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It's not any better if you get hired. Google recruiters will tell you whatever you want to hear, including things that are not necessarily true. I was assured
by throwaway86 13y ago
It's not any better if you get hired.
Google recruiters will tell you whatever you want to hear, including things that are not necessarily true. I was assured that a minor issue in my background would not be an issue multiple times (I have email proving this), then Google hired me and let me work for more than two months. I got comfortable, I moved to Mountain View, began real honest work and set about making an impact.
One Monday, I had just finished a feature for an internal monitoring tool and was discussing it with a teammate. HR scheduled a meeting 30 minutes in the future on my calendar, then informed me that my employment had been terminated because of the issue in my background. You remember, the one I disclosed and discussed repeatedly during the hiring process, before I even signed the offer. Two people in upper management at Google who had never met me fired me because of something seven years in my background, two months after hiring me with the assurance that it wouldn't be a problem.
I bet my teammate wonders where I went. I didn't get a chance to explain because they threatened me if I told anybody on my team what happened while I was collecting my things. The same woman had a hearty laugh earlier in the firing meeting after joking, "I bet you didn't expect your afternoon to go like this, huh?" Felt like I was back in grade school.
Two weeks after firing me, a Google recruiting coordinator attempted to connect with me on LinkedIn. Read into a company's competence what you will based on that.
I can never, ever recommend that anybody subject themselves to working at Google based on my experience. And that's even before discovering the absolutely clueless direction that company is taking. You think G+ is annoying now? Just wait.
The real victim in this is my family. I've never subjected them to no insurance coverage in my career. Thanks, Google.
- nitid_name 13y agoWhat sort of background thing are you talking about? Criminal? Civil?
- throwaway86 13y agoCriminal, and that is the extent that I will follow up. I will also reiterate "minor".
- WalterBright 13y agoI'm sad that that's the way things are. I think that once someone has paid their debt to society through the justice system, that this should be acceptable to society.
- pasbesoin 13y agoAnother incident demonstrating that "the system" (more than just the criminal justice system, as it extends to subsequent civil and commercial life) is neither about justice nor about rehabilitation. A further corruption: I've read that, even when there is a will to "take a chance" (aka employ and treat as a member of society) people with a criminal record, businesses can face obstacles -- sometimes insurmountable, for a smaller business -- to do so. One particular one: Insurance companies audit for such employees, and either cancel insurance or raise it to unaffordable rates. America: Land of hypocrisy.
- paganel 13y ago> One particular one: Insurance companies audit for such employees, and either cancel insurance or raise it to unaffordable rates. Never been to the States, but shouldn't there be a law against this?
- throwaway86 13y agoNo, there isn't. Convicts are one of the last remaining class of people not protected by law. Every time any effort begins to make convicted folks a protected class, it makes politicians appear weak on crime and is quickly silenced.
- sounds 13y agoFor people who live outside the US, you may want to consider that "convicts" include random drug testing (medical marijuana, poppy seeds testing positive for opium, alcohol/diabetes issues, HIV) – and of course, sexual preference. Yes, there are laws and court cases that should change the outcome, but that means a lawsuit. In other words, US employment frequently comes with a lot of implicit assumptions about your lifestyle. Edit to add: fortunately random drug tests aren't very common in the tech industry.
- bradleyjg 13y agoYou may have a legal case for moving expenses and lost wages. Something along the lines of fraudulent inducement -- especially in California. I'd talk to an employment lawyer if I were you.
- throwaway86 13y agoAnd blacklist myself entirely from this career? This throwaway comment is pushing it already in terms of burning bridges, not to mention getting fired from Google itself after my extended network congratulated me on the position. Who, in this incestuous valley, would hire the guy that sued Google for an employment issue? I've seen it happen, no way. Right to work, too, sigh. To be clear I moved from the Oakland area down here, so it's not like I came here from Cleveland. Also, I have no ill will for Google and just hope I can move on with my life, while warning people what they're getting into. I've dreamed of working at Google since I was a teenager. Finally my career trajectory lined up and I got there. Then I have to come to terms with my dream company acting like an incompetent fast food chain in terms of HR. Tough enough without a lawsuit.
- bradleyjg 13y agoFair enough. Best of luck.
- throwaway86 13y agoThank you.
- ScottBurson 13y agoIf you have the evidence you say you have, I'd bet a good attorney could get mid-five figures out of them along with an agreement not to disclose the settlement. I don't see what harm there would be in getting a professional opinion, anyway.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- zorpner 13y agoAppalling behavior on Google's part. Amazingly, I know two other people to whom this exact thing has happened (neither of which are you based on details in your story). One was so determined to work for Google that she reapplied after getting the incident expunged from her record (and got rehired -- based on their hiring practices who knows if they had any idea she was the same person). I'm moving out to the Bay Area next year (for non-work-related reasons) and while I hear plenty of good things about working for Google, I would never do it. For me personally, choosing to work for them would be an implicit endorsement of their hiring/personnel/privacy/politcal practices, which I can't abide.
- doktrin 13y agoIf you're at liberty to share : did your acquaintances also disclose the incidents during the hiring process, only to be terminated randomly once employed? If so, that is utterly appalling. Bad enough that it should happen once (to the parent), but repeated incidents would point to some gross organizational dysfunction.
- zorpner 13y agoOne of them did, I know, unsure on the other. I'll inquire to see if they're interested in providing that information or joining this discussion.
- zorpner 13y agoI heard back -- the incident in question for the other person occurred as a minor, so they could have it removed from their record, but had not yet done so. They explained this to the recruiter (a Google employee), who told them it would not be a problem, and so they didn't get it removed. Then they lost their job. Grotesque.
- throwaway86 13y agoI asked the HR Manager point blank if Google made a mistake here, waiting two months to act upon information available to them before they extended me an offer. She countered that I was the one who had made the mistake in 2007. I served my probation sentence and am beyond tired of being punished for the same thing. If hiring people are reading this and understanding just that last sentence that I typed, then I'm happy.
- throwaway1927 13y agoThis isn't the first I've heard of extreme and unconventional background check requirements in Google hiring. Has anyone determined what does and does not get you blacklisted?
- seiji 13y agoYou think G+ is annoying now? Just wait. I'd love to hear what else you can dish about that.
- throwaway86 13y agoI signed a nondisclosure agreement and upholding it is part of my demonstration of integrity. I would never go back on an agreement that I signed, and were the legal framework not in place anyway, I'm not a "fuck me? Well fuck you" sort of person. I only mentioned it at all because most of those motions have been expressed publicly. The direction is folly. I'll just say that.
- ok_craig 13y agoIt may have been a good idea to try to get them to acknowledge your prior issue as insufficient grounds for firing in your contract.
- throwaway86 13y agoI am requesting this with the companies currently courting me for employment, and have made clear what happened at Google to each of them. I have found other companies' recruiters to be extremely sympathetic and willing to adopt a nontraditional "let's get the legal review out of the way first" hiring approach with me.
- mzs 13y agoSorry. Does google do something like a 6mo probationary period? Did yo have to return things like signing bonus or relocation expenses provided by google? Did they offer some settlement?
- throwaway86 13y agoNo, you are a full-time employee from day one. I received neither, and no, I was not offered any severance, concession, or consideration, though I asked.
- smsm42 13y agoI wouldn't want to work in a company where people just disappear and nobody is allowed to talk about what happened. That sounds a bit too dystopian for me.
- throwaway86 13y agoI assume, and hope, the manager emailed the team after I was walked. If not, I would agree.