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> Depends on what you do at Google. I imagine they have multiple PhDs working on those projects. For your bog standard SDE these interviews have very little to

> Depends on what you do at Google. I imagine they have multiple PhDs working on those projects. For your bog standard SDE these interviews have very little to do with the day-to-day job.

timsneath 7y ago
In all honesty, there are not that many "bog standard SDEs" at Google. That's not what the company is hiring for: it wants engineers who are comfortable with complexity, whether measured in technical challenge (Tensorflow, Dart etc.), robustness (cloud, GSuite) or extreme scalability (Gmail, ads, search etc.) A PhD is clearly not the only path to that skillset, but it's not unusual either. Separately, I'm sorry the original poster had a crappy experience: that does sound awful. It happens, unfortunately, and I'm glad they drew attention to it. Disclosure: I work at Google.
- Infinitesimus 7y ago
  > That's not what the company is hiring for: it wants engineers who are comfortable with complexity, whether measured in technical challenge (Tensorflow, Dart etc.), robustness (cloud, GSuite) or extreme scalability (Gmail, ads, search etc.) How confident are you about that assertion? A lot of Googlers are doing generic web/app work that happens elsewhere from those I've talked to. Not HQ tho so maybe it's different out there
  - joshuamorton 7y ago
    A lot of the requirements around generic web development at Google requires deep knowledge of things. Not always algorithms specifically, but I've also never been slowed down because someone wasn't familiar with a concept I was working on (or able to catch up very quickly).
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - mav3rick 7y ago
    No no one is writing basic CRUD apps at Google. At that scale there are optimizations needed at every level. I know people who work on the cutsom kernel for the servers to front end people for apps.
    - Infinitesimus 7y ago
      Since we're on anecdotes: I've interviewed people who wanted to leave Google because they were bored of not having any interesting work to do. If you truly believe that "no one is writing basic CRUD apps at Google", then their marketing has been incredibly effective and explains why their interview process remains the way it is
    - akhilcacharya 7y ago
      They definitely are, including internal tools and the like. My friend works on one like that. This is like claiming nobody at Amazon or Facebook works on CRUD apps, lol.
      - mav3rick 7y ago
        I'm sure Amazon definitely has boring jobs.
        akhilcacharya 7y ago
        What exactly is your deal here?
        mav3rick 7y ago
        I think Facebook is known to have more interesting jobs.
        speedplane 7y ago
        > I think Facebook is known to have more interesting jobs. If influencing democratic elections is your idea of interesting, sure.
- pisteoff 7y ago
  I stand corrected. But in all honesty, that smacks of privileged elitism. Do these pop quiz, brain teaser interviews really prove the person can be successful on the job at Google?
- discordance 7y ago
  I actually think this is a big issue for Google, and maybe why there is so much time burned on internal threads. There aren’t enough good problems to go around and a lot of folks who were promised the world end up bored, working on just another mobile app or whatever else.
- akincisor 7y ago
  This may have been true 15 years ago when they were a small company. Google now employs ~60K engineers and the majority of them are "Bog Standard". Disclosure: I worked at Google twice.
  - Diederich 7y ago
    May I ask: why did you work for Google a second time? Thanks.
    - akincisor 7y ago
      The first time I was a new (post) grad and I didn't much like it and left for a startup within a year. I figured I'd give it another go with more experience, so the second time I was hired at L5 (expected to be leading teams). Liked it even less the second time, but stuck around for about 2 years for logistical reasons. In my experience at Google and other large companies, the team you join ends up dictating your experience. I would be open to a third stint at Google, but would be very careful about vetting the team (especially the leadership). Having said that, I don't think I like the culture at Google. Especially the second time, it felt very mercenary and there was cutthroat competition. It didn't feel like I was working on a cohesive vision, but just moving protobufs around. I think I preferred Google when Eric was CEO, maybe because it was smaller, but it felt like Larry was running Google with too much emphasis on the bottom line and not enough on product or vision.
      - Diederich 7y ago
        Thank you, that was pretty interesting.

> Depends on what you do at Google. I imagine they have multiple PhDs working on those projects. For your bog standard SDE these interviews have very little to do with the day-to-day job.

timsneath 7y ago

In all honesty, there are not that many "bog standard SDEs" at Google. That's not what the company is hiring for: it wants engineers who are comfortable with complexity, whether measured in technical challenge (Tensorflow, Dart etc.), robustness (cloud, GSuite) or extreme scalability (Gmail, ads, search etc.) A PhD is clearly not the only path to that skillset, but it's not unusual either. Separately, I'm sorry the original poster had a crappy experience: that does sound awful. It happens, unfortunately, and I'm glad they drew attention to it. Disclosure: I work at Google.

Infinitesimus 7y ago
> That's not what the company is hiring for: it wants engineers who are comfortable with complexity, whether measured in technical challenge (Tensorflow, Dart etc.), robustness (cloud, GSuite) or extreme scalability (Gmail, ads, search etc.) How confident are you about that assertion? A lot of Googlers are doing generic web/app work that happens elsewhere from those I've talked to. Not HQ tho so maybe it's different out there
- joshuamorton 7y ago
  A lot of the requirements around generic web development at Google requires deep knowledge of things. Not always algorithms specifically, but I've also never been slowed down because someone wasn't familiar with a concept I was working on (or able to catch up very quickly).
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mav3rick 7y ago
  No no one is writing basic CRUD apps at Google. At that scale there are optimizations needed at every level. I know people who work on the cutsom kernel for the servers to front end people for apps.
  - Infinitesimus 7y ago
    Since we're on anecdotes: I've interviewed people who wanted to leave Google because they were bored of not having any interesting work to do. If you truly believe that "no one is writing basic CRUD apps at Google", then their marketing has been incredibly effective and explains why their interview process remains the way it is
  - akhilcacharya 7y ago
    They definitely are, including internal tools and the like. My friend works on one like that. This is like claiming nobody at Amazon or Facebook works on CRUD apps, lol.
    - mav3rick 7y ago
      I'm sure Amazon definitely has boring jobs.
      - akhilcacharya 7y ago
        What exactly is your deal here?
        mav3rick 7y ago
        I think Facebook is known to have more interesting jobs.
        speedplane 7y ago
        > I think Facebook is known to have more interesting jobs. If influencing democratic elections is your idea of interesting, sure.
pisteoff 7y ago
I stand corrected. But in all honesty, that smacks of privileged elitism. Do these pop quiz, brain teaser interviews really prove the person can be successful on the job at Google?
discordance 7y ago
I actually think this is a big issue for Google, and maybe why there is so much time burned on internal threads. There aren’t enough good problems to go around and a lot of folks who were promised the world end up bored, working on just another mobile app or whatever else.
akincisor 7y ago
This may have been true 15 years ago when they were a small company. Google now employs ~60K engineers and the majority of them are "Bog Standard". Disclosure: I worked at Google twice.
- Diederich 7y ago
  May I ask: why did you work for Google a second time? Thanks.
  - akincisor 7y ago
    The first time I was a new (post) grad and I didn't much like it and left for a startup within a year. I figured I'd give it another go with more experience, so the second time I was hired at L5 (expected to be leading teams). Liked it even less the second time, but stuck around for about 2 years for logistical reasons. In my experience at Google and other large companies, the team you join ends up dictating your experience. I would be open to a third stint at Google, but would be very careful about vetting the team (especially the leadership). Having said that, I don't think I like the culture at Google. Especially the second time, it felt very mercenary and there was cutthroat competition. It didn't feel like I was working on a cohesive vision, but just moving protobufs around. I think I preferred Google when Eric was CEO, maybe because it was smaller, but it felt like Larry was running Google with too much emphasis on the bottom line and not enough on product or vision.
    - Diederich 7y ago
      Thank you, that was pretty interesting.