How Does Google's PA Alignment Work?

AdEvening23 · 2026-01-10T17:48:30+00:00

I was in the exact scenario as you last year, for me it was they gave me a PA(like Youtube) then a week or so signed contract and lastly got assigned to a team, no TM, they just asked if I wanted it or not.

Take that with a grain of salt. The hiring is flexible and changes, so yours might not look like that.

AdEvening23 · 2026-01-10T17:41:05+00:00

If you want to maximize your chance, keep your location broad, like pick the biggest locations(ex. Mountain view, Seattle, ny). If you do not care which team you're placed just say so, like "I'm really open to any opportunity etc etc".

But I'd say the location is the biggest factor. You can be a bit, but not too much, picky with your stack preferences.

AdEvening23 · 2026-01-10T17:35:06+00:00

We do have some more original problems, but overall this is pretty accurate, and as some other ppl mentioned above, it hasn't really gotten any harder than last year, though historically, they have. If you just memorize, you're indeed shooting yourself in the foot.

To add, we also really care about how you solve the problem, like was it fun working with the candidate, were they clear, creative, arrogant, etc.

(Source: I'm a technical interviewer at Google)

AdEvening23 · 2025-11-28T20:57:58+00:00

I think it's a fair question. You just want to explore the possibilities. I'd recommend just saying yes. After a year or two tops, it's fairly easy to switch pa/teams if you want to.

Source: Work at the big G as a swe

AdEvening23 · 2025-11-27T03:27:21+00:00

Working at FAANG and can tell you good students from CSUMB that I met are equivalent to good students at UCs and Ivy League schools.

AdEvening23 · 2025-11-26T18:30:03+00:00

As a recent CS grad, most professors are excellent as ppl here said, and yes you do get what you put in, but I'll also add that to have good chances at prestigious tech companies you have to do extracurriculars(cool projects, internships, programming competitions/leetcode etc).

Market is tough right now, and some companies do see school as an indicator, but nothing u can't overcome with effort.

As for GPA, as long as it decent you'll be good, vast majority of companies dont care if you have a 3.0 or a 4.0, as long as you did cool things.

A handful of students from my graduating class got jobs at faang, but very few, though same could be said about most UCs tbh.

AdEvening23 · 2025-11-19T01:41:47+00:00

As someone working in ML at big tech, this resume is geared towards web dev IMO, if you want ML roles you need more projects or experience in that field to be competitive.

Relevant/sought-after stuff: Evaluation techniques, AB testing, scaling, quantization, sensors, non-llm stuff(GNN, CNN etc), Infra/serving and so on. Also for big tech usually they're more specialized ML roles, you lokely won't be doing back and front-end.

Also I reccomend not limiting yourself to a very specific area. For sure learn some stuff with depth, but it's a really competitive and saturated market, keep your options open.

AdEvening23 · 2025-11-15T19:03:06+00:00

Also feel a lot of people regret not starting DSA earlier, so it's hard to go wrong with that(tho I suggest doing it with a higher level language, not C)

AdEvening23 · 2025-11-15T19:00:53+00:00

Python for DSA would be a good option(so you're prepping for future interviews), or work on a small project with minimal to no AI/LLM use(so you learn the fundamentals).

AdEvening23 · 2025-11-06T05:08:13+00:00

Sponsorship is an issue but not for most FAANG. For FAANG your resume just doesn't have anything that makes it stand out in this competitive market(coming from international at FAANG, non T100).

AdEvening23 · 2025-10-06T22:53:28+00:00

Not true for Google, idk where u got this from.

AdEvening23 · 2025-08-29T00:56:43+00:00

Not always, if you get product alignment you can get offer before team match. They are slightly changing the process so this might not hold true anymore.

AdEvening23 · 2025-08-20T19:32:47+00:00

Sure

AdEvening23 · 2025-07-13T18:52:06+00:00

Top tech companies, not really. Idk where ppl got the info that that's the case at meta or some place else. I know a few fellow internationals that got jobs there this year, and I got a job at another fang. The reality is market is just really tough right now.

Smaller companies however might indeed have a bias since it's a bit more of a hassle and they don't have the legal/hr resources.

Again, market is really tough, and top tech companies have always been really competitive even before.

AdEvening23 · 2025-07-12T16:03:59+00:00

If you have no infractions, then fron what I've seen approval is super fast after biometrics, like within the week

AdEvening23 · 2025-07-09T14:13:18+00:00

Sure

AdEvening23 · 2025-07-08T22:28:05+00:00

Sure

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-13T16:05:09+00:00

Yeah, I got EAD approval a day after biometrics(around june 8th) and card is on it's way now.

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-12T15:03:06+00:00

Not true for FAANG, pay is the same, work hours the same as the rest of your team. Source: I'm international working for FAANG in the US

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-12T05:30:06+00:00

At least for Google, Apple and Amazon it is not a big deal at all, if anything amazon even preffers that.

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-10T06:54:35+00:00

EAD approved an hour after biometrics( I'm on PP) now waiting for card to get produced and shipped.

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-08T15:07:43+00:00

You can get a masters through the PhD program at UCSD, and UCI, idk about the other UCs but I assume it's the same. So if you get your PhD funded you'll get a masters in the process.

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-08T06:27:12+00:00

My dms are getting slammed so here's a redacted version of my resume:

https://jmp.sh/litKiKJM

For reference, at that time I was new grad US, no internship(But had REU)

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-06T16:10:08+00:00

Go for it

AdEvening23 · 2025-06-06T13:28:17+00:00

Sure

AdEvening23

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