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macOS I have a mentor at Google and need a project to work on with them!

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gwelmarten

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 17, 2011
476
0
England!
Hi

First, sorry if this is in the wrong place - I couldn't think where to put it.

So, I've been very lucky and managed to get a Mentor at Google, with 8 meetings over the next 3 months. I really want to make the absolutely most out of the opportunity by starting work on a project with him and when I get stuck discussing the problem with him. Problem is, my main area of expertise is iOS apps and at Google he'll probably know about Android apps? I don't want the sessions to just be like a teaching session! If he does know about iOS apps I probably will discuss with him doing an iOS app.

One thing we will probably both have in common is the ability to code Python (I got the impression that many people at Google can do this). So, what I am asking is, can anybody think of a really interesting (and difficult?) project we could work on? Not something 'really useful' or 'commercially viable', just something I (I've just started working on Python) would find challenging and that he would not find boring?

Or for that matter any other ideas atall, such as an experimental website?

Sam
 
MisterKeeks

MisterKeeks

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2012
1,833
28
FYI, Python is one of the "Official" Google languages. Not sure where I read this though.
 
MisterKeeks

MisterKeeks

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2012
1,833
28
Great job getting a mentor! Tell us what you end up doing with him and how it goes.

Good luck!!
 
lee1210

lee1210

macrumors 68040
Jan 10, 2005
3,182
3
Dallas, TX
My only real advice is to stop focusing on languages or technologies. If you're comfortable with something, I'm sure your mentor can handle it. If your question is "How do I do X in programming language Y?", your spending valuable time on that when you could get this from Google(the search engine). I would try to get more information about how to make your code easier to debug, how to refine your designs/architecture (though the scope of many things you are working on may limit this), scalability (might be a different sort of conversation for a client-side app), etc.

I would try to come up with many projects and work on reusability. How can you write 5 card games without reimplementing a deck and player logic? How can you reuse a board for chess, checkers, and reversi? What about stratego? How can you transmit game state in a generic way for multi-player implementations?

Prepare yourself for most of what you do to be wrong. Don't get personally attached to what you write, you'll probably need to delete it.

-Lee
 
RedTomato

RedTomato

macrumors 601
Mar 4, 2005
4,155
442
.. London ..
"My only real advice is to stop focusing on languages or technologies."

Agreed. As someone who works in a professional environment (not programming) - there is so much to learn outside the actual work itself. Office politics, professionalism, time-keeping, billing, expense tracking, team-work while protecting yourself, dealing with supervisors / management, handling errors and ****ups professionally, right use of office communications, etc etc.

You could ask your google guy to tell you what he wishes he'd known before starting his first job. Listen. Programming and all that stuff, you do at university. The point of the Google mentoring is give you a taste of the pressures you don't see at university.
 
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BeyondTheKM

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2012
2
0
RSS in Safari!

If I had to a pick a project for you to work on, it would be putting the "old" RSS reader back in Safari. In version 6 and in Mountain Lion, Apple stripped RSS support, which means I can't upgrade my machine further b/c I need the integration that Apple's RSS solution offered. Instead I'm stuck on Safari 5.1.7 indefinitely. Please help!

Thanks,

Sean
 

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avemestr

macrumors regular
Aug 14, 2012
177
23
gwelmarten said:
Problem is, my main area of expertise is iOS apps and at Google he'll probably know about Android apps? I don't want the sessions to just be like a teaching session! If he does know about iOS apps I probably will discuss with him doing an iOS app.
Click to expand...

That's a no-brainer. You're going to create Google Maps for iOS 6, obviously.
 
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gwelmarten

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 17, 2011
476
0
England!
RedTomato said:
"My only real advice is to stop focusing on languages or technologies."

Agreed. As someone who works in a professional environment (not programming) - there is so much to learn outside the actual work itself. Office politics, professionalism, time-keeping, billing, expense tracking, team-work while protecting yourself, dealing with supervisors / management, handling errors and ****ups professionally, right use of office communications, etc etc.

You could ask your google guy to tell you what he wishes he'd known before starting his first job. Listen. Programming and all that stuff, you do at university. The point of the Google mentoring is give you a taste of the pressures you don't see at university.
Click to expand...

Thank you - this is really good advice. In my first session we met, and in the second we did a Mock Google Interview for my internship interview later this month.

----------
avemestr said:
That's a no-brainer. You're going to create Google Maps for iOS 6, obviously.
Click to expand...

I so wish!

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BeyondTheKM said:
If I had to a pick a project for you to work on, it would be putting the "old" RSS reader back in Safari. In version 6 and in Mountain Lion, Apple stripped RSS support, which means I can't upgrade my machine further b/c I need the integration that Apple's RSS solution offered. Instead I'm stuck on Safari 5.1.7 indefinitely. Please help!

Thanks,

Sean
Click to expand...

I agree - it'd be a great project to work on - but I don't think it's likely! It's not meant to be Google project - just one I come up with and want to do.
 
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