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I love reading accounts like this. It's fun and well written and I enjoy the photos too. I work in a cube farm of grey cubes on boring LoB applications. I kno

I love reading accounts like this. It's fun and well written and I enjoy the photos too. I work in a cube farm of grey cubes on boring LoB applications. I know I'll never be skilled enough (or, more correctly, I'll never be ambitious enough to become skilled enough) to work at Google et al but it's really fun to sample the experience from the outside. :)

ocdtrekkie 10y ago
I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a genius is silly. While some of the most intelligent people I know work at or have worked at Google at some point, I know just as many Googlers I would describe as incompetent company men incapable of seeing beyond a PR line. Please don't ever get the impression that Googlers are somehow above you, because they're not. They're just people doing jobs. You probably deserve more credit than you give yourself, and hey, humility is a virtue.
- patrickxdaniel 10y ago
  Well said
- bit_logic 10y ago
  Not sure why this is downvoted, it's mostly true. At this point, getting an offer from Google has nothing to do with engineer skill. Only one thing matters, spending time studying algorithms/data structures and being able to quickly pattern match it to random problems. It's just like cramming for a final exam in college. Massive amount of info pushed into short-term memory and then after finals week, flushed out. Has nothing to do with your skill or experience as an engineer. If I saw a resume and it had Google on it, it doesn't really tell me much other than they played the tech interview game well. It would actually be a signal that I should not interview them like the way Google and others do because they know how to do optimized studying for it. Instead, some other interview method should be used to find out if they're actually a good engineer instead of just good at studying.
  - goldsborough 10y ago
    Yes and no. Interviewing is definitely something you can become good at by practice (I can confirm). But I can tell you that studying algorithms and data structures for interviews (which I would not have done otherwise) has made me a much better engineer and I've taken a huge amount of knowledge from it that I use very often. So it's more like one of those exams that taught you a lot, even if you don't remember everything after a year :)
  - home_boi 10y ago
    almost every other good tech company interviews using the same types of questions
  - cromwellian 10y ago
    I'd say getting an offer from Google means nothing, but successfully working there for a few years at level 5 or above, does count for something. If you are recruiting for a startup, as my wife's recently did, the difference between the Xooglers she hired and non-Xooglers in terms of productivity and code quality was large. This would likewise apply to seasoned ex-Facebook, Twitter, Square, Amazon, etc engineers. These are likely people who had to work with teams on reliable complex systems that serve a big audience. It won't matter for the prototype you use to get seed funding, but I'd argue it matters for the eventual rewrite.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    Downvotes are Google employees defending their employer or self-esteem. I expected them when I posted my comment.
  - kriro 10y ago
    Well this particular intern who wrote the post was found due to things he had build/done. So I'd say in this case it does matter. I'd also say that a Google offer means more than being able to play the recruiting game because Google actively rethinks their recruiting process and tries to be data driven.
- serge2k 10y ago
  The pay, company reputation (as a good employer AND top place technically), appearance on a resume, possibility of working on something cool, and actually managing to get through their interview is always going to appeal to people. I'd work at google if I got an offer, because why not. I know it's a big company and everything, oh well. I'd settle for passing the interview though. Don't like failing. :P
- munificent 10y ago
  > When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible Ugh, I can't believe how often I see this repeated with zero evidence to support it. I work at Google. The office is a ghost town by 6:30. The work life balance on every team I'm aware of is great. Saying the perks are some underhanded strategy to keep people around hugely insults the intelligence of the people working here or at any other office for that matter. Do you honestly think there are people that are like, "God, I'm miserable! I've been here 16 hours and I hate my life but I just... can't... stop... playing foosball!" Damn you, Google, and your nefarious perks! No, that doesn't happen. The reality is that skilled software engineers are in very high demand and companies compete very hard for them. Salary is part of it but perks are a huge component. No matter how much cash you make, for eight hours of the day, you are not spending it on fun leisure, you are at work. So companies understand now that they have to make the workplace appealing too to keep talent. They also find, no surprise, that happy, stimulated people are productive, creative people too. > Please don't ever get the impression that Googlers are somehow above you, because they're not. I totally agree.
  - namelezz 10y ago
    > skilled software engineers are in very high demand and companies compete very hard for them I keep hearing this but when I ask how to identify skilled engineers things get confused. ;)
    - humanrebar 10y ago
      It's mostly about keeping the ones you already have.
    - chimmy88 10y ago
      To sound as snarky as you do, if you can't identify skilled engineers, you aren't one.
  - linkregister 10y ago
    I agree. I know a couple of outliers at Google who work long hours, but even the business folks aren't working much more than 45-50 hours per week. None of the engineers I know work more than 40 hours per week. I've heard that some engineering teams at Amazon and Apple work long hours, but never heard it about Airbnb, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft (last 5 years), or Uber.
- cromwellian 10y ago
  I left the office at 5:40pm tonite, about majority of my team had already left. Most Googlers I encounter are extremely humble. I'd say one of the most valuable things about Googley culture is the lack of prima donna alpha-male macho-engineer behavior. Because Google has so many highly skilled engineers, and because it frowns in general on being an egotistical jerk, it's hard for even huge egos not to adopt some humility. How can I think I'm the bees knees, when I work at a company that employs Rob Pike and Jeff Dean? I've worked at IBM, Oracle, and several mid-sized companies over my 20 years as an engineer, and while many of those companies had high quality engineers, I'd say the biggest benefit of Google is the Company culture it created, not the skill levels of the people.
  - chrisseaton 10y ago
    > I left the office at 5:40pm tonite I can't tell if this is supposed to be evidence that you don't work long hours or an admission that you do.
    - bschwindHN 10y ago
      It all depends on the starting time.
    - cromwellian 10y ago
      I usually don't get into the office until after 10.
    - cromwellian 10y ago
      BTW, keep in mind, many people stay late or come in late to avoid traffic on the 101.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    That company culture must look really different from in there than it does from out here.
    - cromwellian 10y ago
- coldcode 10y ago
  I have 35 years of programming experience in many varied things (and currently iOS Swift). The changes of Google hiring me is 0. The chances of Google hiring a bright young guy willing to stay at work 14 hours a day I expect is pretty high.
  - DesiLurker 10y ago
    same here, 15 years of solid experience in a bunch of startups & many successful projects from scratch but all they seem to care about is warm bodies that can solve their weird interview puzzles. nothing from core expertise area at all.
  - wsh91 10y ago
    Respectfully, I don't know anyone here who works 14 hours a day. Anyone. And two of my teammates are more than twice my age (and I'm 25). Don't get so down on yourself. :) The chances of Google hiring you are zero if you don't apply, but if you do, they're definitely positive.
brian-armstrong 10y ago
If you want to work there, then you should just apply. You never know
linkregister 10y ago
What are LoB applications? I think you suffer from an extreme case of imposter syndrome. Looking through your comment history, I conclude you are more than capable of working there. Whether it would fit with your location/work-life-balance/life goals, I am not sure. Google gets an inflated reputation as do many other prestigious firms. The interview process contains a large element of chance. 1. I would suspect that anyone who has a passion for including more high-level thinking in the classes they teach has the right approach to technology. Let alone that you actually teach a programming course to begin with. 2. Many of your comments show insights into computing and algorithms that I would say are of the same caliber of those of my friends who work at Google.
- Tushon 10y ago
  Not OP, but LOB stands for Line of Business and the TL;DR is that it is any application which fulfills a critical business need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_business https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_business
  - linkregister 10y ago
    It sounds like a perfect set of experience to go to freelancing and then remote development. It seems like going remote is the 2nd most popular endgame for most individual contributors on HN (lucrative startup exit being the first). steven777400 is ahead of the game!
- leshow 10y ago
  What specifically struck you about his comment history? I spent a few minutes digging through it and nothing really jumped out at me, very little of it was about engineering at all really. At least that I could see in the few minutes I spent glancing at it. Do you work at google yourself? What are you basing this opinion on?
gmurphy 10y ago
I thought the same thing once, but applied anyway on a whim. Have now been at Google for 11 years. It can't hurt to try.
- LaMarseillaise 10y ago
  How did you apply? What experience, skills, and education did you have when you applied?
  - gmurphy 10y ago
    A Googler posted on their blog that they were looking, so I emailed him and he referred me. At the time I had dropped out of an EE+CS degree, had four years of suit-wearing professional experience writing enterprise webapps in PHP and ColdFusion, was halfway through a part-time Masters Degree in Design, and had a bunch of small JavaScript/C++/Art side projects. They hired me as a SWE, am now in UX. I won't pretend that I wasn't very lucky in timing, interviewers, etc, but you won't get anywhere if you don't roll the dice.
    - photogrammetry 10y ago
      What's your salary/compensation?
      - poikniok 10y ago
        You expect a director at Google to post their comp? Seriously?
        jrvarela56 10y ago
        Care to share your business acumen with us instead of mocking someone for asking a question?
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
        10y ago
wsh91 10y ago
Hey, I know others on here have already chimed in, but I joined Google not that long ago having been rejected twice before. Please don't sell yourself short. Give us a try.
- thewhitetulip 10y ago
  I live in India, have written a tutorial on Go, https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textbook/ https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textboo..., am decent with Go, am learning Vue.js, writing book on it as well, http://github.com/thewhitetulip/intro-to-vuejs/ http://github.com/thewhitetulip/intro-to-vuejs/. I am a full geek, applied twice. Didn't get any reply! edit: changed book to tutorial
  - gaius 10y ago
    No disrespect intended, but if you have on your CV that you have "written a book" and it turns out not to be an actual book, with an actual publisher, in actual bookstores, it will create a bad impression with most interviewers. You should rephrase it as an "online tutorial" or something.
    - thewhitetulip 10y ago
      Thank you for the advice. I always tend to write a short tutorial, but then people ask, "what made you write the book" or "what's the structure of your book if I want to contribute". That's why I end up writing book. I will keep this tip in mind :-)
  - kidlj 10y ago
    Vue.js is nice!
  - rxlim 10y ago
    I read your tutorial some time ago and found it to be very good, probably one of the best introductions to Go I have read so far. Keep up the good work.
nedsma 10y ago
I suggest you read The Python Paradox (http://paulgraham.com/pypar.html http://paulgraham.com/pypar.html), if you haven't already. It's not that your projects are simple, stupid, don't require skills (I believe it's actually quite the opposite), it's that your current skillset/projects aren't that exciting/sought after in the SV.
- rampage101 10y ago
  Python has come a long way since 2004 when it was not used much in industry. Now it's the top language for data science, along with some good web frameworks such as Flask/Django. Although, I'm pleased to see that Python was thought of highly then.
mattlondon 10y ago
Also to chime in with the other Googlers here: apply. Apply. Apply. Apply. There is a lot of varied work going on internally at Google. As well as the hard-core, intense, "pure" software engineering work that everyone thinks about going on at Google (search, self-driving cars, android, machine learning etc etc), there is also a lot of ... how can I put this nicely? erm ... lets say "less-pure" software engineering going on. The hiring-bar is understandably high for the pure software engineers, but there are other roles. I am not a "software engineer" at Google (I am in another "less-pure" engineering role in the same office that was in the pictures in the article) but I still spend all day every day coding using the same equipment, tools, technologies and infrastructure as the "pure" engineers and we all get the same perks. The difference is that my work is mostly internal-only and generally wont get used by our end-users. And even if you're not a coder, there are still lots of roles that require technical skills to help our customers sort out their own technical problems. Pre-emptive answers to potential questions: * I just applied from the website for a job that sounded like a reasonable fit (not referral, no prior contact). The recruiters took it from there. Prior experience was a few years at IBM and a CompSci degree. * Perks are good but I still do 8:30 - 5 each day, sometimes I work from home if I am feeling lazy. In my London office some people stay late, but usually just because it is easier to schedule meetings with team members in the US (time overlaps etc) I want to work with eager, intelligent people so please I really do encourage anyone reading this to go take a look and apply. https://www.google.com/about/careers/ https://www.google.com/about/careers/ Good luck!
- _RPM 10y ago
  Why would you tells someone on HN who is probably a software engineer to apply to google for non software engineer roles?
  - sb8244 10y ago
    I didn't read the comment as such. Comment author assumes (correctly I'm sure) that some people reading feel like they aren't good enough to work at Google because they aren't hardcore software engineers. The point was you can still code and get the perks even if you aren't that, you just won't be on the self driving cars or customer facing projects.
rybosome 10y ago
I genuinely believed that I wasn't intelligent or confident enough to pass a Google interview. When a Google recruiter contacted me several years ago, my wife encouraged me to reply even though I liked the startup for which I was working and didn't think I'd make it. I prepped aggressively, got very lucky, and now I've been at Google for over 3 years. This is a truly wonderful place to work; if you are interested in being here, I'd encourage you to apply in spite of your self doubt. :)

ocdtrekkie 10y ago

I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a genius is silly. While some of the most intelligent people I know work at or have worked at Google at some point, I know just as many Googlers I would describe as incompetent company men incapable of seeing beyond a PR line. Please don't ever get the impression that Googlers are somehow above you, because they're not. They're just people doing jobs. You probably deserve more credit than you give yourself, and hey, humility is a virtue.

patrickxdaniel 10y ago
Well said
bit_logic 10y ago
Not sure why this is downvoted, it's mostly true. At this point, getting an offer from Google has nothing to do with engineer skill. Only one thing matters, spending time studying algorithms/data structures and being able to quickly pattern match it to random problems. It's just like cramming for a final exam in college. Massive amount of info pushed into short-term memory and then after finals week, flushed out. Has nothing to do with your skill or experience as an engineer. If I saw a resume and it had Google on it, it doesn't really tell me much other than they played the tech interview game well. It would actually be a signal that I should not interview them like the way Google and others do because they know how to do optimized studying for it. Instead, some other interview method should be used to find out if they're actually a good engineer instead of just good at studying.
- goldsborough 10y ago
  Yes and no. Interviewing is definitely something you can become good at by practice (I can confirm). But I can tell you that studying algorithms and data structures for interviews (which I would not have done otherwise) has made me a much better engineer and I've taken a huge amount of knowledge from it that I use very often. So it's more like one of those exams that taught you a lot, even if you don't remember everything after a year :)
- home_boi 10y ago
  almost every other good tech company interviews using the same types of questions
- cromwellian 10y ago
  I'd say getting an offer from Google means nothing, but successfully working there for a few years at level 5 or above, does count for something. If you are recruiting for a startup, as my wife's recently did, the difference between the Xooglers she hired and non-Xooglers in terms of productivity and code quality was large. This would likewise apply to seasoned ex-Facebook, Twitter, Square, Amazon, etc engineers. These are likely people who had to work with teams on reliable complex systems that serve a big audience. It won't matter for the prototype you use to get seed funding, but I'd argue it matters for the eventual rewrite.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  Downvotes are Google employees defending their employer or self-esteem. I expected them when I posted my comment.
- kriro 10y ago
  Well this particular intern who wrote the post was found due to things he had build/done. So I'd say in this case it does matter. I'd also say that a Google offer means more than being able to play the recruiting game because Google actively rethinks their recruiting process and tries to be data driven.
serge2k 10y ago
The pay, company reputation (as a good employer AND top place technically), appearance on a resume, possibility of working on something cool, and actually managing to get through their interview is always going to appeal to people. I'd work at google if I got an offer, because why not. I know it's a big company and everything, oh well. I'd settle for passing the interview though. Don't like failing. :P
munificent 10y ago
> When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible Ugh, I can't believe how often I see this repeated with zero evidence to support it. I work at Google. The office is a ghost town by 6:30. The work life balance on every team I'm aware of is great. Saying the perks are some underhanded strategy to keep people around hugely insults the intelligence of the people working here or at any other office for that matter. Do you honestly think there are people that are like, "God, I'm miserable! I've been here 16 hours and I hate my life but I just... can't... stop... playing foosball!" Damn you, Google, and your nefarious perks! No, that doesn't happen. The reality is that skilled software engineers are in very high demand and companies compete very hard for them. Salary is part of it but perks are a huge component. No matter how much cash you make, for eight hours of the day, you are not spending it on fun leisure, you are at work. So companies understand now that they have to make the workplace appealing too to keep talent. They also find, no surprise, that happy, stimulated people are productive, creative people too. > Please don't ever get the impression that Googlers are somehow above you, because they're not. I totally agree.
- namelezz 10y ago
  > skilled software engineers are in very high demand and companies compete very hard for them I keep hearing this but when I ask how to identify skilled engineers things get confused. ;)
  - humanrebar 10y ago
    It's mostly about keeping the ones you already have.
  - chimmy88 10y ago
    To sound as snarky as you do, if you can't identify skilled engineers, you aren't one.
- linkregister 10y ago
  I agree. I know a couple of outliers at Google who work long hours, but even the business folks aren't working much more than 45-50 hours per week. None of the engineers I know work more than 40 hours per week. I've heard that some engineering teams at Amazon and Apple work long hours, but never heard it about Airbnb, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft (last 5 years), or Uber.
cromwellian 10y ago
I left the office at 5:40pm tonite, about majority of my team had already left. Most Googlers I encounter are extremely humble. I'd say one of the most valuable things about Googley culture is the lack of prima donna alpha-male macho-engineer behavior. Because Google has so many highly skilled engineers, and because it frowns in general on being an egotistical jerk, it's hard for even huge egos not to adopt some humility. How can I think I'm the bees knees, when I work at a company that employs Rob Pike and Jeff Dean? I've worked at IBM, Oracle, and several mid-sized companies over my 20 years as an engineer, and while many of those companies had high quality engineers, I'd say the biggest benefit of Google is the Company culture it created, not the skill levels of the people.
- chrisseaton 10y ago
  > I left the office at 5:40pm tonite I can't tell if this is supposed to be evidence that you don't work long hours or an admission that you do.
  - bschwindHN 10y ago
    It all depends on the starting time.
  - cromwellian 10y ago
    I usually don't get into the office until after 10.
  - cromwellian 10y ago
    BTW, keep in mind, many people stay late or come in late to avoid traffic on the 101.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  That company culture must look really different from in there than it does from out here.
  - cromwellian 10y ago
coldcode 10y ago
I have 35 years of programming experience in many varied things (and currently iOS Swift). The changes of Google hiring me is 0. The chances of Google hiring a bright young guy willing to stay at work 14 hours a day I expect is pretty high.
- DesiLurker 10y ago
  same here, 15 years of solid experience in a bunch of startups & many successful projects from scratch but all they seem to care about is warm bodies that can solve their weird interview puzzles. nothing from core expertise area at all.
- wsh91 10y ago
  Respectfully, I don't know anyone here who works 14 hours a day. Anyone. And two of my teammates are more than twice my age (and I'm 25). Don't get so down on yourself. :) The chances of Google hiring you are zero if you don't apply, but if you do, they're definitely positive.

brian-armstrong 10y ago

If you want to work there, then you should just apply. You never know

linkregister 10y ago

What are LoB applications? I think you suffer from an extreme case of imposter syndrome. Looking through your comment history, I conclude you are more than capable of working there. Whether it would fit with your location/work-life-balance/life goals, I am not sure. Google gets an inflated reputation as do many other prestigious firms. The interview process contains a large element of chance. 1. I would suspect that anyone who has a passion for including more high-level thinking in the classes they teach has the right approach to technology. Let alone that you actually teach a programming course to begin with. 2. Many of your comments show insights into computing and algorithms that I would say are of the same caliber of those of my friends who work at Google.

Tushon 10y ago
Not OP, but LOB stands for Line of Business and the TL;DR is that it is any application which fulfills a critical business need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_business https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_business
- linkregister 10y ago
  It sounds like a perfect set of experience to go to freelancing and then remote development. It seems like going remote is the 2nd most popular endgame for most individual contributors on HN (lucrative startup exit being the first). steven777400 is ahead of the game!
leshow 10y ago
What specifically struck you about his comment history? I spent a few minutes digging through it and nothing really jumped out at me, very little of it was about engineering at all really. At least that I could see in the few minutes I spent glancing at it. Do you work at google yourself? What are you basing this opinion on?

gmurphy 10y ago

I thought the same thing once, but applied anyway on a whim. Have now been at Google for 11 years. It can't hurt to try.

LaMarseillaise 10y ago
How did you apply? What experience, skills, and education did you have when you applied?
- gmurphy 10y ago
  A Googler posted on their blog that they were looking, so I emailed him and he referred me. At the time I had dropped out of an EE+CS degree, had four years of suit-wearing professional experience writing enterprise webapps in PHP and ColdFusion, was halfway through a part-time Masters Degree in Design, and had a bunch of small JavaScript/C++/Art side projects. They hired me as a SWE, am now in UX. I won't pretend that I wasn't very lucky in timing, interviewers, etc, but you won't get anywhere if you don't roll the dice.
  - photogrammetry 10y ago
    What's your salary/compensation?
    - poikniok 10y ago
      You expect a director at Google to post their comp? Seriously?
      - jrvarela56 10y ago
        Care to share your business acumen with us instead of mocking someone for asking a question?
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - 10y ago

wsh91 10y ago

Hey, I know others on here have already chimed in, but I joined Google not that long ago having been rejected twice before. Please don't sell yourself short. Give us a try.

thewhitetulip 10y ago
I live in India, have written a tutorial on Go, https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textbook/ https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textboo..., am decent with Go, am learning Vue.js, writing book on it as well, http://github.com/thewhitetulip/intro-to-vuejs/ http://github.com/thewhitetulip/intro-to-vuejs/. I am a full geek, applied twice. Didn't get any reply! edit: changed book to tutorial
- gaius 10y ago
  No disrespect intended, but if you have on your CV that you have "written a book" and it turns out not to be an actual book, with an actual publisher, in actual bookstores, it will create a bad impression with most interviewers. You should rephrase it as an "online tutorial" or something.
  - thewhitetulip 10y ago
    Thank you for the advice. I always tend to write a short tutorial, but then people ask, "what made you write the book" or "what's the structure of your book if I want to contribute". That's why I end up writing book. I will keep this tip in mind :-)
- kidlj 10y ago
  Vue.js is nice!
- rxlim 10y ago
  I read your tutorial some time ago and found it to be very good, probably one of the best introductions to Go I have read so far. Keep up the good work.

nedsma 10y ago

I suggest you read The Python Paradox (http://paulgraham.com/pypar.html http://paulgraham.com/pypar.html), if you haven't already. It's not that your projects are simple, stupid, don't require skills (I believe it's actually quite the opposite), it's that your current skillset/projects aren't that exciting/sought after in the SV.

rampage101 10y ago
Python has come a long way since 2004 when it was not used much in industry. Now it's the top language for data science, along with some good web frameworks such as Flask/Django. Although, I'm pleased to see that Python was thought of highly then.

mattlondon 10y ago

Also to chime in with the other Googlers here: apply. Apply. Apply. Apply. There is a lot of varied work going on internally at Google. As well as the hard-core, intense, "pure" software engineering work that everyone thinks about going on at Google (search, self-driving cars, android, machine learning etc etc), there is also a lot of ... how can I put this nicely? erm ... lets say "less-pure" software engineering going on. The hiring-bar is understandably high for the pure software engineers, but there are other roles. I am not a "software engineer" at Google (I am in another "less-pure" engineering role in the same office that was in the pictures in the article) but I still spend all day every day coding using the same equipment, tools, technologies and infrastructure as the "pure" engineers and we all get the same perks. The difference is that my work is mostly internal-only and generally wont get used by our end-users. And even if you're not a coder, there are still lots of roles that require technical skills to help our customers sort out their own technical problems. Pre-emptive answers to potential questions: * I just applied from the website for a job that sounded like a reasonable fit (not referral, no prior contact). The recruiters took it from there. Prior experience was a few years at IBM and a CompSci degree. * Perks are good but I still do 8:30 - 5 each day, sometimes I work from home if I am feeling lazy. In my London office some people stay late, but usually just because it is easier to schedule meetings with team members in the US (time overlaps etc) I want to work with eager, intelligent people so please I really do encourage anyone reading this to go take a look and apply. https://www.google.com/about/careers/ https://www.google.com/about/careers/ Good luck!

_RPM 10y ago
Why would you tells someone on HN who is probably a software engineer to apply to google for non software engineer roles?
- sb8244 10y ago
  I didn't read the comment as such. Comment author assumes (correctly I'm sure) that some people reading feel like they aren't good enough to work at Google because they aren't hardcore software engineers. The point was you can still code and get the perks even if you aren't that, you just won't be on the self driving cars or customer facing projects.

rybosome 10y ago

I genuinely believed that I wasn't intelligent or confident enough to pass a Google interview. When a Google recruiter contacted me several years ago, my wife encouraged me to reply even though I liked the startup for which I was working and didn't think I'd make it. I prepped aggressively, got very lucky, and now I've been at Google for over 3 years. This is a truly wonderful place to work; if you are interested in being here, I'd encourage you to apply in spite of your self doubt. :)