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Reading people's accounts of interviewing at Google, I would never apply, and I won't cash in on the recommendations I could get from some ex/Googlers I know.

Reading people's accounts of interviewing at Google, I would never apply, and I won't cash in on the recommendations I could get from some ex/Googlers I know. Reading the submission, look how many times the candidate has to "ping" people just to keep the ball rolling. In my mind, I'd end up working with a bunch of sycophants who are willing to do that sort of thing, the same sort of people who got a thrill out of the strategy involved in applying to Ivy Leagues. Google does some great work, but man do they carry a stench.

EmployedRussian 10y ago
> I would never apply I guess you'll never know what (if anything) you've missed. > I'd end up working with a bunch of sycophants who are willing to do that sort of thing You are implying bad intentions where none are likely to exist. Google is a very large company, and 0.001% of candidates are bound to have suboptimal interview experience by sheer bad luck (and it's likely that you see their horror stories more than you see "I interviewed at Google, had a good experience, got hired, and now work on cool stuff with incredible coworkers" kinds of stories).
- thesmallestcat 10y ago
  Do you work for Google? I hate that I have to ask this, but Googlers are known to come out to defend their employer on HN, for better or worse.
  - EmployedRussian 10y ago
    > Do you work for Google? I do. I've also done 200+ interviews. > Googlers are known to come out to defend their employer on HN Well, sure. It's not because Google tells us to defend it though, but rather to state the facts as we see them.
    - thesmallestcat 10y ago
      On the other hand, I understand that part of the employment contract is that ex-Googlers cannot bad-mouth the company. Horror stories come out, but few and far between due to this risk. Google's certainly not alone in having clauses like that, but the volume of Google defense on HN feels like astroturf. So that's where my cynicism comes from.
      - EmployedRussian 10y ago
        > I understand that part of the employment contract is that ex-Googlers cannot bad-mouth the company. You understand this based on what? Out of curiosity, I just went through my employment agreement, and did not find any such clauses. > Horror stories come out, but few and far between due to this risk. Or due to the fact that they rarely happen (I am not disputing that they do sometimes happen). > the volume of Google defense on HN feels like astroturf. Like I said earlier, since you are dead set to never apply, you'll never find out what (if anything) you've missed.
        thesmallestcat 10y ago
        Seriously? Maybe you're an exception, but it's not like a search for "google employee nda" returns nothing. It's been discussed on HN as well.
        EmployedRussian 10y ago
        Google NDA covers (non)disclosure of Google confidential info. It has nothing to do with "bad-mouth"ing before or after termination of employment.
        ocdtrekkie 10y ago
        Perhaps not, but if you say something negative about Google, and it gets a lot of attention from the public, I think you can agree that you're probably going to get fired. Let's be real here, NDA or no NDA, this is true of working for any company. Which is why the "personal views" of a current company employee of any organization posted publicly is close to useless.
- yongjik 10y ago
  > "I interviewed at Google, had a good experience, got hired, and now move protocol buffers from one directory to another every day" There, FTFY. :P (used to be a Googler.) * Well, that and eat tons of snacks and coffee. So it was actually pretty good.
ma2rten 10y ago
I had a great experience interviewing at Google and most people do. Google has millions of applicants per year, some of them are bound to have a bad experience.

EmployedRussian 10y ago

> I would never apply I guess you'll never know what (if anything) you've missed. > I'd end up working with a bunch of sycophants who are willing to do that sort of thing You are implying bad intentions where none are likely to exist. Google is a very large company, and 0.001% of candidates are bound to have suboptimal interview experience by sheer bad luck (and it's likely that you see their horror stories more than you see "I interviewed at Google, had a good experience, got hired, and now work on cool stuff with incredible coworkers" kinds of stories).

thesmallestcat 10y ago
Do you work for Google? I hate that I have to ask this, but Googlers are known to come out to defend their employer on HN, for better or worse.
- EmployedRussian 10y ago
  > Do you work for Google? I do. I've also done 200+ interviews. > Googlers are known to come out to defend their employer on HN Well, sure. It's not because Google tells us to defend it though, but rather to state the facts as we see them.
  - thesmallestcat 10y ago
    On the other hand, I understand that part of the employment contract is that ex-Googlers cannot bad-mouth the company. Horror stories come out, but few and far between due to this risk. Google's certainly not alone in having clauses like that, but the volume of Google defense on HN feels like astroturf. So that's where my cynicism comes from.
    - EmployedRussian 10y ago
      > I understand that part of the employment contract is that ex-Googlers cannot bad-mouth the company. You understand this based on what? Out of curiosity, I just went through my employment agreement, and did not find any such clauses. > Horror stories come out, but few and far between due to this risk. Or due to the fact that they rarely happen (I am not disputing that they do sometimes happen). > the volume of Google defense on HN feels like astroturf. Like I said earlier, since you are dead set to never apply, you'll never find out what (if anything) you've missed.
      - thesmallestcat 10y ago
        Seriously? Maybe you're an exception, but it's not like a search for "google employee nda" returns nothing. It's been discussed on HN as well.
        EmployedRussian 10y ago
        Google NDA covers (non)disclosure of Google confidential info. It has nothing to do with "bad-mouth"ing before or after termination of employment.
        ocdtrekkie 10y ago
        Perhaps not, but if you say something negative about Google, and it gets a lot of attention from the public, I think you can agree that you're probably going to get fired. Let's be real here, NDA or no NDA, this is true of working for any company. Which is why the "personal views" of a current company employee of any organization posted publicly is close to useless.
yongjik 10y ago
> "I interviewed at Google, had a good experience, got hired, and now move protocol buffers from one directory to another every day" There, FTFY. :P (used to be a Googler.) * Well, that and eat tons of snacks and coffee. So it was actually pretty good.

ma2rten 10y ago

I had a great experience interviewing at Google and most people do. Google has millions of applicants per year, some of them are bound to have a bad experience.