[TriLUG] Positions with Google in NC

[bak]

Bear with me for a minute, I haven't discussed this with more than a 
couple people in the last six months, and I couldn't resist the 
opportunity to do so now.

As someone who was offered an SA job at Google last year and turned it 
down, I would describe my experience with the Google interview process 
as prolonged (i.e. about 3 months) and somewhat aggravating, consisting 
of two phone screens, followed by an on-site interview of epic length, 
during which I was grilled in half a dozen hour-long interviews on 
various UNIX, scripting, networking, and SA-related topics at a depth of 
something like 300 meters.

I must have acquitted myself fairly well, because they offered me the 
job.  But the fact that they had free food, drinks, and scooby snacks 
didn't really make up, in my mind, for their middling salary offer -- 
the recruiter even told me at the interview that they compensate for the 
salary with their benefits, free ski trips, free food and t-shirts, etc. 
  This is an argument that would have pulled more weight with me had I 
been just out of college, but not so much at this stage in my life.  And 
the "We're Google" factor didn't make up for the fact that none of the 
techie interviewers made the time to answer my questions about what 
working at Google was like, except for the last guy, who reluctantly 
gave me five minutes.  Career path?  Work environment?  We're Google! 
Our benefits are great!  Don't ask questions, we have to double our 
workforce next year!  Perhaps this is not an unreasonable attitude to 
encounter at a company like Google, but I have to admit that it worried 
me a great deal.

So I took the job I'd been offered here in RTP for a couple thousand 
less -- and it turns out that I can easily afford a house here and rub 
shoulders with half of the techies and nerds on the east coast (the 
other half are in NYC it seems :), whereas in Northern California I 
would be renting and probably wind up with a roommate.

Would I have taken the Google job if it were here in NC instead of in 
CA, or if I were a software guy instead of an SA?  Almost certainly! 
But Google is a company like any other company; they just have this 
thing about saying "Don't Be Evil" a bunch of times, having an 
impossibly huge server farm, and giving out Kool-Aid, and I've heard the 
same "it's awesome!" and "it's insane!" stories from Google employees 
that I've heard from countless other folks.

So thanks for putting up with my little rant.  I guess my point is this: 
don't sell yourself short!  Quality techies are in demand, and the 
company with the best co-workers, leadership, and compensation wins. 
The prospect of free food is nice and all, but as an adult, I have 
learned to feed myself. :)

Maybe I should have had Taco Bell like Aaron before my Google interview 
-- I went to In-N-Out. :)

--bak

Aaron S. Joyner wrote:
> 
> Having said all that, let me tack on two things.  The Google interview
> process is both highly educational, and a real treat in-and-of itself. 
> Even if you're not sure you would be interested in moving to Lenoir, or
> if you'd make it through the interview process, I'd strongly encourage
> you to try it.  I promise you'll learn at least a dozen things you'd
> never thought of along the way.  In addition to the sheer educational
> value, it's really quite a fun experience to just geek out for a few
> hours with some of the smartest, most technically challenging and
> interesting people you're likely to meet this year.
> 
> So, what now?  Send me a resume, and I'll punch it into our internal
> recruit-tracking system, along with a friendly recommendation.  You'll
> likely hear back from a recruiter by mid next week, at the latest.  As a
> friendly reminder, you probably want to reply directly to me, not to the
> list.
> 
> Aaron S. Joyner
> 
> 0 - http://www.trilug.org/pipermail/trilug/Week-of-Mon-20070115/046024.html
> 1 - http://tinyurl.com/3cwowy (Google Maps showing location of Lenoir)
> 2 - http://joyner.ws/Google-Interview.html