Google Engineer: How to get a tech internship through strategic networking

It's no longer enough to simply cold-apply, said Aashna Doshi, a two-time intern who is now a software engineer at Google . To land a spot at a tech giant, you need to network purposefully and strategically.

"Knowing who you want to meet, finding the common ground between the two of you, and then really learning from their experiences was a huge turning point for me," Doshi explained in an interview with Business Insider (BI).

Doshi suggests approaching not only people whose career paths you want to emulate, but also those with whom you have commonalities, including similar personal experiences.

"I was talking to a number of people and saw this software engineer working from Europe, and I was very inspired by her story," Doshi says. He continues, "She was also a woman. I love seeing other women in the tech industry, and she's European, too. I grew up in Belgium, so that's kind of my connection to her."

Although Doshi ended up receiving a recommendation from the engineer in Europe, she said she hadn't originally thought of asking for a recommendation.

She added that reaching out with genuine interest in someone's career has a twofold benefit: You're likely to learn more from a less stilted conversation, and the connection you make could last throughout your career.

"I reached out to her to learn more about her story, not as, 'Hey, can I get a recommendation from Google?'" she said. "I had no intention of asking her for an internship recommendation, but we became friends, and she let me in on her life, what her day-to-day work is like, and how she's growing in her role."

Doshi added that professional relationships, like any other relationship, are based on reciprocity, which also helps them last.

"As we move forward in our lives, I think about the fact that we're gathering people and supporting people," she said. "And the people who go the whole way are the ones you build a real bond with. If you ask someone for a recommendation and they give it to you, that's all well and good, but in five or 10 years, they might not even know who you are."

"Because you're usually taking the same courses as your competitors, what matters most is what you do with that knowledge," says Aashna Doshi. Own projects are crucial: "That's the one thing I always recommend to every student."

The Google engineer attributes her success in finding an internship in part to the projects she developed in her free time.

"This is how you can differentiate yourself from a thousand others," Doshi told Business Insider. "If you're learning data structures and algorithms—and everyone else is—you have the same foundation. But what you do with it is what makes the difference."

"There's also no pressure to specialize in a niche skill right from the start to impress potential employers," says Doshi. What you're really aiming for is a broad knowledge base and a flexible personality.

"They (recruiters) don't expect you to have tons of experience," she said. "It's more about whether you can think in a certain way and whether you're able to adapt to a changing situation. I didn't just ask 700 LeetCode questions and answer them exactly right, but I tried to find more problem-solving in an adaptive sense."

Once you finally get an internship, the challenge is to get an offer for a full-time position.

In Doshi's case, she did her best to integrate into the teams she was assigned to—being the go-to person for a specific issue can help you stay in the minds of senior staff and slowly build a positive reputation.

"If they have a mistake and they trust you enough to say, 'Oh, Aashna, you've done something like this before. Why don't you record it?'" It's not just that they're giving you work. It's that they're saying, 'Oh, we trust you to take on something like this.' So being the person they can trust, being the go-to person, is an absolute game-changer."

Doshi also warns interns against isolating themselves. You're not expected to know everything, and you shouldn't try to pretend you do.

"As an intern, as everyone knows, you come into the company with less experience than the rest of the team. It's all about making progress," she says, adding: "The key is asking the right questions. Many people say there are no wrong questions. Maybe there are no wrong questions, but there are some questions that I think are better than others."

Knowing how to ask for help can be just as important as knowing when to ask. Doshi suggests asking questions in a way that shows you've tried to solve the problem yourself first.

"Do your due diligence beforehand, which means if you get stuck, ask the right person for help," she said. "I'll explain that I've already tried doing X, Y, Z, and it didn't work. How can I proceed?"

"After all, the goal of an internship is to learn as much as possible," says Doshi. Fear of appearing clueless shouldn't hold you back.

"This approach accelerated my learning process enormously—because I didn't waste hours on things I simply didn't understand or that didn't work," she explains. "I still did my homework: researched, worked through the code."