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Yeah, it's insane. When I turned down a Google offer because they did such a bad job of the post-interview process, my recruiter was _surprised_. All I could sa

by ajkjk 4y ago

Yeah, it's insane. When I turned down a Google offer because they did such a bad job of the post-interview process, my recruiter was _surprised_. All I could say was: why? what did you think would happen if you didn't find a team I actually could get excited about? (It was worse than that: I told the recruiter I was interested in roles in any location except the South Bay and Seattle's Eastside, and they came back and said those were the two places they found matches, so I took a different job. And they were surprised. As far as I can tell Google can't figure out how to not assume that they're everybody's dream job choice like I guess they might have been in the 2000s.)

nwsm 4y ago
I didn't want to go this far into detail because it's embarrassing how much I put up with, but I actually let Google alter the direction of my life. When I was interviewing, my significant other was looking to go to grad school in either NYC or Cambridge. NYC was her preference, so I told the recruiter I preferred NYC or Boston and I did my on-site in NYC. After all my interviews, the recruiter told me that the NYC office was doing "renovations", and so some teams were holding off hiring until they had the physical space (in retrospect this excuse makes no sense). He asked if I was still open to Boston and I said yes. But at this point, my SO had to accept one of her grad school offers, and based solely on the fact that I thought I would have a Google job lined up in Cambridge, she committed to the Cambridge school. At one point during the pointless team match process (after we were committed to Cambridge and after I had several unfruitful Cambridge team match calls), my recruiter actually asked me if I wanted to go back to looking for NYC teams. I couldn't believe it- what a slap in the face! (I had told him our priorities and timeline) We live in Boston right now, 4 years later, solely because I thought Google would have a role for me here after having passed 9 interviews. Thankfully, everything worked out. I found a different job, my SO got a great degree and is using it here in Boston, etc. Of course I'm the lone idiot in this story, but it's incredible how flexible I was just because I thought big G was making my dreams come true.
- cowmoo728 4y ago
  Similar story here. My wife and I were living in NYC together and she was searching for PhD fellowships and I was searching for my next job. Our intersections were NYC, London, and Amsterdam, but between her fellowships and my offers we didn't find any great match. The google recruiter kept stringing me along and warning about a lack of space and offers with NYC based roles but I had tons of match offers in MTV. It was not reassuring at all to hear "well, you may find something in 6 months in NYC, but you may not, idk lol". I ended up taking an offer in MTV and my wife went to Amsterdam. 1 year down, 1 more year to go. We're again going through the process of trying to find something that works for both of us between NYC, London, and Amsterdam.
  - biinui 4y ago
    sorry, where's MTV?
    - ajkjk 4y ago
      Mountain View (Bay Area, but the lame part)
  - nwsm 4y ago
    Wow I'm sure that's been tough. Hopefully you will both have ample opportunities now though. Good luck!
- rexreed 4y ago
  Can I ask what exactly were your Google dreams? What about Google made you scramble your life like this? I'm really curious why people go Gaga for Google
  - nwsm 4y ago
    It wasn't really just about Google. I was applying to lots of companies but wasn't interviewing at anywhere at the level of Google at the time. More of a "Big Tech" dream
yieldcrv 4y ago
> And they were surprised. As far as I can tell Google can't figure out how to not assume that they're everybody's dream job choice like I guess they might have been in the 2000s. I think this is a symptom. Their experience getting hired is likely the same as yours: all your family and friends and even significant others sometimes think its the dream job and the most important accolade in your life. You know thats its not. They're not in big tech, they're not in medium tech either. You know there's plenty of organizations you can get paid in lottery ticket securities from, you know there's publicly traded organizations with faster vesting schedules and higher stock market upside. But they don't know that. Many of the people that go into Google was surrounded by that same pressure by their friends and family of getting accepted, and then they also are beneficiaries of Google's infrastructure and financial weight off their shoulders. It distorts their view whether they realize they can get paid more elsewhere or not. So it selects for that distortion field where people forget that Google is just a choice.

by ajkjk 4y ago

nwsm 4y ago

I didn't want to go this far into detail because it's embarrassing how much I put up with, but I actually let Google alter the direction of my life. When I was interviewing, my significant other was looking to go to grad school in either NYC or Cambridge. NYC was her preference, so I told the recruiter I preferred NYC or Boston and I did my on-site in NYC. After all my interviews, the recruiter told me that the NYC office was doing "renovations", and so some teams were holding off hiring until they had the physical space (in retrospect this excuse makes no sense). He asked if I was still open to Boston and I said yes. But at this point, my SO had to accept one of her grad school offers, and based solely on the fact that I thought I would have a Google job lined up in Cambridge, she committed to the Cambridge school. At one point during the pointless team match process (after we were committed to Cambridge and after I had several unfruitful Cambridge team match calls), my recruiter actually asked me if I wanted to go back to looking for NYC teams. I couldn't believe it- what a slap in the face! (I had told him our priorities and timeline) We live in Boston right now, 4 years later, solely because I thought Google would have a role for me here after having passed 9 interviews. Thankfully, everything worked out. I found a different job, my SO got a great degree and is using it here in Boston, etc. Of course I'm the lone idiot in this story, but it's incredible how flexible I was just because I thought big G was making my dreams come true.

cowmoo728 4y ago
Similar story here. My wife and I were living in NYC together and she was searching for PhD fellowships and I was searching for my next job. Our intersections were NYC, London, and Amsterdam, but between her fellowships and my offers we didn't find any great match. The google recruiter kept stringing me along and warning about a lack of space and offers with NYC based roles but I had tons of match offers in MTV. It was not reassuring at all to hear "well, you may find something in 6 months in NYC, but you may not, idk lol". I ended up taking an offer in MTV and my wife went to Amsterdam. 1 year down, 1 more year to go. We're again going through the process of trying to find something that works for both of us between NYC, London, and Amsterdam.
- biinui 4y ago
  sorry, where's MTV?
  - ajkjk 4y ago
    Mountain View (Bay Area, but the lame part)
- nwsm 4y ago
  Wow I'm sure that's been tough. Hopefully you will both have ample opportunities now though. Good luck!
rexreed 4y ago
Can I ask what exactly were your Google dreams? What about Google made you scramble your life like this? I'm really curious why people go Gaga for Google
- nwsm 4y ago
  It wasn't really just about Google. I was applying to lots of companies but wasn't interviewing at anywhere at the level of Google at the time. More of a "Big Tech" dream

yieldcrv 4y ago

> And they were surprised. As far as I can tell Google can't figure out how to not assume that they're everybody's dream job choice like I guess they might have been in the 2000s. I think this is a symptom. Their experience getting hired is likely the same as yours: all your family and friends and even significant others sometimes think its the dream job and the most important accolade in your life. You know thats its not. They're not in big tech, they're not in medium tech either. You know there's plenty of organizations you can get paid in lottery ticket securities from, you know there's publicly traded organizations with faster vesting schedules and higher stock market upside. But they don't know that. Many of the people that go into Google was surrounded by that same pressure by their friends and family of getting accepted, and then they also are beneficiaries of Google's infrastructure and financial weight off their shoulders. It distorts their view whether they realize they can get paid more elsewhere or not. So it selects for that distortion field where people forget that Google is just a choice.