High School Student to SDE at Google: Career Journey

Hi everyone! I’m going to tell you how I went from a curious 10th grader to a Software Development Engineer (SDE), which is a fancy way of saying I build software!

Finding My Path (10th Grade):

In 10th grade, I loved figuring out tough problems in math and science. Maybe it was a mind-bending puzzle or a cool science experiment that got me hooked. This love of solving things lead me down the coding path.

Choosing My Subjects (11th & 12th Grade):

By 11th grade, I knew I wanted a job that used my problem-solving skills. So, in 12th grade, I picked science classes. Subjects like physics, chemistry, and especially computer science gave me a strong foundation in thinking logically and introduced me to coding.

Making Coding My Thing (12th Grade):

School was a good start, but I wanted to learn more about coding on my own. I started playing around with beginner-friendly coding languages like Python or C++ (depending on what your school offered). There’s a ton of free stuff online to help you learn, like tutorials and even giant online classes! The best part? Building stuff, even if it was just a simple game or a program to make things easier, felt amazing!

College and Beyond (Becoming an SDE):

After 12th grade, all this coding love convinced me to get a degree in Computer Science or something similar, like Information Technology. These programs teach you everything you need to know about building software, from the ground up, like how to organize information and solve problems with code, and different coding languages. I started my preparation early on and signed up for the JEE preparation course. Luckily I got into my dream college IIT Bombay. College was tough, no denying there but I got to work on cool projects and met some amazing people who too were passionate about coding like me. I got placed in 2 companies one of them being Google. I have always fancied working for Google because of the brilliant team of engineers they have and the work culture. I have pretty much living my dream life ever since.

Why SDE?

There wasn’t one big moment that made me pick SDE. It was a bunch of things. I love solving problems with code, and being able to create something real from scratch is super motivating. Plus, the tech world is always changing, so there’s always something new to learn and keep things interesting.

Beyond School

Learning doesn’t stop after school! Joining coding contests, hackathons (where people come together to code for a short time), or even helping to build existing software projects (open-source projects) are awesome ways to get hands-on experience, show off your skills, and meet other coders.