5 ms·
Blah-blah, Google is so cool, nothing worth reading, actually.
by gritzko 17y ago
Blah-blah, Google is so cool, nothing worth reading, actually.
- wensing 17y agoI have a place in my brain that keeps telling me that I could never get hired by Google (not-good-enough), but then the part of my brain that keeps me going replies: "On the Internet, no one knows you're not a Googler."
- hello_moto 17y agoAgreed... it's like judging the whole book when in reality he just finished the "preface" part.
- clistctrl 17y agoI've only met two googlers in real life. One past, one present. Both talk about google like its a great place, but both seem slightly spent/burnt from the place.
- hello_moto 17y agoOh... I was referring to the fact that the author just completed his first month at Google... It's hard to judge a company just in one month especially when some people might spend their first week (or two) doing company orientation.
- dschobel 17y agoAgreed. I don't doubt that it's an amazing place to work, but every job has its honeymoon phase and the author is definitely in that. I'd be eager to hear an honest assessment from him after a year though. There has to be a reason why brilliant and motivated people leave Google, after all.
- nostrademons 17y agoI've been there for just over a year. My reactions are basically the same as his - they were the same when I started, but they've dulled as I got accustomed to it. Still think it's a great place to work. The OMG-everyone's-so-smart factor does fade as you get accustomed to all the proprietary infrastructure and realize that hey, I'm smart too. Eventually, intelligence just doesn't matter all that much. It's like my dad's story about starting at MIT: the first 2 weeks, everybody has their phi-beta-kappa rings on all the time. After a month, they've all disappeared, because you realize that everybody else has one too, and then smarts just aren't an issue afterwards. You also tend to become more overworked as you gain competence. There's far more that we'd like to do than what we can do. Eventually that marveling at "Oh my god we built this" becomes "Oh shit I have to build this", which can be very satisfying, but also is a lot of work.
- bigbang 17y agoFor honest assessments, probably reviews on glassdoor.com would help. Blogs are generally going to be positive, as the person's identity is attached to it. Annonymous reviews, has its own problems ofcourse
- _delirium 17y agoThe people I know who've left have left mainly due to the secrecy this article also talks about: they developed cool algorithms they wanted to publish research papers about, and weren't allowed to.
- btilly 17y agoLet's see. I offered advice on gmail that solves complaints I have heard about it in the past from heavy email users. I described a scene of perpetual chaos that plenty of people would hate. And I gave the piece of information that Google is hiring. Those are three pieces of information that I thought were worthwhile sharing which are definitely not simply "Google is cool".
- mrduncan 17y agoI thought there were some really interesting tidbits in there and I enjoyed reading about the office environment. About the information that they're hiring - has there ever been a time when Google wasn't hiring? (I mean that seriously, not to be snarky.)
- btilly 17y agoAbout a year ago Google had a layoff and stopped hiring. This was personally frustrating, because I got through the interview process in Feb, got approved by the hiring committee, then headcount was not approved. Which put me in a state of indefinite limbo. So I had found a different job by the time they contacted me again in October.
- psranga 17y agoDid you have to interview again in October, or did they just reactivate your previous offer?
- btilly 17y agoI wound up in a very different position from what I'd applied for, so they did a phone interview with my potential manager to decide whether I needed to come in for another on site interview.
- nostrademons 17y agoWoah, I really did squeak in under the wire. I got through the interview process in December and started in January. They actually did an end run around Larry Page and had a quorum of other VPs approve my app, because he was on vacation that week and I had another offer I was pretty close to taking.
- jodrellblank 17y ago* Blah-blah, Google is so cool, nothing worth reading, actually.* Bit like your comment. Hence the downvote. It is interesting that someone from the outside has now joined Google and found a lot that they would like to say, but can't. I've also seen anecdotal evidence that the 20% time is largely ignored and up to the employee to push for, but he comments that it's both used a lot and you are marked on it. I guess that varies with where in Google you work.
- gritzko 17y agoSorry, but I can't lie to you. I heard all that Google campus stories a zillion times, except probably for j-k buttons, which are hinted at the bottom of the GMail page, right? Downvote at will.
- jodrellblank 17y agoYou don't have to lie to me/us and pretend you love the post, but HN doesn't need "blah blah zzzz" anymore than you need "another google campus story".