Your story sounds familiar. It does seem as if something changed in the past five to ten years when it comes to the overall application and recruiting process.

Your story sounds familiar. It does seem as if something changed in the past five to ten years when it comes to the overall application and recruiting process. But then I have the impression the entire field of software development changed for the worst. As for advice, that is naturally difficult as this will highly depend on your background, your expectations (where do you see yourself in five years .... ;) ), motivation, and of course personal character. About Google, certainly this depends on aforementioned characteristics, but generally speaking I'd be rather wary (to avoid saying "not recommend it"), particularly when one is not in his 20s anymore (a blunt generalisation of course). If you'd like to continue this discussion, are you reachable outside of HN?