Well, I'm not out to rain on anyones parade, and some of you (that don't know me) will probably think this is just "sour grapes", but I really think the pie-in-the-sky picture Google paints is deserves a little counter-point - I interviewed for google back in 1994 based off a message to this list, and I would like to make a couple points about the experience and the company as I percieved it:
Google made several claims about the position, initally; first that it was to staff a data center in Ireland - I don't know if that was actually true, but that claim evaporated for (what became) obvious, to me) reasons - specifically, they found themselves "unable" to set up a tele-conference between Mountain View and Grand Rapids, MI - a situation I found almost funny, given the kinds of resouces Google has a their disposal, and the fact that I personal a) located 2 seperate teleconference facilities for them, and - when they declined to avail themselves of either of those, offered to simply set up netmeeting (or even just IM) w/ full audio/video from my hotel, there. Apparently they don't use netmeeting (or any of the Linux alternatives) or IM. In fact, I got the distinct impression the recruiter didn't know what I was talking about. Of course, this was pre-Google Talk... They wanted me to fly to Mountain View - which I did - but they declined to get me a first class ticket - even if I paid the difference in fare. This was annoying to me, since a) I hate to fly commercial, anyway (being a smoker, and not liking airport crowds), and b) I'm a big guy and those coach seats are made for people about half my size. The hotel in - I think it was San Jose - the selected for me - and they did select it - I had no option, here, despite the fact that I know people in that area I could have stayed with - the hotel was really cute - that's the only word for it - it was a "boutique hotel" (self-admitted) and I had to pay for it - Google were supposed to re-imbuse me, but to this day they have not. The hotel had a minibar and so on, but no room service, and everything in the room (it was already stocked) cost about twice what the same item would have if I had bought it at the convenience store across the street. The hotel charged me for several bottles of Coke (or maybe it was Pepsi) which I did not drink (I don't drink colas - haven't for for the last 10 years) and never took them off the bill, and didn't refund my credit card. The hotel did have what I maintain is absolutely the most comfortable bed I have slept in since the days of grandma's feather bed when I was a child, but I would not have paid that kind of money just to sleep in it... So Google still owes me around $300 (two nights) for the hotel bill in San Jose which they were supposed to "re-imburse" - as well as some $140 or so the cab and limo fares to and from the airport, etc - note that it's a lot easier to get a limo in San Jose than a cab, and it costs about the same, apparently. Then there was the campus - not bad, but definitely not "all that" as it has been portrayed e.g. in magazines - I have worked in any number of places as nice, and the chef quit - he was not there when I got there, and quit shortly after they didn't hire me .... hmmm. So the food might be free, but it's not what it once was. Also, I wasn't even there long enough to eat ... perhaps they just didn't like the way I looked - I am almost 50 - I was definitely the oldest person I saw while I was there. They may not admit to an age bias, but I am convinced there is one. I also wore my normal working attire (jeans, high-tops, shirt, and a jacket) - I didn't feel under-dressed compared to the employees, but many of the other interviewees were college or just post-college age, and were wearing suits that had to have cost more than my entire wardrobe combined. The people I met were polite enough - except for the interviewers. They were a) cocky, and b) not as bright as they seemed to think they were, imo - this could be written off to "programmer ego", but in my experience (software engineering in the aerospace field) the really good programmers (and h/w guys) don't have a degree of humility not typically found in college-boy "hacker" wannabe types. I was not just un-impressed with the people they had doing the interviews, I was actually surprised to find that they were such run-of-the-mill IT types. In fact, a couple of them I developed a strong anitpathy for just during the course of the interviews. They clearly were looking for chair-warmers - people who would not threaten their shiny new Google-positions - and were more interested in yes-men and ass-kissers than in e.g. someone who was interested in contributing to pushing Google's stock price even higher, and pushing their coolness factor off the scale. In short, they didn't like me either - it had become clear that they were not planning to use me to staff the new data center in Ireland even if they had hired me (they wanted people who wanted to live in Mountain View - something that is out of the question for me, since I remain a diehard cigarette smoker), and the word I got back from the recruiter after I got back to MI was that the interviewers had "had a meeting" and concluded that I "lacked depth" - which I consider one of the most assinine, inane, and yes just plain stoopid remarks I've ever gotten from an interviewer in 20-some-odd years of interviewing. So they didn't just waste my time, they cost me around $500 just to tell me something I can hear from any high-school guidance counselor or homeless bum on a street-corner. I am not happy with Google, despite their neat toys and mad stock price, and am quite certain that their "don't be evil" slogan has already been corrupted - it's only a matter of time until the rot begins to show thru. ... In any case, they definitely seem to have a preference for youth, and - while I do understand that they probably have quotas to meet - I felt strongly that the fact that I was white, male, a smoker, have long hair and a beard, and don't wear business suits, all worked against me. It seemed a very "corporate" corporate culture, regardless of what you may have heard. I do not feel that my technical competence was even considered - an idea I feel continues to be borne out daily as I continue to find contract work in fields far more technically demanding than anything Google has even considered. Note that the interviewers literally declined to talk about things like IPv6, BitTorrent as a data distribution protocol, etc. That is: when asked about my own thoughts, those are things that I brought up and they simply passed them over and basically said "but what do you *really* want to do?" Posuers, was my overall impression, technically, and the non-technical part of the trip just left a bad taste in my mouth. Based on this experience, I would not reccomend Google as an employer to any geek. As a practicing geek, I just felt insulted and belittled - and they didn't even do insults very well, imo. It didn't help that they went out of their way to tell me what an honour it was just to be interviewed. After all, I do interviews all the time (several a year, at least) and don't have to put up with that kind of crap. And I will re-iterate, the technical part of the interview was minimal - pretty much anyone who has set up a linux home network could have aced it. This isn't about technical skills, it's about image. Google is after a particular image, and "Geek" is not it, imo. So there. Btw, I figure Eater is probably the exception that proves the rule - he does seem a bit geeky in the photos, but I'm betting he's the *only* one they have working for them... probably hired him to provide CNN with photo ops... "... and this is our geek" :D --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CHAOS706.ORG" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/chaos706 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
