch our video, or head over to g.co/EngResidency. Ready to apply to the residency? We're currently accepting applications at https://goo.gl/rhBmj1.