How to Land the STEP Internship at Google, from a former Google STEP Intern

Hey, hey [in]siders! Welcome to a special edition of my newsletter where you get “the [in]side track” on all things internships, college, early careers, and personal branding!

It’s officially time for Summer 2026 Intern Recruitment SZN! Google STEP is one of the most coveted internships in technology and one of the best programs for freshmen and sophomores. The internship application hasn’t dropped yet, but it will be soon and now’s the time to prepare to put your best foot forward!

To help you put that best foot forward, I sat down with a former Google STEP Intern to get “the [in]side scoop 🍨” on landing THE coveted STEP Internship from a former STEP (Student Training in Engineering Program) Google. They broke down the entire process they went through to land their internship and spilled their insider tips on how they stood apart from the crowd.

(FYI: This individual’s identity has been anonymized for their privacy 😊)

Ready? Set? Go! 🏁 

The [in]side Scoop 🍨 with a Google STEP Intern

How did you find out about the Google STEP Internship?

I applied when I was a freshman but didn’t know jack. I knew a couple of sophomores who got in. At GHC ‘23 I met with Google, went to their after party, checked when the application was going to go up, memorized the date, and then from 12am–9am that day I kept refreshing until it popped up.

I was really active trying to get into GHC events, and someone in the RTC Slack even created a whole spreadsheet of events. I spoke to a lot of engineers at the event, less with recruiters.

Was Google a company you were always shooting for?

I would say it was a company I really, really wanted to work with—just because, you know, “big tech.” But I never expected to hear back. I heard back from a lot of companies, but none of them were big. I even got an OA from Netflix. Google was more of a shot in the dark: “I’m just gonna apply.”

What did you do to polish your application for Google STEP?

I have this thing where every time I apply to a company, I go HAM. I’ll look up “company X recruiter,” draft a nice message (like, “Hey, I applied, just wanted to let you know”), and usually it never works. But I’ll still send out like 50 messages to recruiters at each company.

Last year, I applied to 460 positions. I got about 15 interviews, give or take.

No, I don’t tailor my resumes. I don’t think it’s worth it. My resume is very crowded—it has everything and anything I’ve done. That way it usually meets the criteria for most roles. I don’t recall doing a cover letter for Google STEP.

What did the application/interview process look like?

The application was short and sweet—basic questions.

For STEP, they do two technical interviews, about 45 minutes each. Both were technical, Leetcode-easy level. The whole process took about a month, maybe a month and a half at most, and I got my offer at the end of November.

They were good about scheduling early and fast, and I got my offer quickly too. I also told them I had a competing offer, so they expedited my process.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

They integrated a couple of behavioral questions into the technical interviews.

Technical prep: I was doing heavy Leetcode all last fall. I knew STEP would be fairly easy, but I asked a couple of people for Google-specific Leetcode questions. I was pretty burnt out at that point, so I looked at Neetcode solutions to those questions. Honestly, looking at solutions was super helpful because it helped me revise and reinforced concepts.

What do you think was your “IT” factor that helped you get the job?

In the interview, I’m really vocal with my thought process. The more experience I’ve gotten working with PMs and engineers across different teams, the more I’ve learned to think out loud.

Everything in my brain was coming out of my mouth—thinking and speaking at the same time—and that worked to my advantage.

What advice would you give to students who want to get into Google STEP?

Just do anything and everything you can in your capacity: reach out to Google folks, prepare for your interviews, do hard-level Leetcode questions even if you know the STEP ones are going to be easy. Strive to put your best foot forward and then hope for the best.

What was your favorite thing about doing Google STEP?

Definitely my team.

We did team lunches almost every day. Folks took us out to a Fenway game since we were all new to Boston. The Cambridge office had fewer interns than last year—maybe 22–25 of us. They were super cool people. My intern community really enhanced the experience.

I love hosting stuff, so I hosted all the things I could to get people together: hiking trips, a trip to NYC. The people and mentors were amazing. Everyone was super down to help and treated us like part of the team.

We faced some org-specific challenges, and that impacted some of the things we were working on, but overall the experience was amazing.

What does the program look like once you’re in?

It’s 12 weeks long.

You have a host, which is your main manager, and a co-host, your second manager. Both are on the same team but not always on the same product. You also get a podmate, who you’ll be paired with to work on a project together.

There’s also a mentor program within Google STEP. You can specify what kind of mentor you want—team, org, gender, even role (SWE vs PM). My mentor was a woman and on a different team.

The main project was one big intern project that me and my podmate worked on together. The work was largely similar, but we each tackled different parts and contexts. It was a great learning experience.

Thank you so much to this Google STEP Intern for sitting down for this interview and un-gatekeeping what it takes to get into this prestigious, coveted program!

Want to be featured in the [in]side track? 🏎️ 💨 

Have you landed an internship or new grad role at a big Fortune 500, FAANG, YC-backed startup, or similar in tech, finance, or consulting? I’d LOVE to interview you and feature you to my audience of 78k+ on LinkedIn and 16k+ on Instagram! Email me with your LinkedIn link and a quick TL;DR of your internship or new grad story at [email protected] 💌