Da Ingegneria Informatica al Politecnico di Milano a Google - Consigli e l'esperienza di Federico

Hi guys, today I'm back at the Politecnico di Milano because we're going to talk about a faculty that is very sought after here at the Politecnico which is Computer Engineering. It's not only sought after from the point of view of studies, it's also sought after from the point of view of the world of work. So we're going to talk to a guy who graduated in the third year, we're going to understand the curriculum, how the course is structured in general, what it prepares for, the skills that this course gives you and then the entry into the world of work with his experience in a Big Tech. Hi Fede! Hi Marco! How are you? All good, all good and you? Good, good, thank you. So, we're here at the Poli, you're not here anymore, right? I've been away for a few years now, but when I come back there's always a bit of nostalgia. Always to go back to how active the Politecnico is in terms of life. We're having an aperitif here, I don't know, there's also a beer pong. You should also go to the Spritz. But I would say that if the lessons were always like this, I would still be at university. In the meantime, I take this opportunity to tell you that we have opened Top Squad Poli.me. Together with other Politecnico guys who are already students of different years, of different faculties, you can enter the WhatsApp groups, talk directly with them to ask them some opinions on how life at the Politecnico is, and in general, life in Milan. If you are still undecided on what to do, or even if you are already at the Politecnico and you decide to live a little more actively, you want to meet more people, find in the description the link for Top Squad Poli.me, just fill out the form and you will be in the WhatsApp group. Ok, here we are, we are at the tripod, which is the part dedicated to mathematics. So, let's start from the basics. What does IT engineer mean? IT engineer in the Politecnico course in Milan, which obviously has the focus of giving IT skills to students, but not only provides IT skills, but also a large part, especially in the third year, of engineering skills. So, a student who is perhaps facing a lot of studies, finds himself in the first years with engineering-related subjects, so Analysis 1, Algebra, Logic, there are several subjects that are really identical. Then, more subjects are introduced from the IT point of view, with the third year that even the entire study programme can choose the student according to those that are of interest to him, also because IT as a subject has a lot of space in terms of the topics discussed. In IT engineering, it emerges that, being a very broad field, you can personalise the course based on your attitudes and your professional interests. There are still some formative links, also based on what one wants to do. For example, I remember that there was an obligation in terms of physics or chemistry subjects, because I wanted to continue with the master's degree, but usually the first year is fixed, the second year there is a choice in terms of subjects, and the third year tends to be more flexible in terms of the subjects of the course of studies. A question that everyone asks themselves, IT engineering is difficult? Yes, in fact, there is this opinion that IT engineering at the Politecnico di Milano is tough. What I think is that it is actually a challenging university, also because it is one of the best universities in Italy in terms of IT engineering, also in terms of ranking. The main obstacle is the transition from high school to university, where, of course, you have to have a different method of study, or in any case a less high degree of study, to those that are university-level, so you have to get used to it, you have to be able to learn and face subjects that are actually difficult, like Analysis 1, Algebra, Fundamentals of IT in the first semester of the first year. But in my opinion, once you can understand how to overcome these obstacles, you can understand how to prepare for exams, how to study, then the other years tend to be difficult anyway, but for sure there is no longer this clash between the high school phase and the university phase. If, on the other hand, you are already at the university and you have already entered the Politecnico, we have prepared some tips that you can receive in your emails, simply by going to the page that I leave you below in the description. So click, put your email, and all the tips will come to you to turn your university life around and live it 360 degrees and understand how to manage the balance between exams and life outside the classroom. Ah, because there is a life outside the university! Instead, continuing to talk about the study plans, let's go a little deeper into what are the courses that are studied in IT. The first year starts with Mathematics 1 Analysis, which is a bit of the, I would say, of the larger branches of engineering, because it is the first course where the subject is treated in a very formalized way, so maybe going through high school you tend to have these difficulties. Then we have Linear Algebra and Geometry, which tends to be always a subject that I think is quite tough. Then we have IT Foundations, which is one of the courses in terms of IT. Politecnico di Milano, in my opinion, is excellent because even if one does not have advanced skills in IT, this assumption is not given, that is, you still start from the basics, so you start with the main concepts, expanding them over the years with other teachings. While in the second semester you do IT Communications Foundations, which is a bit of a general introduction of how the Internet works and all the related protocols. Electrical Engineering, which is also very interesting as a subject. And then Physics, one of the most expensive courses in terms of efforts, because it is 12 CFEU. So in the first year there tend to be not too many subjects per semester, but there are still physical subjects, while later there are courses with maybe 5 CFEU. Maybe one must also get used to those that can be 4 or 5 subjects per semester. A question from economists and maybe also from those who have not yet started engineering in high school. Why is Physics so important in terms of credits for IT Engineering? Of course Physics is not a subject that is closely associated with IT, but being a course in IT Engineering, Physics is absolutely important in terms of the basic components of the engineering course. I also found it extremely fascinating in itself. As tough as it was, there were lessons at 8 in the morning, and anyway I was there with a cup of coffee at 7.50 and I also watched them with pleasure because the teacher was extremely competent. Another advantage of the Politecnico di Milano, which being one of the universities also in terms of the most important rankings in IT in Italy, in my opinion the quality of the teachers' teaching is extremely high. Then maybe there are teacher-teachers, there are teachers who are very competent in terms of research and maybe a little less in terms of teaching, while there are other teachers who are really incredible in terms of teaching and make you passionate about the subject. Greetings to Gian Lorenzo Bussetti if you are watching this video, who gave me passion for Physics. I want to touch on this because it is interesting because Italy, in terms of teaching, is always very recognized for having a very traditionalist approach to teaching, very based on hard skills, on basic knowledge, on notions. However, from this point of view, one thing that is recognized a lot also abroad is that this way of teaching actually does not only form knowledge, but it forms a formamentis, therefore an idea of ​​reasoning that allows us to be excellent in many fields, despite being a world that always changes the knowledge that is required, because of course technological levels are updated, new protocols are updated, in general all the logics, but if you are able to develop a system with which to think, then you will always be ready to face the challenges of the future. However, even if certain subjects do not have an immediate applicability in the world of IT, they give you basic knowledge that in my opinion can be spent and valuable, such as statistics, for how often I do not happen to use it in the world of work, the times it is needed, in my opinion the notions that it has given me are fundamental. You can not apply something that you do not even know exists, so having this basic knowledge then they can also give you that extra step in the world of work. Ok, during university you certainly lived a good academic career, because you graduated in three years, however, you graduated on time, it's good, come on. Yes, I would say that I focused a lot on finishing the exams on time as far as the average is concerned, I came out with an average of 24, so for sure there are people who come out with a higher average, during my studies, I have also focused a lot on doing personal projects or in any case acquiring external technical knowledge, also because it is still a very proprietary course in the world of computer science, however, computer science is such a vast field that using only the hours in class to learn computer science is quite reductive, so maybe I did something beyond my free time. So, for example, what projects did you carry out during university? For example, while I was doing computer science background, I already enjoyed using Python to do projects that I then used to automate things that I needed at home, small scripts, integrations with external APIs, later on, let's say, I expanded to do projects always a little bigger, a little bigger, which are also relevant when you try to get into the world of work, especially at the beginning when you are not very experienced, having projects to be able to put on the curriculum, which may not be curricular projects, so they have all the others, but having projects that at the moment distinguish you, I think it gives you this extra hand to enter the world of industry. Ok, interesting, so I wanted to ask you how was your transition into the world of work starting from university? Yes, as I said, during my university career I did many personal projects in my free time, not necessarily complicated, but still something to be able to bring to the curriculum, to be able to add to the github, computer science, however, is very interesting as a subject because it allows you to have practical knowledge outside of maybe working environments, because it is very easy to carry out ideas independently. Politecnico di Milano offers many opportunities as regards events, so maybe, for example, hackathon or experiences where companies do challenges and you can participate. I participated in many of these initiatives. So then I introduced myself during the summer of the first year through a company here in Milan, with a fairly small company and I did some work for some websites, which certainly was not an incredible experience, but it allowed me to have a first contact with the world of work. Last summer, on the other hand, there was an event of Bloomberg at Politecnico di Milano, which is a kind of competition. I participated in this competition and then I also left the curriculum. Bloomberg, being interested a minimum in the fact that I have already had a progressive experience in a company, even if small, however, in a company, they contacted me for an internship. I did a process of ITER, they hired me for this internship, I went to London for a summer. Was this a summer internship? Yes, a summer internship which is very common as regards students abroad, while in Italy, in my opinion, they are not very known as opportunities. Summer internships are, in fact, experiences that are done outside the academic calendar to give the opportunity to students not to skip any lesson, but still to be able to do a first professional experience, so they are given during the summer for three months. It then depends on the company if there is a remuneration or not. Imagine in London you get paid, not bad either. Then it can be a good way to already have a job offer then at the end of the university, usually it works like this, or simply there are some summer internships that are not intended for the assumption, therefore, of a financial experience itself, which, however, remains a very formative experience and certainly you can do a curriculum. Maybe one thing, a difficult moment is that if a person still remains behind in terms of the study programme, during the summer, you tend to have to recover to prepare for the September session and consequently it is more difficult to reconcile, perhaps, a summer job with what it is, perhaps, that session, precisely, of recovery in September. Fortunately, I was able not to leave my materials behind and therefore I had this opportunity to do this internship, which then, as I said, also gave rise to a full-time job offer. In the meantime, I came back to Italy, I also registered for the master's degree, a very interesting proposal, which was a double degree programme with an American university, therefore, in my opinion, the Polytechnic is also exceptional from this point of view, that there are very valid experiences in terms of double degrees. In the meantime, however, I continued to apply in terms of companies. I have also applied, obviously, to Big Tech, including Google. So I did a process of interview with them and I got a full-time job at Google and therefore I chose to leave for a moment what was my university career and, in fact, to enter a company. And now I have been working there for four years in the Google Flights team. So, the topic, guys, is not just the fact of being hired and then passing the interviews and the job, because there is a selection issue especially in these companies as important as Big Tech or for those who do economics or in any case those who do management engineering, consulting company, there is also a screening issue, therefore, to pass the first phase after having delivered the CV. As you can imagine, in these big companies thousands will arrive, hundreds of thousands of CVs every day, so even if only your curriculum is seen by the recruiter and is selected to do interviews and do the next steps, it is not an easy matter. After you passed the screening and got the CV, how was the recruitment process from Google for you? People, in my opinion, have this imagination of a mysterious process when, instead, it is very easy to find information online about the difficulty of the selection process it must not be the unknown, it must be what are perhaps the technical questions and the hard skills that are tested in these interviews. So, in the case of the interview for Google, or in general, many of the tech companies have a standardized process which is a phone screen, so you ask questions on the phone to understand the minimum required skills for the job. And then, if you pass, a time was done on-site, now, perhaps, you also do this remotely for an entire day where you follow maybe four or five interviews practically all day and then you are evaluated by several employees who then give a feedback, this feedback is put all together in a package and this package is evaluated by an external team that has not had the opportunity to interact with you to avoid bias. What it does is make a choice based on the feedback provided by the interviewers. Ok, so we're talking about tech skills, so these are technical interviews. These are technical interviews, but also here, several companies have different questions that are perhaps aimed at controlling their skills. For example, Amazon is very focused on the pillars of leadership. Google also has... The Googliness. The Googliness, exactly, of the questions, perhaps, to understand if there is this fit in terms of corporate culture. Obviously, however, the main part is green on technical skills. Which, by the way, you also did other interviews, right? I did several interviews and, anyway, they are very standardized. What I said before, that is, I focused a lot on personal projects and other work experiences. It helps a lot, in my opinion, in foreign companies, but it is not a universal experience. Maybe there are companies in Italy, maybe, or even abroad that are more focused in terms of academic curriculum, so maybe, for example, the average of grades. So, based on what can be everyone's goal, the experience can be different on what to focus on. In that case, I... These companies are a little more traditionalist. Ask yourself a thousand questions before entering, if you really want to work. Unfortunately, there are really interesting ones. I'll give you, for example, Leonardo Bendinspun in Italy, which I think are a little more focused on the graduation vote. I don't know if they would have taken it, but I still had another opportunity. Maybe then, to give one last example, when I applied for Bloomberg's stage, I also had to overcome the part, maybe, of the initial screening. I remember I did a project with a messenger chatbot where I interfaced with a meteor's bees. Before applying for Bloomberg, being a financial company, I adapted the project to deal with financial-level bees, so, for example, the stock market. And, in my opinion, even if it is, maybe, difficult on a large scale, at least customizing the resume based on the company you are going to apply to can give you this advantage because you show yourself, maybe, more interested in the topic the company is dealing with than others. And here, there are already at least two or three videos that I promise you that there will be a video about the CV and the entry into the world of the specific job. I promise you again. It will come, so subscribe to the channel so as not to miss this video and we will focus on how to set the CV to adapt it to the company and enter the world of the job. So, it seems to me that you gave very important insights for a world that is really very competitive from the point of view of screening. So, I want to ask you, in general, already a little about the data, but some advice for the university, for those who want to aspire to important positions from a working point of view. For a student who starts to work at the university, I would say at the beginning to set up what is the university environment or enjoy it, to be able to understand the rhythm of study, maybe even a method of study if you don't have it. I made a lot of videos about it, so I can only recommend them. As for then, maybe once you have ingrained the academic career, understand how to move on to the world of work. In my opinion, it is important not to start doing it two months before graduation, but to start integrating what you can understand, how the recruitment processes work. Maybe if you are in a particular company that you are interested in, see if there are events or opportunities to get to know the best the people who work in this company. It is very important. Then, in my opinion, an advice that I used in the first person is if there is another friend or another person who is interested to enter the big tech and face selection processes. In my opinion, it is important to prepare in pairs. So, for example, I had a friend that I met during Bloomberg with whom we did the fake interview, which helps a lot because a person does it alone in front of the computer, there is no such aspect of facing someone else. While, on the other hand, obviously, even if it's a friend, if you dress up well of the interviewer, you simulate what can be maybe the difficulty of talking to another person. Then another advice I can give is that in the past I have collaborated with an association called Super Hero Valley, an Italian association that deals with students who are interested, students in the field of computer science who are interested to enter the big tech. They have a website and also a lot of useful information that they give to students. In general, there is also this group on Discord that people can meet among themselves to do these simulations of interview processes. In general, ask for advice, have support. The moments that I can imagine are not particularly easy since they are important phases of life and everyone has to face it better. We are here with Giuseppe and Gabriele, who are two students of the first year of computer engineering that we met while we were recording the video. So we had some questions for him. I don't know, but now I'll ask them because maybe they are more on point since I did economics anyway and maybe they have more genuine interests. I wanted to ask you how the selection process was on the technical side to enter a big tech and then what was your preparation process for this interview? I did a Google interview and everyone can choose how to conduct the interview. Obviously, there are points on which you have to evaluate the candidate. So everyone can choose the question they want to ask. I tend to start with a question maybe simple and then little by little I always go to do a little more complicated spacing when the time is not up. So here is my favorite method to do the interviews. As for how to prepare, there are many online questions that obviously, if you want to be online, you don't have to ask the interviewees anymore, but they are great to maybe prepare. How much does the graduation vote or the average affect the candidacy process? If the vote is high, obviously it's a plus. But what I mean is comparing maybe different candidates with a candidate with maybe zero projects and who comes out with 30 praise, a candidate who instead comes out with 28 and maybe with many projects. If I were a person who had to make the decision, the second candidate who has shown to be interested in the matter, to already have practical experience, it would be easier to say that he is the right candidate. So obviously, in parallel with other conditions, the higher the vote, the better. But what happens is having to choose, since the time is limited, I preferred to maybe accept some votes a little lower in the exams than to take the exams during the summer. This also allowed me to be free to maybe face internship paths. I wanted to ask you in your university career how much knowledge did you gain during your studies? So if you had in your network people who introduced you to the world of big tech or if you had an individual preparation? Yes, however, at the Politecnico di Milano I met a lot of people. Being an important university in Italy, many come from other universities, from Italian institutes, and consequently you meet people who are very motivated and very motivated, who consequently also encourage you to give your best. As for the part of the big tech process, I didn't have many colleagues who were interested in entering the big tech, however, it is not very well known as a thing. So that part I found a little more lonely. The part of motivating yourself for the exams, the part of seeing people who are competent in the computer field, that helped me a lot. In encouraging myself you can also do personal projects and apply to Hackathon and other things. However, the Politecnico, being also a very large and very important university, there are many universities that interact with the career service. For example, Google did an event here at the Politecnico di Milano. I remember that I skipped a business economy lesson to go and attend this event and there they gave an example of a mock interview, which in any case was very interesting in my opinion. It helped me to gain confidence to then prepare myself and then apply to the real job. So guys, I hope this video was useful to you and gave you a general overview of what IT engineering is and the entrance into the big tech. We saw in particular Google with Fede. So thanks Fede. Nothing, best of luck to everyone who decides to sign up for IT engineering at the Politecnico di Milano and see you at the Umbrella to have a beer. If you want to have a beer also with other guys from the Politecnico di Milano, who also do other faculties, I recommend you to join the Polimi top squad groups. Find the link in the description to join the WhatsApp groups. We hope it was useful to you and we'll see you in the next video. Bye everyone. Bye.