Google dream a reality for Victoria student

Google dream a reality for Victoria student

Victoria University of Wellington student Valerie Chan will learn from the top tech minds this summer as she interns at Google's Sydney headquarters.

After a long and rigorous application process Valerie, who has just completed her first year at Victoria studying computer science and mathematics, was selected for the Google STEP (Summer Trainee Engineering Programme) which runs from 24 November to 13 February.

Google encourages those who are often underrepresented in the technology industry to apply for STEP internships. This includes women, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities.

For Valerie, the opportunity to work for Google is not just a great way to spend her summer, it’s the reason she chose to study computer science. While still in secondary school, Valerie attended a talk at Victoria by Google representatives who mentioned the STEP internships.

“I had never written a line of code before and I’d been considering studying law, but the chance to work for Google made my mind up.”

Valerie sent in her application for the paid internship months ago and later she completed technical interviews over the phone before her application went to the hiring committee.

“An engineer from Google called me and tested my coding skills. The first time I had no idea what to expect but the second interview went really smoothly.”

Valerie prepared for her interviews by seeking advice from her engineering lecturers who helped her get a jump start on work she would be completing later in the trimester.

The preparation, interviews and waiting paid off for Valerie who will fly to Sydney at the end of this week to begin work on one of Google’s products.

“I’ve heard the first few weeks are a bit of a blur with so much to learn. It’s a bit scary but mostly exciting.”

The internship is paid and all expenses covered. Valerie and her fellow interns will stay in apartments near Google’s Sydney headquarters at Darling Harbour. Valerie hasn’t been there before but says was impressed when she looked it up on Google Maps.

She is looking forward to learning from the best and says even getting into the programme has changed how she sees her abilities.

“Just being accepted has already been a real confidence boost—sitting in my end of year exams, I felt like I knew what I was doing.”

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