Interview Assessment #1

Vandana Ganesh

Scanned notes on following pages

Name of Person Interviewed: Mr. Mike Truty

Profession: Cloud Solutions Architect, Technical Program Manager at Google

Location and Business Name: Google

*I do not currently have the exact address, which is why I emailed a thank you note.

However, I will attain his address in a following interview and update this.

Date of Interview: October 7, 2017

Time: 9:15 AM

I was extremely nervous prior to this interview as it was my first time talking
to a professional in my field and I did not want to make a bad impression. Therefore,
I was stressed out the entire morning- especially since I realized he had shown up an
hour earlier and emailed me at 8:17 AM that I can show up prior to our set-up
meeting time if I would like to. However, he also said it is fine if I cannot make it
until 9:15 AM. I, unfortunately, did not see this email until about 8:35 AM, so I was
only able to make it at 8:50 AM. While Mr. Truty did not mind as I was still early-
considering our scheduled time-, I made a mental note to keep my phone volume
the highest level possible the morning of interviews as I do not want to come across
as disrespectful. While this incident made me feel uncomfortable as I accidentally
kept a professional waiting, I greatly appreciate Mr. Truty for being so invested in
our meeting and understanding of the fact that I did not expect him to be that early.
Following this initial confusion, the interview was actually an amazing experience
and went really well. I learned a lot about how to be sure software development is
right for me, how to become a better programmer, what will be needed in the
software industry, and what colleges are good for my field.
Mr. Truty detailed his love of programming. He told me that when he was
young, his dad bought him a mini-computer, which helped him get interested in the
field. Additionally, since his dad was in hardware, he was used to seeing computers
and became curious. He recollected an anecdote about the time when he coded
simple if-statements to state that if one of his siblings entered their names, it
would print that the respective sibling is dumb. The practical joke just brought
him some fun. The anecdote also reminded me of basic programs I have written to
mess with my friends and younger sister. He then described to me about how
coding transformed from a method of messing with his siblings to a method of
solving all the logical problems he came across. After this, he transitioned into telling
me that the same excitement he had as a child is still in him and that passion is what
is important in pursuing a profession as a software developer. Mr. Truty encouraged
me to ensure that I truly enjoy programming as it is fundamental to software
development, and that without a love of programming, my career will seem
extremely dry. He currently works on a variety of software for Google, which is his
official programming pursuit, but he told me the importance of having a side
project.
Mr. Truty informed me that he constantly has a project to work on for fun and
that I should also do that in order to further my programming skills. He explained
that when I join the workforce, I should enjoy programming so much that I can
program take a break from programming my official work and program for fun. He
encouraged me to choose a language, stick with it, and code each day. He also
advised getting into the habit of saving all my code in an organized fashion. The
benefits of this are that code can be reused in the future and it makes you feel good
to have created something that you can look back at. This is something I definitely
need to work on. I find that although I enjoy coding, I do not not make the time for
it. A personal project could greatly improve my programming skills and provide me
with an outlet from other responsibilities. Additionally, I have had a bad tendency of
deleting code after I turn it in. This is illogical as I should keep my code to refer to as
I will be coding for the rest of my life. I, more importantly, need to develop an
organizational system for all my programs to motivate me to code and save code. He
also told me to keep a coding journal and write about what I worked on during the
week once a week and to increase the frequency of this practice over time. I do not
understand the purpose of this tip. However, I feel that logging my programming
will force me to reflect on how much time I actually spend and how productive I am.
Mr. Truty requested that I send some of my code to him so that he can have a look at
it and give me advice. I sent the Tetrad class from my Tetris project as that class has
a lot of methods that manipulate the tetrad. I also send Pig, a dice game that I made
during my Mobile Applications Programming. Additionally, I learned about where
most software developers end up, from his perspective, and where I should aim to
end up.
Mr. Truty drew a diagram to better explain this to me, and I attached a scan of
the diagram. He explained that the areas software developers go into are UI
programming (Swift, HTML, and JavaScript), Developer Tools, Systems (OSX,
Windows, Linux), and Logic (Math, Algortihms, Data Structures, and Machine
Learning). These are all the best places to be from his perspective. He told me that a
lot of programmers also go into Platform and Database programming. He cautioned
me to not fall into a trap of simply having the ability to code as this may force me
into coding to access and modify data from a database. While he agrees it is
important to know programming and database management, he told me too many
do that and the world is gearing towards solving hard problems. These hard
problems include graphs, scheduling, and tracking (such as in flights and orbits). He
also recommended that I take as much math as possible in college, so that I will have
the necessary tools to solve harder problems.
As for colleges, he told me to try colleges in various ranges and listed the
colleges best for computer science majors: Stanford, Caltech, MIT, Carnegie Mellon,
UC Berkley, Michigan, UWashington, University of Illinois, and Georgia Tech. He
said to keep UT Austin, UT Dallas, and USC as fallback schools. Mr. Truty also told
me to consider the research going on in colleges prior to accepting and check which
colleges research appeals to me.
 Overall, this interview went well. I truly appreciate Mr. Truty for the excellent
advice he gave me and will definitely keep it in mind for now and the future. This
interview opened my mind and allowed me to understand more about what the
career entails. Furthermore, since this interview was exceptional- I am considering
going to Mr. Truty for my mentorship.
(Scanned notes from interview below)