In another refutation of Betteridge's Law, the answer is yes. Google has been relentlessly trying to recruit people in my peer group for a long time. I guess

In another refutation of Betteridge's Law, the answer is yes. Google has been relentlessly trying to recruit people in my peer group for a long time. I guess it's a specialty that's in high demand somewhere within the 'plex. A lot of these people are very talented indeed, and about half of them just won't even consider Google. Of those, it's another even split between those who are uninterested in Google generally (privacy issues or ad-based business model) vs. those who are specifically put off by the interview process. So that's maybe a quarter of that sample. It's something I'd be deeply concerned about if I were at Google myself, but I guess they feel that if they just fling enough money around they'll find enough people willing to put up with that crap, and since they literally have more money than they know what to do with it's not a problem.