Gayle Laakmann McDowell

Gayle Laakmann McDowell has a strong background in software development with extensive experience on both sides of the hiring table.

She has worked for Microsoft, Apple, and Google as a software engineer. She spent three years at Google, where she was one of the top interviewers and served on the hiring committee. She interviewed hundreds of candidates in the U.S. and abroad, assessed thousands of candidate interview packets for the hiring committee, and reviewed many more resumes.

As a candidate, she interviewed with—and received offers from—twelve tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, and Apple. 

Gayle founded CareerCup to enable candidates to perform at their best during these challenging interviews. CareerCup.com offers a database of thousands of interview questions from major companies and a forum for interview advice. 

In addition to Cracking the Coding Interview, Gayle has written other two books:

• Cracking the Tech Career: Insider Advice on Landing a Job at Google, Microsoft, Apple, or Any Top Tech Company provides a broader look at the interview process for major tech companies. It offers insight into how anyone, from college freshmen to marketing professionals, can position themselves for a career at one of these companies.
• Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology focuses on product management roles at startups and big tech companies. It offers strategies to break into these roles and teaches job seekers how to prepare for PM interviews.

Through her role with CareerCup, she consults with tech companies on their hiring process, leads technical interview training workshops, and coaches engineers at startups for acquisition interviews.

She holds bachelor’s degree and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School. 

She lives in Palo Alto, California, with her husband, two sons, dog, and computer science books. She still codes daily.

www.gayle.com