Techie from Tier 3 college shares how she landed a job at Google: ‘You don’t need a perfect start’
A techie from a Tier 3 college has caught social media’s attention after sharing how she landed a job at Google. In a series of Instagram posts, Archy Gupta, who, according to her bio, is a software engineer at Google, narrated her career path, from studying at a Tier 3 college to securing an L4 role at the tech giant.
“Consistency looks boring while you’re doing it. No instant wins. No big moments. Just showing up again and again. But over time, it compounds. Quiet effort turns into visible results. You don’t need a perfect start. You need to stay in the game long enough,” she wrote in the caption.
From Tier 3 college to Google
Gupta shared that her journey began in 2017 when she graduated from a Tier 3 college in Bhopal. With only a handful of service-based companies visiting the campus, she still believed that something bigger was possible. She took every opportunity that came her way, even if it meant travelling across cities with “nothing but hope”.
She said that by November of her final year, she was placed in a service-based company. “But deep down, I knew this was just the beginning,” she wrote. Gupta then decided to step back and focus on building strong fundamentals, spending time learning problem-solving, databases and computer fundamentals.
Soon after, she received a referral for a product-based company internship at OpenText. The interviews were held in Hyderabad. She travelled, cleared the rounds, got selected and moved cities within 10 days.
Gupta said that she continued giving online assessments and interviews at OpenText, hoping to convert her internship into a full-time role. Months passed with few openings, and rejections followed. With just 15 days left to join the service-based company, she was preparing to leave Hyderabad when she finally received the full-time offer from OpenText. “That one interview chance changed everything,” she wrote.
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However, the journey did not stop there. Gupta said she briefly explored data science, completed a machine learning nanodegree, but eventually realised her passion still lay in software engineering. In 2019, she received her first interview call from Google but failed to crack it. “But it gave me the push I needed. I kept going,” she said.
She continued interviewing, failing multiple times but learning from each experience. In 2020, Gupta joined ServiceNow, where she began solving one data structures and algorithms (DSA) question every single day.
In June 2022, Google reached out again. “This time, I was ready,” she wrote, adding that she prepared for months as interviews stretched until October. One day, she received the email she had been waiting for: “Congratulations, you’re in.”
Gupta eventually landed an L4 role at Google. “From a tier 3 college to Google. No shortcuts, no luck. Just years of consistency, faith, and showing up every single day,” she wrote.
HT.com has reached out to Archy Gupta. The article will be updated once a response is received.
(Also Read: Google engineer says Claude Code built in 1 hour what it took Google 1 year to do)
Social media reactions
Reacting to her post, many users called her journey inspiring.
“Hats off to you mam for your hard work and consistency!” one user commented. “Impressive!” remarked another.
“Got inspiration from it, I am also from tier 3 xollege and trying to crack a PBC like Google, thanks a lot,” wrote a third user. “I hope i’ll make it to google from tier-3 …thanks for the story to motivating us,” expressed one user.
