Currently: Software Engineer at Google
Hometown: Fort Lee, New Jersey
Major: Computer Science
Minors: Chinese, Interactive Media Arts
Zane Fadul ’21 describes what he did to land his dream job as a software engineer at Google, working on the reCAPTCHA team in North Carolina. Looking back, he says his NYU Shanghai campus leadership roles and involvement with the computer science community gave him the confidence to excel in his career and life.
What was searching for a job like after graduation?
I was home for pretty much a year, and I was having a hard time. When you are applying to software engineering roles, one or two years after you've graduated, you're no longer considered ‘early-career.’ It was getting to a point where I was like, “Oh my gosh, I'm going to take anything I can get!”
My partner at the time was going to grad school in North Carolina and so I would visit a lot, and I ended up getting a remote internship at UKG, a payment and HR management software company. Almost as soon as I got that internship, I was notified that I had made progress in my Google interview process (I had submitted my application in October of the year prior). I ended up having about a full month to review all my computer science foundations with onsite interviews in mid-January. And I got COVID during that month! So I was having COVID, and also doing crash course stuff on all of my computer science textbooks from college. It paid off, because the interviews went pretty well.
What did you do to prepare for the interview process?
I would do a lot of mock interviews with people from my computer science cohort because everyone was looking for jobs at the same time. It was with some people from the computer science club I founded, Splice, some people from when we had the Hack the Pearl hackathon, and other people from the CS department. They'd interview me, I'd interview them, and we would all have chances for feedback. It was a lot of preparation. That felt very out of character for me, but I needed to get a job.
Every time I talk to someone who's applying for a CS job, that is the number one thing I tell them: “Do mock interviews! You should be taking them and you should be giving them to people who are also trying to get work.” You learn what the interviewer wants through actually doing the interview, you practice the skills, and then you also are able to figure out what the common pitfalls are that other people go through. And you can kind of internalize that and not make more mistakes.
What is it like to be a part of Google’s reCAPTCHA Team?
I work on the “I'm not a robot” button. I have a lot of cool and diverse coworkers who are around my age, and I remember the hiring manager asking me about some moment that I messed up in coding and how I fixed it. At first I was trying to think of something super impressive, but then I said, “You know what? I made a really bad typo once—a really simple typo that messed up everything—and I just decided it was the wrong way to name it, anyways, and so I renamed everything, and that was the fix.” And he was like, “Yeah, that happens.” It was great; I was glad that it was relatable.
No two people are working on the exact same thing. I've gotten to work on the engine that reCAPTCHA runs on which has been cool. We do take privacy really seriously. We have pretty strict guidelines as to how we can use data; we have to aggregate it to a certain point to maintain anonymity, and we have certain guidelines in terms of data retention. We have really smart people on the team trying to figure out new ways to detect online abuse with the emergence of AI—that has been interesting.
I got promoted recently this past year. I'm still technically a software engineer, but we have levels—now I'm an L4, which is still junior, but at this point you've kind of proven that you can work autonomously and don't need to be handheld.
How have your NYU Shanghai experiences impacted your career and life?
Taking computer science electives was really helpful. Take random classes. Take IMA classes if you are interested in stuff like that. I am still interested in games, and I still do game stuff on the side. All of these things come up in some way, shape, or form. Everyone just has such a different background at Google. And so anything you learn is going to be useful. I feel like every experience I had at NYU Shanghai kind of manifests itself in how I act and how I approach meeting new people and networking with other engineers. A lot of it goes into my work, and it’s very exciting, and I feel confident because of that.
Being in leadership roles especially like with the hackathon and the computer science club taught me a lot about being able to start something that's not there and to take initiative on things. Whatever you're thinking of doing, it is possible. And you just have to trust yourself and do it. I was also in the chorale at NYU Shanghai and in the jazz choir at NYU in New York, while I was there, and I thought, “I still want this in my life.” Now, I'm actually the board chair of a nonprofit gay men's chorus, the Triangle Gay Men's Chorus. I've been on the board for three years.
All the leadership stuff I've done has contributed to this—working with people, knowing how to work with people and also understanding that you're not going to get it perfect, and being okay with learning and being okay with not getting it right the first time.
Do you have any advice for upcoming seniors?
I think it's very critical to be able to be a leader in some communities in your life and be an active member in other communities. If you're able to be a strong leader in one or two things that you do while also being a strong contributor in other communities that you're in, you not only protect yourself from burning out, but you also end up accomplishing more than you would spreading yourself so thin. Mental health is very important. Try your best; don't beat yourself up if you don't get it on the first try and, you don't have to do it all. You don't have to be the best at everything to succeed. Do what makes you happy. Be curious. Stay curious. Learn. Be kind.