While attending community college, Nouru Muneza received what felt like his 200th rejection email for an engineering internship. He was living in a hacker house at the time—far away from his childhood home in Rwanda where he grew up working at his father’s mechanic business and started exploring technology. In 2018, Nouru attended a career fair in San Francisco where he met a Recruiter from Uber’s Career Prep Program (UCP) and began a 3 year journey to becoming a Software Engineer on the Uber Rider Ads Engineering team.
Tell us about yourself.
“Originally born and raised in Rwanda to parents who are business savvy, it’s only fair that I also had to be involved in business at an early age. At 13, I was working at my dad’s business doing everything—from being a mechanic to driving buses in and out of the garage. Later on, I started a school magazine business. These experiences gave me an ‘always be an owner’ mindset that I’ve carried on since.
When it comes to technology, I started early on, tinkering with shutting down friends’ computers by sending them a .exe file on Facebook. I thought this was the most amazing thing ever. I’ve since carried on to build stuff that is more interesting and has an impact on the world.”
What did your journey to Uber Engineering look like?
“My journey to Uber began when I came to the US for school. I was staying at a hacker house where one of my roommates was an intern at an electric car company and a student at an Ivy League university.
Having heard of these companies only on the internet, it gave me the belief that I could do it too. I started doing LeetCode, applying for internships, and connecting with recruiters on LinkedIn. One of the biggest hurdles I had at that time was that I was going to a community college and most companies were only looking for 4-year university students. Plus, there was always a stigma attached to going to community college. But nothing was going to stop me.
January 2018 hit and I was reading what felt like my 200th rejection email, when all of a sudden a friend of mine called and told me that there were some recruiting events in San Francisco and that we should go. So we did. Among the companies there with recruiters was Uber, represented by Zach Singleton for the Uber Career Prep Program. We talked and it seemed like he really cared about my background.
A couple of weeks later, I got a call to interview and I could not believe it. We scheduled an interview and I passed it, and this marked the start of my journey at Uber.”
Tell us about your experience with the Uber Career Prep Program as a Fellow.
“I vividly remember my first workshop like it was yesterday. Because Uber was such a big name, I was unsure if I really deserved to be part of the program. But at that time, so many people believed in my abilities and so my first goal after Uber Career Prep was to land an internship with Uber the following summer.
This was my first time receiving a yes and I intended to make the best use of it. I always asked questions, I followed up with all the presenters on LinkedIn, and asked to have mock interviews. This was going to be a life changing opportunity.
Throughout the program, I was amazed at how many Uber volunteers participated to provide guidance to all the fellows, including executive instruction from company leaders like: Dara, CEO of Uber, Albert, VP of Platform Engineering, Andrew, SVP of Mobility & Business Operations, Bo, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Tony, SVP, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary, and Thuan, former CTO of Uber. Their participation in a program like this showed me that the company was invested in the goal and the mission of UCP and that it wasn’t just run by a singular organization or team.”
What role do you play for the Uber Career Prep Program today?
“Today, I am the Alumni Ambassador for Uber Career Prep, supporting 50 Fellows in this year’s cohort. I host 5 different workshops run by Uber staff that cover both soft and technical skills like engineering competencies, communications, and negotiations that prepare Fellows for success in both the technical and behavioral aspect of the interview and application process as well as once they’re onsite.”
What can you share about your current Engineering work/team?
“I am currently a Software Engineer on the Rider Ads team. I build out multiple features and functionality to help our Ads business grow. During my time on the team, I’ve led and implemented multiple projects spanning from integrating new ad providers to designing new forms of ad targeting.”
How did your UCP Mentor prepare you to succeed within Uber Engineering?
“We performed multiple mock interviews throughout the program and most importantly he walked me through mock interview feedback right after workshops.”
Any tips for aspiring Uber Career Prep applicants and fellows?
“Put a lot of emphasis on practicing technical questions (preferably LeetCode). When practicing, group questions by topic (ie: do array questions back to back and then move to let’s say trees). This allows you to see the patterns and how all questions relate to each other. Don’t memorize answers, instead understand the underlying logic and be able to share your thought process with the interviewer.
Lastly, your drive to succeed is what will get you there, so keep at it even if you’re not scoring perfectly on your mock interviews. Take every opportunity to learn and better yourself and it will pay off in the long-run!”
Posted by Philip Graumann