DEV Community: Lawrence Tan 🇸🇬

"Map My Words": Building a Google Maps + Gemini App in a Coffee Break!

Lawrence Tan 🇸🇬 — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 06:34:36 +0000

What can you build with ai.studio/build?
Turns out… a whole app — in one coffee break ☕️

I’ve always loved Google Maps. It’s my #1 go-to app, and as someone who’s constantly reading and writing reviews, I realised something: sometimes it’s hard to find the right words.

💡 So I thought, what if AI could help with “reviewer’s block”?

Using ai.studio/build, I prototyped “Map My Words” , a playful mini-tool that blends Google Maps + Gemini to help you express what you really feel about a place, in seconds.

It’s not about replacing your voice — it’s about helping you find it.

🚀 Try it here

See video here

GenAI #AIStudio #GoogleGemini #GoogleMaps #CoffeebreakProject #Innovation

I have decided to move out of mobile development, and here's why

Lawrence Tan 🇸🇬 — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 15:45:48 +0000

Chancing upon a Mobile Developer internship role during my undergraduate days in a startup based in Europe was what kicked start my career. Time passed, and it has been more than five years.

My First Start-up

What have I achieved over the five years as a mobile developer, mainly doing iOS? I learned a lot. In the first start-up that I worked for, I picked up the concept of hybrid apps, at that time I was using PhoneGap, Cordova, and Angular to write codes to deploy to two platforms; Android and iOS, while still writing native Objective-C for iOS. I had my highs and lows during the seven months, dealt with difficult clients but yet able to deliver solutions quickly while working through the nights. After a merger, together with many of the pioneers, we decided to move on.

My Second Start-up

In my next start-up, I enjoyed most of my time there and built many meaningful relationships. I had great opportunities like being attached to one of the best Telecommunications companies to work on their high-volume users' mobile app. I also got a chance to work together with developers in Pivotal Labs and learned the concept of pair programming. I also got more serious in writing unit tests and ensure all projects are properly integrated with CI/CD pipelines. All these are awesome, but I thought that it will be really cool to be working in the healthcare sector. So I decided to move on to my next company, which is an MNC.

My First MNC

In this new Pharma MNC, the system is more rigid. Unlike my start-up days experience, much of the time is spent on waiting for approvals or getting requirements changed by major stakeholders. Development is no longer the main challenge, despite the fact that as an engineering team, we are still enforcing best practices and coding standards. I also picked up the concept of DevOps and started building my own apps, and wrote tutorials. After 2 years, I found out that the routine gets more unavoidable, especially with many changes in the senior management level, hence, I decided that maybe its time to move out and do something else.

Time to get out of the comfort zone

As a self-taught developer, I have learned that it's impossible to hit the plateau, speaking from the perspective of a mobile app developer. Apple Ecosystem has made a couple of major releases like migrating from Objective-C to Swift, UIKit to SwiftUI. And then you have cross-platform frameworks like React Native & Flutter to help you ship your POCs or MVPs faster to the market. All these are great stuff, thanks to all the bright minds like yourself who have at least written a line of code, showing interest in the field. As such, I cannot visualize myself being stuck in a company, and just writing codes after codes, updating apps from version 1 to version 200, without much fulfillment on the outside. This is why I have decided to take on a consultant role in Google (I have written an article on my interview experience here). It very much challenges me to interact directly with stakeholders, strategize, and help in utilizing tools to boost businesses. This is out of my comfort zone.

All in all, I think we all have our own career aspiration, maybe you are a developer yourself and you strongly feel that Full-Stack is the way to go, no doubt. On the contrary, you could also be standing on a pivot point, and rethinking about your next five years. I hope that you will take some time away from work, plan out your life. I reconsidered when I will start a family (1-2 years later), how much more savings I need, and what is my dream career.

I'm offered a job in Google without a good degree, you can too!

Lawrence Tan 🇸🇬 — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 07:33:34 +0000

All of my illustrations come from freepik.

Do you dream of working in a tech giant company like Google, but you seem to lose the confidence of even trying because of your educational background? Then you are in the same boat as me. Though I graduated from a renowned local university, I left with a degree without honors. My cumulative GPA was below average, and most of my friends got first-class or second-class honours and they could choose to go anywhere they want, like the big fours, any awesome startups or any Fortune 500 companies.

My Story

I always dream of working in a place like Google. Yes, it's a shared dream, but more than it is a dream for me, it is a milestone I want to hit for myself and my future children.

So, after I graduated, I went on to two start-ups for a couple of years. I worked as a mobile engineer as I have picked up the skills during my internship (my degree did not get me anywhere). During those times, I tried applying for roles in Google every single year, and I was rejected every single time. The only main difference between each interview I got was that I progressively became better and better until where I am today. Those falls pushed me to work harder.

After the two start-ups, I grew tired of the environment I was in, so I went on to an MNC to continue developing my role in the mobile app space. The good part about being in an MNC is that the workload can be less intense at times, and that allows me to explore Google technologies like Flutter, Google Cloud, and Pixel phones. Additionally, I also went deeper into Google Chrome, picking up skills to debug webpages. All this I did is for a reason, to stand out in future interviews with Google, hopefully, and to open up myself to more possible roles.

One quick trick to securing an interview with Google is through a referral; this can double/triple your chance of getting an email from their HR, which I did.

My Interview Journey with Google

So, in my fifth attempt in securing a Technical Consultant role with Google, I told myself that this is it if this door is going to be closed again, I guess I will let this dream forever be a dream. So, treat every opportunity as though it's your last, and you may see yourself outdoing it.

1st Round (Phone Interview)

Carrying my not-so-fantastic degree, a decent resume, and four years of mobile development experience, I started my first round with the HR, answering basic tech questions. One advice I can give is to be as transparent and honest as possible, as this will help you in your next few interviews. I told the HR that I am less familiar with SQL due to my field of work, which mainly focuses on Mobile Apps.

2nd Round (Technical Interview)

In my next interview, which was a live coding on google docs with one of their specialists, again, I emphasize before I start that I'm not so familiar and may need guidance to complete the assignment, and I did finish it with some guidance. After that, I was given troubleshooting scenarios to access how I approach such cases.

3rd & 4th Round (Googleyness Interview)

In my third round, I was assessed for my General Cognitive Ability (GCA). They asked open-ended questions to learn how you approach and solve problems. And there’s no one right answer—your ability to explain your thought process
and how you use data to inform decisions is what’s most important. They named me a Google Product and asked me how I can make it profitable. In my fourth round, I was accessed for my Leadership Ability, be prepared to discuss how you have used your communication and decision-making skills to mobilize others. This might be by stepping up to a leadership role at
work or with an organization, or by helping a team succeed even when you weren’t officially the leader, and this round was also with my potential boss. They asked questions like if I can build any app, what will I create? Ultimately, these two rounds also require me to bring out real-life work experiences to describe how I have managed conflict, how I am a team player, and how I deal with people. All these will eventually sum up as to how Googley are you. Mainly to share how you work individually and on a team, how you help others, how you
navigate ambiguity, and how you push yourself to grow outside of your comfort zone.

Final Round (Cross-Functional Interview)

In my final round, I was interviewed by a cross-functional team member. For my role, I collaborate with the Sales Team, so their questions are more related to collaboration and building relations. A fun question pops up asking what games do I play; I believe knowing how to relax and enjoy time alone is essential. There should be plans on how to cultivate longevity in the things we do.

Packet Stage

After the Fifth round, my application was moved to the packet stage (where a business case will be written by my assigned HR to encourage my position with Google), but due to COVID-19, the packet got delayed at the US-HQ for a couple of months. While waiting, I went on to explore other job opportunities and got myself another offer.

I reached out to HR, and they helped me to expedite the process again, and I got my formal offer through that and accepted it. I will be embarking on my "Dream-Come-True" career starting Sep 2020!

TL;DR.

It must have been a long post, and I want to give you my main points here:

Believe in yourself, and dare to chase after your dream.
If you are passionate about something, proof it by showing what you did.
A degree is just a degree, and experience is more valuable.
Be prepared for the interview and be transparent.
Type out a list of real-life work examples you have where you drive changes.
If your interviews are done remotely, use a wired earpiece, and remove distractions from your environment.
Enter each interview with a fresh mind and make every interview fun and informative to both parties.
Ask thoughtful questions and seek clarification if necessary, thought process outweighs the right answers.
Be concise and listen carefully.

I hope this is helpful and all the best in applying to your dream job or dream company!

P.S. I'm a Christian, so I also want to add this Proverb to encourage fellow believers:

Before you do anything,
put your trust totally in God and not in yourself.
Then every plan you make will succeed.
Proverbs 16:3