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>I was told by Google if I took a job with them I would have to "finish" my studies with in 2 years of taking the job. Why? What would happen if you didn't? Wo

>I was told by Google if I took a job with them I would have to "finish" my studies with in 2 years of taking the job. Why? What would happen if you didn't? Would they fire you? It seems very odd that Google would value an unnecessary degree over the actual experience that was why they were interested in you in the first place.

yeukhon 13y ago
Parent doesn't have any degree and the minimal qualification for almost all Google's software engineering is a bachelor. I am sure some people are exceptions.... like the most brilliant people you find probably just too famous to deal with a degree. I guess they just want to ensure most of the people at Google (except the reallly really really top famous talents one) are at least on the same page? I guess? And it might be easier to calculate salary as well. I am not saying parent is not smart - just referencing what is listed on the career page.
- drakaal 13y ago
  Yes. The particular position was related to Video Compression. There are maybe 10 people in the whole world at my level in that space. We each have slightly different skill sets, so I will say "same" level. There are probably 50 in the world that are comparable in that they have enough working knowledge to know where to look something up to do 90% of what the top 10 can do. Most of those have a PhD but in the top 10, myself and one other have no degree, 2 have art degrees (film stuff). In the top 50 few have masters, 2 don't even have highschool diplomas.
  - ars_technician 13y ago
    >There are maybe 10 people in the whole world at my level in that space. This is highly unlikely. It's more like 10 people that you know of. Less than 1/3 of the world speaks English. Some advanced video firm in China that has no interest in participating in US standards bodies could very easily have more people with your skills.
    - drakaal 13y ago
      If you are trying to build something that is compliant with the various standards, the best people are the people who wrote the standards. There are about 10 of us who have been on enough of the standards bodies that we know all the ambiguities and how they are meant to be interpreted. There is no guy standing around in China who was spying on those meetings and therefore knows more about them than we do. And many of the people on that list are not English speakers. Math is the primary language. Do you know what Chinese for discrete cosine transform is? Discrete cosine transform. Hebrew for Deinterlace? Deinterlace.
drakaal 13y ago
Yes, Basically it was a condition of my employment. They also offered me much less than any other company in the Valley would have. I didn't take it. There are a few companies that put a lot of weight on degrees, and some that even restrict to specific degrees. Google often won't let certain positions go to people who aren't CompSci. And there are a few places in the Valley where if you aren't a Stanford, MIT, or Ivy League grad you won't get an interview.
- ars_technician 13y ago
  >And there are a few places in the Valley where if you aren't a Stanford, MIT, or Ivy League grad you won't get an interview. That's a good sign to stay away from them anyway. It means they lack the ability to even evaluate if someone has skills.

yeukhon 13y ago

Parent doesn't have any degree and the minimal qualification for almost all Google's software engineering is a bachelor. I am sure some people are exceptions.... like the most brilliant people you find probably just too famous to deal with a degree. I guess they just want to ensure most of the people at Google (except the reallly really really top famous talents one) are at least on the same page? I guess? And it might be easier to calculate salary as well. I am not saying parent is not smart - just referencing what is listed on the career page.

drakaal 13y ago
Yes. The particular position was related to Video Compression. There are maybe 10 people in the whole world at my level in that space. We each have slightly different skill sets, so I will say "same" level. There are probably 50 in the world that are comparable in that they have enough working knowledge to know where to look something up to do 90% of what the top 10 can do. Most of those have a PhD but in the top 10, myself and one other have no degree, 2 have art degrees (film stuff). In the top 50 few have masters, 2 don't even have highschool diplomas.
- ars_technician 13y ago
  >There are maybe 10 people in the whole world at my level in that space. This is highly unlikely. It's more like 10 people that you know of. Less than 1/3 of the world speaks English. Some advanced video firm in China that has no interest in participating in US standards bodies could very easily have more people with your skills.
  - drakaal 13y ago
    If you are trying to build something that is compliant with the various standards, the best people are the people who wrote the standards. There are about 10 of us who have been on enough of the standards bodies that we know all the ambiguities and how they are meant to be interpreted. There is no guy standing around in China who was spying on those meetings and therefore knows more about them than we do. And many of the people on that list are not English speakers. Math is the primary language. Do you know what Chinese for discrete cosine transform is? Discrete cosine transform. Hebrew for Deinterlace? Deinterlace.

drakaal 13y ago

Yes, Basically it was a condition of my employment. They also offered me much less than any other company in the Valley would have. I didn't take it. There are a few companies that put a lot of weight on degrees, and some that even restrict to specific degrees. Google often won't let certain positions go to people who aren't CompSci. And there are a few places in the Valley where if you aren't a Stanford, MIT, or Ivy League grad you won't get an interview.

ars_technician 13y ago
>And there are a few places in the Valley where if you aren't a Stanford, MIT, or Ivy League grad you won't get an interview. That's a good sign to stay away from them anyway. It means they lack the ability to even evaluate if someone has skills.