Google Interns' Top 5 Resume Tips

At Google Students, we aim to provide content for students, by students. As a result, we asked Google interns to submit their best resume tips. Here are the 5 tips that kept coming up:

1. Tailor your resume to the specific company and job position

Every company has different values and traits that they’re looking for in candidates. It’s important that your resume reflects that. To illustrate, at Google, some of our big values are collaboration and problem solving, so if you were applying here, emphasizing how you have exhibited those values in previous roles you’ve held would definitely help you stand out. Similarly, you should adapt your resume to highlight the skills and experiences you have that tie in with the particular job position.

2. Only include roles that you’re prepared to speak about in depth

This is crucial. If granted an interview, everything on your resume is fair game, and interviewers will expect you to be able to talk them through the different experiences you’ve outlined on your resume. So, to be safe, make sure that you feel confident that, if asked, you could speak to each and every item listed on your resume.

3. Use metrics and tangible facts (but respect confidentiality)

This one is especially important when applying to Google or other tech companies, but is useful no matter where you’re applying. Whether it be including how many lines of code you wrote, how much you increased efficiency, or even how many more customers you served per day than the average employee, being able to quantify your impact is a tremendous skill to have, because it adds credibility to your resume and gives recruiters a concrete understanding of what you bring to the table. However, make sure that you’re not breaching confidentiality when quantifying your impact. A safe bet is to use percentages rather than absolute numbers. For instance, “Increased revenue by 25%...” instead of “Increased revenue by $425k…”

4. Include extracurricular activities you do that make you unique

While you should fill the bulk of your resume with jobs and activities that are relevant to the specific job for which you’re applying, don’t be afraid to include a small section at the bottom of your resume that contains a few extracurricular activities that you’re passionate about and that make you unique. Most companies don’t want cookie-cutter candidates, and if you end up getting an interview, this section can provide some great talking points to break the ice at the beginning of the interview.

5. Have friends and/or family proofread your resume

Although it can be embarrassing to have other people read your resume, it’s much more embarrassing to send in a resume riddled with typos. It’s easy to miss typos when it’s your resume, because you’ve read it so many times. So, just to be safe, have several other people read your resume.

Search other websites from Chrome’s omnibox

Do you know that you can search other websites, such as +YouTube, from Chrome’s omnibox?
Chrome automatically saves a list of the search engines you come across while browsing. So, if you visit http://www.youtube.com, Chrome will add the YouTube search engine to your list of search engines. And, from then on, you’ll be able to search YouTube directly from the omnibox by typing http://www.youtube.com, pressing space, and adding your search terms. If you want to view, update, or modify your search engines, follow the path Chrome Menu > Settings >Manage search engines.

ProTip: On the Manage search engines page you can also define keywords for websites to save yourself some typing; for instance, typing “yt” could be a shortcut for http://www.youtube.com.

Customize your blogger posts' adresses

Earlier this year we introduced a suite of new SEO features that help ensure your blog, posts, and images are accurately indexed so they appear correctly in search results. Today we’re happy to introduce another feature that enables you to more effectively customize your search preferences - custom permalinks.

When you write a post, Blogger automatically generates a permalink based on the title of the post. Until now, blog authors have had no control of the permalink. Custom permalinks give you more control of your blog and posts. These new custom links also provide readers with more information about your post when scanning search results.

If you prefer to use a custom permalink, you can do so via the “Permalink” option in the Post Settings box.

To create your own URL for a specific post, simply select “Custom URL”, and enter your new URL in the field below. If you wrote the post in June of 2012, your new URL will look like this:

www.nameofblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/customURL.html

The bolded area is the portion of the URL that is customizable.

If the custom permalink you entered already exists, Blogger will attempt find a free one for you.

At present, the characters allowed in a custom URL are limited to: a-z, A-Z, 0-1. The only special characters available are underscore, dash, and period.

Click here to read more about custom permalinks in the Blogger Help Center.

How to create high quality sites

We receive a lot of questions from publishers wanting to know best practices to grow your businesses with AdSense. While there's no one right answer, our advice continues to be to focus on creating high quality content and delivering the best possible user experience on your websites. Here are some key suggestions on how to design and organize your website content with an overall emphasis on the quality of the site.

Don't create multiple pages or sites with duplicate content.
We encourage you to create high quality sites rather than a large quantity of sites. Focusing on one site and making it richer in information and authentic in content not only benefits users, but also helps you win more of them. When users are browsing online, they want to find what they're looking for quickly and easily without combing through endless multiple pages, subdomains, or sites with substantially generic or duplicate content. If you have pages or sites that are similar in content or template design, consider consolidating the pages or sites into one.

Provide content that gives users a reason to visit, and return, to your site. When you create content on your site, it’s important to ask yourself if the page provides substantial value or service when compared to sites covering similar subjects. It's worth the effort to create original content that sets your site apart from the rest. This will provide useful search results and keep your visitors coming back.

Provide the information or service promised.
Some publishers create sites that appear to offer a product or service, but instead trick users into navigating through several pages and viewing ads. This results in a negative user experience, and causes your site to be perceived as untrustworthy. Use keywords appropriately and in context with your content and make sure users are able to easily navigate through the site to find what products, goods, or services are promised.

There’s no shortcut to success. Building high quality site takes effort and time. However, we’ve seen that publishers who focus on their users instead of using quick and deceptive techniques are the real winners and experience long-term revenue growth and success in our network. For more information, check out Google Webmaster Guidelines and the policy section of the AdSense Help Center.

Boost your AdSense revenue with improved ad styles

By making your ads more visible for users, you can increase your click through rate and ultimately your AdSense revenue. Base the colour design of your ad units on one or more of the three basic techniques: Blend, Complement or Contrast (see below). We’ve found through working with publishers that ads with light coloured borders or no borders at all perform best.

When choosing colours, also take the position of your ad units into consideration: If an ad is well integrated into your site’s content, blending the ads can underline the feeling of contextual relevance. For an ad unit which is further away from the main content, more contrasting colours can help catching the user’s attention. If you have a website with repeat visitors, you might want to switch the ad colours occasionally to avoid ad blindness. Remember, the goal isn't to confuse users into thinking ads are content, but to get users to see and read the ads so they can click on those that interest them.

Optimise your ad styles today

We've also recently launched an improvement to our default font settings. For each ad unit that's set to show the default font face and font size, our system will now automatically show the best-performing option. You can find more information about this improvement in our Inside AdSense blog.

5 tips for staying safe on the web

Recruiter Tips & Tricks: Jeff takes your questions via Hangouts On Air

You know lead engineering recruiter Jeff Moore from his Recruiter Tips & Tricks series on the Google Students blog, which wrapped up in December. Since then, we’ve been thinking of ways in which Jeff can continue sharing his wisdom with all of you, and how to do so in a fun and engaging environment. What better way for us to connect you with him than Google+ Hangouts On Air? Over the next couple of weeks, Jeff will be hosting a series of Hangouts On Air from his Google+ profile. Each Hangout On Air will have a different theme based on his most popular Recruiter Tips & Tricks posts. For each Hangout On Air, you can submit your questions ahead of time via the Google Moderator links below. Jeff (and guest Googlers, including Fitz and Ben on January 19th!) will answer the questions with the most votes live. You can also post your question to Google+ using the hashtag #askagoogler in order to be considered for one of the spots in the Hangout.

Here is the line up with Google Moderator links and local time zone conversions so you know when to tune in:

• Preparing your resume: Tuesday, January 10th at 9:00 am PST
• Technical interviews: Wednesday, January 11th at 1:00 pm PST
• Non-technical interviews: Tuesday, January 17th at 11:00 am PST
• Transitioning from school to the working world: Thursday, January 19th at 4:00 pm PST

We’ll be accepting questions up until 24 hours before each of the Hangouts On Air begin. When the Hangout On Air starts, we’ll share the link on our Google Students page on Google+. You’ll also be able to see the broadcast on Jeff’s profile. Can’t tune in? Each Hangout On Air will be recorded and shared so you can watch the recap when you’ve got some free time.

By Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator

How to change the display font size in Gmail?

Change the display font size using your browser's keyboard shortcuts. Hold down Ctrl or Cmd, and press + to make the font bigger, - to make it smaller, and 0 to return to normal.

If you've ever accidentally changed your font size, Ctrl/Cmd + 0 is especially useful!

Watch this video guide.

Get more out of Google Search [infographic]

Tips for New Bloggers

Hi everyone! I'm Rebecca Brown, a blogger and personal stylist in the Seattle area. When I started my blog nearly 2 years ago, it was to document my attempt to wear a different dress for every day of December (sounds super interesting, right? It proves you can write a blog about anything).

I had no idea that a blog about my clothing choices would grow and become such a fun hobby! And even though I’ve been blogging for a little while, I still feel like I have so much to learn, which is what keeps blogging interesting! So, while I'm definitely far from being an expert, here are a few things that have worked for me:

1) Find a community of bloggers with similar interests. Do you like to write about video games, fashion, cooking? There are lots of great blogs on those topics already. A quick Google search for “fashion blogs” helped me round out my reading list. I always check out the blog rolls of people whose blogs I enjoy, and I also visit the blogs of folks who comment on my blog. Bottom line: interact with bloggers whose blogs you enjoy. You'll learn so much, I promise. This leads me to my next point...

2) Leave insightful comments on blogs that you enjoy - especially blogs that are in the same niche as you. Instead of just saying, "hey, nice blog, follow me please”, call out something specific that you liked about the post. Pure "followback" requests don’t really make people want to follow you.

3) Don't underestimate the importance of good pictures on your posts. The basics: Use a tripod or get a friend to photograph you if the pictures are of you. Take pictures outdoors if possible because natural light always makes pictures look better. Use post-processing (I use Picnik) to adjust the exposure, add effects, and crop to keep the focus on what you want. You don’t need a fancy camera - I use my cell phone most of the time! I wrote about this in more depth here.

4) Think about quality, rather than quantity of posts. Readers would rather see an insightful (and spell-checked!) post with original content and good pictures 2-4 times a week than hastily-written thoughts on a daily basis. Most avid blog readers follow so many blogs that if you post too often, and especially if your posts aren't high quality, you'll get passed over in favor of the other blogs on their blogroll. Plus, a great, high-quality post can continue to get you traffic for a few days - don't truncate its effectiveness by posting again the very next day.

5) Schedule your posts. I typically have a chunk of time on the weekend where I can plan out and write my 2-4 posts for the week, or at least get a rough draft in place. Blogger allows you to schedule your posts and they will automatically publish at the date/time you specify. I typically set my posts to publish around 2am to capture folks in other time zones.

6) Lastly, don't apologize for not posting more often. A blog is a fun hobby - but once you start feeling beholden to it, it stops being fun! Plus, your readers will likely not notice if you don't post for a week unless you write a post about how sorry you are for not posting!

There are so many great resources out there for bloggers looking to hone their craft. Here are a few of my favorites: -10 Things About Your Blog That Drive Me Crazy (via B at Beautifully Invisible) - Don't Be A Savage Blogger (Jamillah via Beautifully Invisible): - Build a Better Blog (via Vahni at Grit and Glamour).

I hope these tips are helpful! Blogging has been such a great part of my life - allowing me to express myself, build a community and make lifelong friends. And the great thing about it is that nearly anyone can do it. So have fun with it, don’t take yourself too seriously, and you’ll be a great blogger in no time!

[Courtesy : Blogger Buzz]

Google Friends Newsletter - April 2011

Greetings to our Google Friends. We hope you enjoy this month’s update
on our products and services.

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POWER TIP

Google Map Maker

If you’re in the U.S., you can now add your expert local knowledge to
Google Maps with Google Map Maker for the United States. For example,
you can get started by adding the outline of the soccer field at your
local park, or marking that a local two-way street recently changed to
a one-way thoroughfare. Each edit in Map Maker is reviewed, and after
approval, will appear in Google Maps within minutes. Using Map Maker,
people have built out and edited the maps for 183 countries and
regions around the world; now you can ensure the places you care about
in the U.S. are richly represented on the map.
http://www.google.com/help/mapmaker

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Google Toolbar 7

The speed of Google Instant is now available in the latest version of
Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer 8 and 9. Once you enable Instant
under “Toolbar Options,” you’ll see search predictions and results
appear as you type in the Toolbar search box. The new Toolbar is also
cleaner looking and more personalized, showing you only the tools you
use the most. And it’s one of the fastest add-ons you can use in
Internet Explorer, so it won’t slow down your browser. If you’re
already using Toolbar, you’ll be automatically updated to the new
version over the next few weeks.
http://www.google.com/toolbar

A Google a Day

A Google a Day is a new daily puzzle that can be solved using your
creativity and clever search skills on Google. Questions will be
posted every day at agoogleaday.com and printed on weekdays above the
New York Times crossword puzzle. To check your answers—or if you’re
stumped—you can choose to look at each puzzle’s answer, along with the
search tips and features used to find it.
http://www.agoogleaday.com

Google Offers

Google Offers helps you discover the best of your city at 50% off or
more. If you’re in Portland, New York City or the San Francisco Bay
Area, you can sign up now to start receiving offers when we launch in
these cities soon. You can also submit your information to get news on
when Offers is coming to your area.
https://www.google.com/offers

Pagination and better printing for documents

Google Docs now features pagination—the ability to see your document
broken up into pages. That means other Docs features work better, too:
headers now show up at the top of each page, manual page breaks move
text onto a new page and footnotes appear at the bottom of the pages
themselves. Thanks to pagination, we also made document printing a
whole lot better in Chrome: you can print directly from the browser’s
“File” menu, and what you see in your browser is exactly what you’ll
get on paper.
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/04/pagination-comes-to-google-docs.html

-------------
MISCELLANY

With Earth Day and U.S. Arbor Day both falling in the month of April,
we focused a lot on green efforts this month. We signed a power
purchase agreement with a wind energy facility in Oklahoma (which
we’ll be applying to our Mayes County, Okla. data center) and invested
about $100 million in the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon,
anticipated to be the largest wind farm in the world. We also invested
$168 million in a solar energy power plant in the Mojave Desert in
California and partnered with the Save the Redwoods League in an
effort to protect some of the country’s oldest forests. Finally, on
Earth Day, we celebrated with a special animated Google doodle.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/green
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