A Googler who interned at Facebook and Apple shares her 4 best tips for landing your dream job in tech

Intense competition and notoriously challenging interview questions prove it's no easy feat landing your dream job in tech.

Each year Lea Coligado was in school at Stanford, she applied to more than 20 software engineering or web development internships, including at Snapchat, Facebook, Apple, Pinterest, Microsoft, Palantir, Yelp, WhatsApp, and her dream company, Google.

"Since I was a freshman, the thought of working at Google was always a dream," Coligado, 23, tells Business Insider. "It symbolized all the greatness that can come out of a Stanford education, and it seemed like everyone around me was either trying to work at Google or start the next one."

But Google rejected Coligado's internship applications two years in a row. Instead, she went on rack up tons of interviewing experience with dozens of other tech companies and complete internships at Facebook and Apple.

By the time she was a senior, Google reached out to Coligado for an interview, this time for a full-time software engineer position. She was hired and began working there in the fall of 2016.

Coligado says that finally getting her foot in the door at Google "implied a certain understanding that No. 1, interviews are not a fault-proof system for discerning a candidate's ability - and sometimes even Google weeds out false negatives - and No. 2, that a candidate can learn and grow a lot from year to year."

Below, check out Coligado's four best tips for finally landing that dream tech job or internship:

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