Niniane Wang
BS '98, Engineering and Applied Science

How did you transition from your studies at Caltech to your current position?

After Caltech (go Dabney!), I worked at Microsoft for five years as a software engineer in the Games group. I programmed clouds and weather for Flight Simulator. In 2003, I came to Google, where I've worked on Desktop Search, Gmail, and an unannounced project which I chartered. I'm now managing a group of awesome engineers.

Describe a "day in the life." What do you encounter in a typical day on the job?

I spend a couple hours of the day in meetings to discuss project features, timeline, or coordination with other groups (QA, other product teams, Marketing, Legal, etc). I spend some time interacting with my team and having technical discussions. I spend the rest of my time coding.

What are your "extra-curricular" activities? What do you do outside of work?

I love creative writing. I've taken several evening writing courses at Stanford. In 2003, I wrote a novel in a single month for the National Novel Writing Month event. It was pure drivel. I'm doing it again this year! I also write a blog.

What's your best advice to Caltech students, or to alumni who want to switch to a career like yours?

The best programmers in the world are those who do it because they love it. They are also the happiest programmers in the world. In high school, I did a lot of programming to make silly games for my younger brother: word-typing games to rescue a princess, adventure games to practice multiplication. Find what you enjoy about coding, and the rest will come. If you don't have fun doing it, it's not worth doing.

 

 

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