To contrast and say something surprisingly positive about Amazon. A local Amazon engineering manager looking to hire people sent me a note and suggested we dis

To contrast and say something surprisingly positive about Amazon. A local Amazon engineering manager looking to hire people sent me a note and suggested we discuss over a coffee. While I didn't want to pursue the opportunity I definitely left with a much better opinion of Amazon. Also contrast with Microsoft when I had a series of technical interviews with members of the team I would be working with. I ended up going with a different opportunity but again I left with a good impression. The Google hiring process sucks IMO. I've been approached a few times. I recall one phone coding interview where the Google engineer was condescending and trying to prove he's smarter than me. It seemed like he was in a bad mood or something, that can happen I guess. In a later recruiting attempt a Google recruiter called me, said he'd follow up, and then left Google to go work for Apple without having anyone follow up with me. Yet another recruiter, when he heard what area I'm interested in, said I've no chance because everyone in Google wants to work there. One thing that should automatically give you pause is a recruiter in Texas while the jobs are in California. Clearly that recruiter doesn't interact closely with the teams he's hiring for. Google has gotten away with this for so long because they can be picky. Every open position has 100's of candidates. But times will change. They certainly have a lot of good people but they also have a lot of less good people. I've worked with some ex-Google people and they're really just like everyone else. Conversely there are lots of very good/smart people who don't work for Google...