Your Opportunity Introduction

Rob Clifton:

- Hi, there. My name is Rob Clifton, and I'm a Program Manager at Google. My career in IT started about 17 years ago. At the time, IT knowledge was mainly self-taught. I took certificate courses, similar to this one, and learned as much as I could along the way while I continued to go to college part-time to get an associate's degree.

🎓 Getting Started in IT

Finding that first job wasn't easy. I had to convince someone to take a chance on me, even though I had no degree and no advanced education in IT. I applied for a lot of jobs, got a few interviews, received a lot of rejections, and eventually landed my first job fixing computers at a big box retailer. Over the next few years, I jumped around to different jobs, gaining more experience while I continued to go to school and finish my degree.

💼 Landing at Google

I eventually landed at Google as a support tech in our Ann Arbor office. Twelve years later, I now lead the hiring efforts for our junior IT support roles. I've interviewed hundreds of candidates and helped train our interviewers on how to find the best talent in the industry.

🎯 The Purpose of this Training

Today, I'm excited to share what I've learned to help you prepare for your next interview. Going into an interview is a moment that lots of people dread. We're all afraid that we could say something wrong, that we're not ready for that next step, or that we will be rejected. These are all normal feelings, but it helps to look at the interview as an opportunity.

🌟 Embracing the Interview as an Opportunity

It's an opportunity for you to hone your interpersonal skills, learn more about the company, and make sure that the job is a good fit for you. It's an opportunity to advance your career and gain more work experience. In these lessons, we will give you some tips that will help you prepare for the interview. We want you to walk into your interviews feeling confident and excited. We'll show you what a technical interview on the subject at hand may look like.