As arguably the most desirable tech company to work for, Google is surrounded by myths about the “impossible Google puzzles.” But most of these are just that: myths. As any Google insider will tell you, Google has no interest in discovering what you would do if you were nickle-sized and stuck in a blender. Seriously. [...]

Though awards could be a selling point of your resume, for most people, they fall sort of… flat. A typical “awards” section on a resume looks something like this: Alpha Nu Scholarship Recipient (2010). 1st Place, Innovation Award (2009). Although the second bullet is a bit better than the first one, both are fairly meaningless. [...]

I get this question so often that it’s worth posting the answer more publicly. The question goes something like this: I had 5 interviews for a software development position. 4 went really well – I got all the answers perfectly. I bombed the fifth one though. I don’t think I got the best solution, and [...]

In the desperate fight to recruit engineers, start-ups and major companies alike are trying to spruce up their job descriptions with titles like “Code Ninja” and “Rails Rockstar.” It turns out that, by and large, engineers aren’t fooled by this. If anything, they’re turned off by this language. Cute things like Ninja make me think [...]

There’s no grabbing intro story here. No great quote. And no numbered top-10 list. There’s just some simple advice: don’t join a start-up when you graduate. Or, at least, don’t join a small, unknown start-up if you can instead get into one of the top big tech companies. The problem with joining a start-up when [...]

“Self-publishing” is a strange word. It’s hip and sexy in one way – people love disruptive technologies. At the same time, no one wants to be known as being a self-published author. Getting professionally published is hard and self-publishing is “easy” – or at least that’s what most believe. As someone who has enjoyed success self-publishing and professionally publishing, let [...]

Liberals and conservatives alike are looking over their shoulder and laughing at the “Occupy” movement. It’s not because of what their demands are, but rather because of their demands are everything and nothing at the same time. Fundamentally, their core frustration is not a political one, but an emotional one. They’re sick of feeling ignored [...]

The 5th edition of the best-selling programming interview prep book, Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Interview Questions and Solutions, is officially on sale. And even better – Amazon is currently running a 20% sale on the book! Now, I know you’re used to new editions being a couple little fixes here, packaged in a [...]

Through CareerCup’s resume review, my time at Google and other companies, and the occasional favor for a friend, I’ve seen hundreds of resumes. Each time, I see the same mistakes. I’m not talking about subtle little wording tricks; I’m talking about the massive issues that all too many resumes have. Think your resume is “good enough?” [...]

Forbes recently posted an article by me called “10 Secrets to Getting a Job at Apple, Google, or Microsoft.” Here are three of my favorites: Start Something: Launching a small tech company, or just a project, can demonstrate virtually everything a tech firm wants to see: field expertise, passion for technology, initiative, leadership and creativity. [...]