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Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

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Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#81

Post by arglebarnacle »

ryandrake wrote: post #77
linkregister wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree he's way ahead of the game; being an engineer at Google would be a step back unless: 1. He gets placed as a staff engineer or director. 2. He gets a new shiny project that for some reason he has reasonable autonomy over. Otherwise he'll get tired of the big-company politics. I can't imagine why a self-starter like this would want a set of bosses. He's already at the next level, building his own companies (lik…

Interesting how you consider "building his own companies" to be the next level. Maybe indeed this is a commonly held HN view. I've always thought doing a start-up (or working for a medium sized company) is what you do early on, in order to gain the skills needed and prep for the end goal: Working for one of the top prestigious companies. Look at all the start-ups that are evidently founded for the sole purpose of bei…

It's definitely true that startups are often founded for the sole purpose of being acquired by one of the Big Boys--but not so that the founders get to work there.

It's because they're hoping to get rich--make the perhaps $10M+ so that they can do whatever they want with the rest of their lives. You almost make it sound like the startup is part of their Google interview strategy and acquisition is how they get hired, but I'd venture that most founders probably don't want to spend more than a couple years at the parent company. They want to start the next phase of their lives.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#82

Post by sizzzzlerz »

Fluid_Mechanics wrote: post #7
ctvo wrote: post #3

Did he actually get hired?

Rejected for being over 30.

I've been expecting somebody to point that out. Google is notorious for finding excuses to reject otherwise competent interviewees who happen to be above a certain age. They always hide behind "You're a great candidate, but..." and then list a weak excuse to not give them an offer. It's illegal and immoral but almost impossible to prove.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#83

Post by flavor8 »

fdsfsaa wrote: post #13

This guy is sad. All those people on Quora who ask unending questions about Google are sad. They're suckers. They've eaten up Google's marketing. You want to know the reality? Whatever's special about Google is long gone. Management let the smoke out a long time ago. Nowadays, Google is just another big software company, with all the opaque politics, purposelessness, and random nonsense that comes with being a big co…

I think it's valuable to work for at least one big company early in your career. You'll get exposed to a wide range of tech and ideas that you wouldn't necessarily get in a small team, and it's also good for expanding your professional network quickly.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#84

Post by digler999 »

swingbridge wrote: post #43

The very fact that "preparing for 8 months for a Google interview" is a thing highlights all the things that have gone wrong at Google and their widely panned bad recruitment practices. The process has become about recruiting people that are good at the silly process and not about recruiting the best people. Probably OK if Google is in 'megacorp looking to feed more skillled cogs into the machine' mode (which it most…

I still remember reading the article about one of google's (?) early recruitment campaigns, circa 2001: an ad in the train station that said www.e^(5,000,000 digits ).com, so you would only know the URL if you were nerdy enough to know how to calculate the non-repeating non-terminating decimal. The webpage then solicited them for hiring. I still think that was a cool idea.

Edit: it wasn't e^ of anything, it was like the [5million, 5millionth + 10]-digit-of-e.com

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#85

Post by morgante »

fdsfsaa wrote: post #13

This guy is sad. All those people on Quora who ask unending questions about Google are sad. They're suckers. They've eaten up Google's marketing. You want to know the reality? Whatever's special about Google is long gone. Management let the smoke out a long time ago. Nowadays, Google is just another big software company, with all the opaque politics, purposelessness, and random nonsense that comes with being a big co…

Google doesn't need to be magically different from all other companies to make it a desirable place to work.

They just need to pay more than everyone else. Which they (along with a select few other giants) do.

Attracting droves of applicants really isn't hard. Just pay above market and advertise that.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#86

Post by evanws »

dublinben wrote: post #70
ryandrake wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Disclaimer: not a Googler) Like it or not, Google is consistently ranked near the top or #1 on all of those "Best places to work" lists that get published from time to time. Everyone I know who has managed to get hired there sings its praises, and none of them have left (yet). I think it's unlikely that each one of their opinions is fueled by Kool-aid. There's something to it. I don't think this guy is sad at all. I…

The median employee tenure at Google is only 1.1 years, so clearly lots of people are leaving. [0] They are right in line with much-derided Amazon. [0] http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/07/28/turno...

Median employee tenure is almost entirely dominated by things other than employees leaving. A company that is not hiring will not have any new employees and as a result have a really high median tenure.

The question you really want to ask is: what's the percentage of people leaving each year?

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#87

Post by ryandrake »

arglebarnacle wrote: post #81
ryandrake wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting how you consider "building his own companies" to be the next level. Maybe indeed this is a commonly held HN view. I've always thought doing a start-up (or working for a medium sized company) is what you do early on, in order to gain the skills needed and prep for the end goal: Working for one of the top prestigious companies. Look at all the start-ups that are evidently founded for the sole purpose of bei…

It's definitely true that startups are often founded for the sole purpose of being acquired by one of the Big Boys--but not so that the founders get to work there. It's because they're hoping to get rich--make the perhaps $10M+ so that they can do whatever they want with the rest of their lives. You almost make it sound like the startup is part of their Google interview strategy and acquisition is how they get hired,…

I wonder if there is any data showing whether on average starting a startup and running it for a year or so is a more reliable path to employment (through aqui-hiring) at these big companies than firing resumes into their black hole job sites or milking your contacts. I mean, sure, it's a "long game" strategy.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#88

Post by morgante »

acchow wrote: post #76
ryandrake wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Disclaimer: not a Googler) Like it or not, Google is consistently ranked near the top or #1 on all of those "Best places to work" lists that get published from time to time. Everyone I know who has managed to get hired there sings its praises, and none of them have left (yet). I think it's unlikely that each one of their opinions is fueled by Kool-aid. There's something to it. I don't think this guy is sad at all. I…

I'd say most of the people who drank the koolaid before even working there self-selected to be at Google because they hadn't tried a job anywhere else in the Bay Area (specifically SF). What makes Google better than, say, Dropbox? Github? Facebook? Etc? Disclaimer: former Googler. Currently FB.

> What makes Google better than, say, Dropbox? Github? Facebook? Etc?

Nothing, but they all pay well and are extremely rigorous in interviews.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#89

Post by morgante »

fdsfsaa wrote: post #52
ceras wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fair to say people are "falling for it." Their motivations may just differ from yours. For example, say you're interested in earning a lot of money as a software developer - where else are you going to work that's clearly better?

Finance.

It's questionable whether you'll make more money as a developer in finance than at Google. It'll certainly require a lot more politics and careful planning.

Re: Why I Studied Full-Time for 8 Months for a Google Interview

#90

Post by yongjik »

cpeterso wrote: post #46
devopsproject wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is setting himself up for a business\consultancy\bootcamp where other people will pay him to help get hired at one the big four. He is already making his pitch: I read x books but you only need x-6 books to succeed. Sign up today, space is limited.

That his post is on a website called freecodecamp.com and he is promoting his googleyasheck.com website, yet hasn't actually interviewed at Google yet, does strongly suggest he is looking to build a training service. If he doesn't get hired at Google, he can pivot and say he can "make a bigger impact helping other people learn" with his training service. Here is another promotional post from two months ago: https://s…

I'm not sure I understand the plan:

1) If he's not hired, how is he going to sell his service? People will say "He couldn't even get himself hired!"

2) If he is hired and does a side job of teaching others for Google Interview, that's a gigantic conflict of interest (and probably a breach of NDA). He will be fired.

Is he planning to get hired, quit on the spot, and then start his tutoring service? (Well, stranger things have happened...)

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