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So what you're saying is that this tool is bad because it makes you sad ?. Information is empowering use it to make informed choices about your career. If you'r

So what you're saying is that this tool is bad because it makes you sad ?. Information is empowering use it to make informed choices about your career. If you're taking less money, make sure there is some trade off you're happy with. Also, most Google jobs are language agnostic. You can code in pretty much one of C/C++, Java, Python, Google hires for generalists. Your Ruby experience is not what's holding you back, so don't get bogged down.

ACow_Adonis 8y ago
Says google is code agnostic. Provides list of the three languages you specifically need to code in. Perhaps agnostic means something different in my language :p
- mav3rick 8y ago
  Those are the 3 big ones. You can code in pretty much whatever as long as you're interviewer can understand your logic. Please post here when employees in your company understand all languages possible. Op maybe an outlier but many employees go above and beyond to not make language a factor.
- danillonunes 8y ago
  I think code agnostic in this case means they don’t hire based on a language, but they still work with a limited set. It makes sense if you think about it. A small startup with 5 Python engineers can’t afford to hire one with heavy experience in Ruby and who knows a thing or two about Python. First, it may be the case that this person can actually transfer their knowledge and do a good job with Python, but there’s also a chance they can’t and that will disturb the entire operation for a team that small, that’s a big risk. Also, this person is not going to be paid as a Jr. Python because they have the options to be paid as a Sr. Ruby somewhere else, so the startup need to step up their pay game, now that’s a big and expensive risk. A big company like Google, on the other hand, can afford to have that risk. If everything goes right, they end up with a great Ruby and Python engineer, if things goes wrong, Google is so big they probably have some other projects somewhere that can use a good Rubyst, and in the worst case scenario, if the person really can’t fit anywhere, a company like Google can still afford to let them go and eat the costs of a wrong hire.
  - PakG1 8y ago
    Everything you said is not wrong. But it still seems to me that agnostic is the wrong word to use here, and code agnostic is the wrong phrase. edit: mav3rick has clarified below, it does indeed seem code agnostic.
- kcmp 8y ago
  Those three are just the ones that will get you quickest interview scheduled. If you want to do something not listed it'll just take a little longer to find someone to interview you
- grigjd3 8y ago
  I work at another BigCorp and am involved with interviews. There are a ton of languages I just don't know enough of to interview you in, but a popular functional language (python) plus a choice of a structural language (c/c++ or java) covers a large range of candidates. If the only language you're comfortable in is Scala or Go and you really are uncomfortable with C , python and java, clearly you must realize a lot of the industry will have trouble hiring you.
  - grigjd3 8y ago
    You also must realize that I don't actually use much python, c, or java. Those are just languages I can generally expect candidates to be comfortable with.
freyir 8y ago
Ouch, Go not included in languages Google commonly uses.
- grigjd3 8y ago
  Go not included in languages Google expects candidates to be comfortable in.
JimboOmega 8y ago
Right now, Google wants to interview me as a front end dev (I have an on site in a couple weeks). Thing is, I'm not; I'm a backend/ infrastructure person. But of their languages I knew Javascript the best. So they gave me a phone screen in that, which I passed; but can I handle an on site in something I haven't really touched in 5 years? Will I read as senior even if I pass?
- mav3rick 8y ago
  The hiring committee will not hold JS as the reason to keep you from being hired as a senior. Language is not a factor in hiring let alone level calibration.
  - JimboOmega 8y ago
    It does sound like, per the other poster, I'll get asked a lot of front end dev questions , the kind that will be hard to answer since I have no recent front end experience (and the experience I did have was full stack anyway)
- TACIXAT 8y ago
  The interview is mostly algorithms. It's not gonna be front end trivia.
  - chaosphere2112 8y ago
    The front-end interviews at Google are about half algorithms and half details about how web front-ends should work, be structured, web technology problems, browser performance, etc. It's an entirely different interview track from General SWE.
    - JimboOmega 8y ago
      How hard is it to ask them to switch me to something more backend? Is it impossible unless I know Another one of their languages?
crispyambulance 8y ago
It makes me "sad" too, kind-of, until I realize that... * This all about a relatively small number of companies, all large, mostly trendy, mostly webby. * mostly Bay area and their satellite campuses in a few other places. * base salaries are higher than what I'm used to but not crazy higher unless one counts stock grants. When danluu casually drops numbers like 400K he's really talking about senior/principal folks in very elite job-tracks WITH very high stock grants. * the data comes from people who have had "career trajectories" that brought them to this salary escalator. Career-changers, those of us with weird and varied backgrounds and those with rough starts are, generally-speaking, excluded from these kinds of salary expectations.

ACow_Adonis 8y ago

Says google is code agnostic. Provides list of the three languages you specifically need to code in. Perhaps agnostic means something different in my language :p

mav3rick 8y ago
Those are the 3 big ones. You can code in pretty much whatever as long as you're interviewer can understand your logic. Please post here when employees in your company understand all languages possible. Op maybe an outlier but many employees go above and beyond to not make language a factor.
danillonunes 8y ago
I think code agnostic in this case means they don’t hire based on a language, but they still work with a limited set. It makes sense if you think about it. A small startup with 5 Python engineers can’t afford to hire one with heavy experience in Ruby and who knows a thing or two about Python. First, it may be the case that this person can actually transfer their knowledge and do a good job with Python, but there’s also a chance they can’t and that will disturb the entire operation for a team that small, that’s a big risk. Also, this person is not going to be paid as a Jr. Python because they have the options to be paid as a Sr. Ruby somewhere else, so the startup need to step up their pay game, now that’s a big and expensive risk. A big company like Google, on the other hand, can afford to have that risk. If everything goes right, they end up with a great Ruby and Python engineer, if things goes wrong, Google is so big they probably have some other projects somewhere that can use a good Rubyst, and in the worst case scenario, if the person really can’t fit anywhere, a company like Google can still afford to let them go and eat the costs of a wrong hire.
- PakG1 8y ago
  Everything you said is not wrong. But it still seems to me that agnostic is the wrong word to use here, and code agnostic is the wrong phrase. edit: mav3rick has clarified below, it does indeed seem code agnostic.
kcmp 8y ago
Those three are just the ones that will get you quickest interview scheduled. If you want to do something not listed it'll just take a little longer to find someone to interview you
grigjd3 8y ago
I work at another BigCorp and am involved with interviews. There are a ton of languages I just don't know enough of to interview you in, but a popular functional language (python) plus a choice of a structural language (c/c++ or java) covers a large range of candidates. If the only language you're comfortable in is Scala or Go and you really are uncomfortable with C , python and java, clearly you must realize a lot of the industry will have trouble hiring you.
- grigjd3 8y ago
  You also must realize that I don't actually use much python, c, or java. Those are just languages I can generally expect candidates to be comfortable with.

freyir 8y ago

Ouch, Go not included in languages Google commonly uses.

grigjd3 8y ago
Go not included in languages Google expects candidates to be comfortable in.

JimboOmega 8y ago

Right now, Google wants to interview me as a front end dev (I have an on site in a couple weeks). Thing is, I'm not; I'm a backend/ infrastructure person. But of their languages I knew Javascript the best. So they gave me a phone screen in that, which I passed; but can I handle an on site in something I haven't really touched in 5 years? Will I read as senior even if I pass?

mav3rick 8y ago
The hiring committee will not hold JS as the reason to keep you from being hired as a senior. Language is not a factor in hiring let alone level calibration.
- JimboOmega 8y ago
  It does sound like, per the other poster, I'll get asked a lot of front end dev questions , the kind that will be hard to answer since I have no recent front end experience (and the experience I did have was full stack anyway)
TACIXAT 8y ago
The interview is mostly algorithms. It's not gonna be front end trivia.
- chaosphere2112 8y ago
  The front-end interviews at Google are about half algorithms and half details about how web front-ends should work, be structured, web technology problems, browser performance, etc. It's an entirely different interview track from General SWE.
  - JimboOmega 8y ago
    How hard is it to ask them to switch me to something more backend? Is it impossible unless I know Another one of their languages?

crispyambulance 8y ago

It makes me "sad" too, kind-of, until I realize that... * This all about a relatively small number of companies, all large, mostly trendy, mostly webby. * mostly Bay area and their satellite campuses in a few other places. * base salaries are higher than what I'm used to but not crazy higher unless one counts stock grants. When danluu casually drops numbers like 400K he's really talking about senior/principal folks in very elite job-tracks WITH very high stock grants. * the data comes from people who have had "career trajectories" that brought them to this salary escalator. Career-changers, those of us with weird and varied backgrounds and those with rough starts are, generally-speaking, excluded from these kinds of salary expectations.