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Not an IITian: How I landed a role at Google

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Summary of the video’s main points

Challenging the “Ivy/elite background” myth

The speaker challenges the common belief that anyone who becomes successful in big tech—specifically at Google—must have had an “easy” path (e.g., an IIT background and fluent English from childhood). They argue that these assumptions ignore the real struggles and setbacks people often face on the way to major tech roles.

Background and early obstacles

  • Grew up in Turkheda, a small village near Shirpur; later studied in Malegaon.
  • Studied in Marathi medium.
  • Family context:
    • Father: agriculture officer
    • Mother: homemaker
    • Sister: later became a forest officer
  • Schooling locally was available only up to 8th grade, requiring relocation to continue education.

A major academic setback caused by college administration

  • During diploma, they were expected to continue in computer studies but initially ended up in electronics, then switched back to computers.
  • The switch involved additional subjects and a requirement to submit a large handwritten workshop file.
  • They claim they scored 77% and completed the required work.
  • However, the workshop file allegedly wasn’t submitted officially due to a college administrative mistake (a missing stamping/paper issue).
  • This resulted in losing an entire year (“year down”), which the speaker describes as emotionally devastating and unfair.

Self-driven growth during the “year down”

Instead of staying idle, the speaker used the extra time to build skills:

  • Learned Linux, starting from foundational learning (around the Windows XP era**, then moving into Linux).
  • Earned strong certification results—claiming Red Hat certification with 95%+.
  • Built a resume and began applying for jobs.

Campus placement boycott due to the “year down” rule

After completing engineering:

  • TCS visited for placements.
  • They were told candidates with a year down could not sit for campus placements.
  • They tried to explain that the year down occurred due to an administrative error, but were still denied.
  • They responded by completely boycotting campus placements, believing the selection process shouldn’t decide their career direction.

First job via persistence and networking

  • Applied for system admin roles and learned Linux practically using virtual machines.
  • Through a “friend of a friend,” they found an opening at VMware Lab for system administration / DevOps-type work.
  • During the HR round, they were asked to call their father, and their father was informed they were selected for a DevOps role—a memorable moment.
  • Started at ₹25,000/month (about 3 lakhs per annum).

Learning beyond the initial role (DevOps/Cloud journey)

The speaker emphasizes that Linux alone wasn’t enough for corporate expectations:

  • They learned CI/CD, automation, and cloud concepts.
  • Attended meetups, learned step-by-step, and applied the tools at work.
  • This shifted their career from system administration toward DevOps and cloud.

Major career shift in 2016 and cloud specialization

  • In 2016, they moved to a company called Cloud Cover.
  • They worked closely with leadership (CEO/CTO).
  • Built expertise in AWS and GCP, helping customers transition from data centers to cloud platforms.
  • Earned increasingly advanced certifications.
  • Stayed there for six years, describing it as the foundation for their current career.

Multiple offers, including Google—then negotiation

The speaker recounts interview outcomes (mentioned around Diwali, with 2020 as context):

  • Received three offers: Paytm, Google, and Amazon.
  • They claim Paytm offered about ~70 lakhs/year (2021) including stocks.
  • For Google, they initially received an offer and compared it against their experience and certifications.
  • Despite the cultural belief that people don’t say “no” to Google, they rejected the first Google offer after noticing the compensation gap.
  • Because their technical scores were strong, Google revised the package.
  • They joined Google in February—described as the 14th Valentine’s Day—as their “officially Googler” timeline moment.

Core thesis/lesson: the real barrier is mindset, not background

The speaker’s main takeaway is that the hardest barriers are often internal:

  • Fear and limiting “voices” about coming from a village background
  • Challenges related to regional language
  • Feelings that an academic gap makes success impossible

They conclude:

  • Hometown, college name, and language of education do not determine your limits.
  • What matters most is willingness to learn and building skills.

Their advice is to:

  • Focus on value creation through skills
  • Know your worth
  • Let opportunities come as a result of growth and capability

Presenters or contributors

  • Single presenter (speaker): The individual telling their own story of getting a role at Google. (No other named presenters or contributors are mentioned in the subtitles.)

Original video