I've been at Google two years, in the Cambridge office. I work pretty long hours, but part of that is because work is my hobby. I'd be working on the ext4 fil

I've been at Google two years, in the Cambridge office. I work pretty long hours, but part of that is because work is my hobby. I'd be working on the ext4 file system whether Google paid me or not. It's something that I'm passionate about it. Heck, even if I won a lottery and had a $20 million dollar windfall, I'd probably still be working there, because it's incredibly fun working with lots of smart people, and I'm at a place where I can definitely and directly see how my work is making a difference. So people who talk about it as being a velvet cage have gotten it all wrong. It's a cage, if you want to call it a cage, that I've chosen of my own free will; it's how I've wanted to spend my time even before I joined Google. Google has simply removed obstacles from allowing me to work on my passion as much as I like; in general, I think it's fair to say that Google wants to find people who are smart and passionate at what they do; those for whom their work is a joy, and not just something they do so they can put bread on the table. As far as promotions are concerned, the criteria at least for software engineers is pretty simple: it's a matter of demonstrating that you are already working at your new level, in terms of technical expertise, scope of your work, and impact to the company. As far as I'm concerned, that's the way it should be at any company where good engineers would want to hang their hat.