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My Google Internship

goldsborough.me

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Re: My Google Internship

#51
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you apply? What experience, skills, and education did you have when you applied?

A Googler posted on their blog that they were looking, so I emailed him and he referred me. At the time I had dropped out of an EE+CS degree, had four years of suit-wearing professional experience writing enterprise webapps in PHP and ColdFusion, was halfway through a part-time Masters Degree in Design, and had a bunch of small JavaScript/C++/Art side projects. They hired me as a SWE, am now in UX. I won't pretend th…

What's your salary/compensation?

Re: My Google Internship

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a…

I left the office at 5:40pm tonite, about majority of my team had already left. Most Googlers I encounter are extremely humble. I'd say one of the most valuable things about Googley culture is the lack of prima donna alpha-male macho-engineer behavior. Because Google has so many highly skilled engineers, and because it frowns in general on being an egotistical jerk, it's hard for even huge egos not to adopt some humi…

> I left the office at 5:40pm tonite

I can't tell if this is supposed to be evidence that you don't work long hours or an admission that you do.

Re: My Google Internship

#53
Nice writeup. My favorite part is

>> simply practiced interview questions for about three to four months, every day, from morning till night. I then had three phone interviews around November, which I passed.

It's interesting (& funny) to see both high schoolers and experienced people spend similar amount of time (~several months) practicing for these types of technical interviews.

Re: My Google Internship

#54
post #37

> It’s Googley to stand up for diversity and inclusion, such as protesting against binary gendering on toilets So if I support binary gendering on toilets, I'm not welcome at Google? Why has it become necessary to subscribe to a particular set of political beliefs in order to work for Silicon Valley firms?

The toilets in question are individual room style toilets. You really can't handle that? Is that really a political belief? How do you go to the bathroom in smaller restaurants that have had toilets like that for decades?

Re: My Google Internship

#55

Nice writeup. My favorite part is >> simply practiced interview questions for about three to four months, every day, from morning till night. I then had three phone interviews around November, which I passed. It's interesting (& funny) to see both high schoolers and experienced people spend similar amount of time (~several months) practicing for these types of technical interviews.

What it should be, is sad. These types of questions are often very different from actual work. The fact that you have to study or train for an interview process specifically, is absurd. Just being qualified for the job, should suffice.

Re: My Google Internship

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left the office at 5:40pm tonite, about majority of my team had already left. Most Googlers I encounter are extremely humble. I'd say one of the most valuable things about Googley culture is the lack of prima donna alpha-male macho-engineer behavior. Because Google has so many highly skilled engineers, and because it frowns in general on being an egotistical jerk, it's hard for even huge egos not to adopt some humi…

> I left the office at 5:40pm tonite I can't tell if this is supposed to be evidence that you don't work long hours or an admission that you do.

It all depends on the starting time.

Re: My Google Internship

#57
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Googler posted on their blog that they were looking, so I emailed him and he referred me. At the time I had dropped out of an EE+CS degree, had four years of suit-wearing professional experience writing enterprise webapps in PHP and ColdFusion, was halfway through a part-time Masters Degree in Design, and had a bunch of small JavaScript/C++/Art side projects. They hired me as a SWE, am now in UX. I won't pretend th…

What's your salary/compensation?

You expect a director at Google to post their comp? Seriously?

Re: My Google Internship

#58
Great read.

However, he lost me at

> Googley to stand up for diversity and inclusion, such as protesting against binary gendering on toilets

Is it Google's business? Why should Google be involved? Why cater to 0.6% of the population, at the expense of convenience for the 99.4%?

At my last job we had "non-binary", "all-inclusive" bathrooms. They're just awkward. Not the stalls themselves, but having to share the bathroom with females, who would also rather have their separate, female bathroom.

Re: My Google Internship

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate reading people believe they aren't skilled enough or won't be good enough to work at Google. When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible, and that Google is a huge company that has to hire thousands of people every year, you realize that this view that Google is "the best place to work" or that everyone who works there is a…

> When you realize all of the toys are part of an extremely successful strategy to keep you at the office as long as possible Ugh, I can't believe how often I see this repeated with zero evidence to support it. I work at Google. The office is a ghost town by 6:30. The work life balance on every team I'm aware of is great . Saying the perks are some underhanded strategy to keep people around hugely insults the intelli…

> No, that doesn't happen.

hmm, not really, there was one time, my nap took so long that I had to pay almost $100 late fee to my daughter's preschool...

Re: My Google Internship

#60
post #58

Great read. However, he lost me at > Googley to stand up for diversity and inclusion, such as protesting against binary gendering on toilets Is it Google's business? Why should Google be involved? Why cater to 0.6% of the population, at the expense of convenience for the 99.4%? At my last job we had "non-binary", "all-inclusive" bathrooms. They're just awkward. Not the stalls themselves, but having to share the bathr…

Have you never been in a place with unisex toilets?

In Australia, many offices, pubs and clubs have 'unisex toilets' which are basically just a whole bunch of small individual stalls with toilets + basin. Most of the time it isn't necessarily about being progressive, just cost saving and practicality.

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