She dreamed of working at Google. Now she does.

In summer 2024, after playing ultimate frisbee with a friend next to Google’s headquarters, Songting Yang snapped a photo of Google’s address sign and posted it to RedNote with the caption, “I really want to work here.”

Two years later, after graduating from the Align Master’s in Computer Science, she’s joining the team as a software engineer. “I’m super excited,” she said. “I want my future to be full of potential, and I think Google is one of the best places for that.”

From finance to computer science, and East Coast to West Coast

From Pu’er City in Yunnan Province, China — famous for Pu-erh tea — Yang came alone to the U.S. five years ago to study. With no family in the country, she had to figure out everything herself; including, eventually, what she actually wanted to do. 

She started at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she initially enrolled in a finance program. She soon realized the field wasn’t for her. But when she added business analytics as a major, everything clicked. “I thought, maybe I can do computer science more in depth,” she said.

Once she found out about the Align program at Northeastern, she saw a clear path ahead — though it wouldn’t be an easy one to follow.

“Almost every voice around me was telling me it was too risky, too difficult, or not a good choice,” she said. “I had to learn to trust my own judgment before expecting anyone else to believe in it.”

As if transitioning from business to tech wasn’t enough, she moved across the country to California. “In Silicon Valley you meet a lot of people with tech backgrounds,” she said. “You can learn from their experiences and improve your own story.” 

“You have to take action, not just think about what you want.”

During her time at Northeastern, Yang did just that — growing not just in technical skills, but in confidence. “I talked to people, pushed myself, kept doing things, and tried not to be afraid of rejection or mistakes,” she said. “I’ve changed a lot — mentally, academically, and professionally.”

Much of that growth came from putting herself out there. On campus, she took on two jobs — IT/AV support assistant and Global Student Mentor — and served as president of ACM-W Silicon Valley, a student club that empowers women and gender minorities in computing. Outside campus, she sought out tech professionals for informational interviews and attended industry conferences. “You have to take action, not just think about what you want,” she said. 

Two high-powered internships and a full-time offer

The combination of clear goals and consistent action paid off. A year after the RedNote post, she got an internship at Google — and even ended up joining the company’s ultimate frisbee team, helping them take second place in a local corporate league. “That was so unexpected!” she said. 

The internship was everything she’d hoped for. She worked in the fast-paced world of AI experiments at Google Labs under a manager whose leadership helped her grow both personally and professionally. On her last day, she wrote a note thanking them “not only for the technical things” but also for making her “more confident and brave.” 

The experience left her hoping for a return offer, though there were no guarantees. While she waited, she interned at Oracle, applying everything she’d learned and picking up new skills along the way.  “I wasn’t as anxious as I was at Google,” she said. “I applied a lot of what my previous manager had taught me — like how to ask questions and communicate.”  

With a little bit more time left in her program, Songting managed to fit in one more work experience. After wrapping up her second co-op, she took on a new campus role as a teaching assistant for CS6650: Building Scalable Distributed Systems. 

As graduation approached, she was still waiting to hear from Google. Then, just as her time at Northeastern was drawing to a close, the offer finally arrived.

Around the same time, Northeastern recognized her in the Laurel and Scroll society of distinction, awarded to 100 outstanding graduate students of the year — another milestone she had once only imagined.

“I got so much more than I expected. I don’t know if we can call it manifesting, but it feels that way.”