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Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#191

Post by tomp »

slashink wrote: post #158
awjr wrote: post #73

I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere. Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang. 2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use…

You made The Verge! http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6126305/tech-employee-lives...

So I guess The Verge doesn't care if I copy-paste large chunks of their articles (along with their copyrighted photos) on my web-page? Good to know...

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#192

Post by avz »

skynetv2 wrote: post #187

If you have to resort to living in your car while working at Google or other such big companies, there is something wrong with the way one looks at life. Unless there are exigent circumstances, like you were bankrupt for whatever reason, or you are a fresh grad with nothing but time on your hands, this is not ok. work is not everything. there is life to be had

I think one should spend their time on whatever one is passionate about. It seems some people have jobs which are so interesting and engaging that they are essentially aligned with their passions. I think it's great!

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#193

Post by awjr »

golgappi wrote: post #152
awjr wrote: post #73

I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere. Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang. 2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use…

This seems tempting. But i can't live without gaming on a big screen :(

I was heavily into SWOTOR at the time and that was a driver for an increase in my battery capacity, but honestly, the place I worked at was pretty chilled and I could sit and play after work if I wanted (on my laptop).

There is nothing to prevent you having one wall of your van being a white projector screen. You just need to consider how you power such an environment for a night of gaming.

TBH it's not that unfeasible to have a projector mounted on the roof and a pull down screen.....one worth thinking about.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#194

Post by Fuzzwah »

canvia wrote: post #96
mccr8 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't really journalists, this is Yahoo reposting Business Insider reposting some people's claims from Quora.

BusinessInsider seems to be taking the BuzzFeed "news" sourcing approach. They are certainly good at getting their links onto aggregation services. It's a very annoying combination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Blodget

I don't disagree, but the upside is that it eventually finds its way to HN and generates interesting discussion. This saves me from having to visit quora, businessinsider or yahoo news.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#195

Post by yummyfajitas »

vidarh wrote: post #125
yummyfajitas wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Currently all my stuff fits into two backpacks (a big backpacker one and a small one for the laptop). The only thing I miss from my old stationary lifestyle is a regular gym, sparring partners and a coach. The only thing I don't understand about living in the googleplex is sex. Logistics is everything - I remember once dealing with a month of involuntary celibacy due to a bad living situation. NOT an experience…

Most people go through much longer periods of celibacy than that on a regular basis when outside of long term relationships. For most people, the singles life is relatively sex-less. Presumably living on campus isn't a choice that most people make in the first place when they are in long term relationships and/or have regular options of companionship.

Just curious, what is "longer periods"? Is celibacy for a year really a plausible outcome for most people in SF? And is it so likely that it makes living in a car worthwhile? I'm honestly curious.

Year-long celibacy is not super uncommon in India, but Indian culture is explicitly set up to make sure women don't have sex until their parents get them married off. I'm really shocked to hear that SF is that bad.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#196

Post by bsamuels »

tomp wrote: post #191
slashink wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You made The Verge! http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6126305/tech-employee-lives...

So I guess The Verge doesn't care if I copy-paste large chunks of their articles (along with their copyrighted photos) on my web-page? Good to know...

welcome to modern internet 'journalism'

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#197

Post by danielweber »

netcan wrote: post #113
Iftheshoefits wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cities where a $140k salary exist in the same quantity as in the bay area are roughly equivalent with respect to the cost to live there. A job in SF that pays $140k might fetch $60-$90k in most of the rest of the US, with higher salaries being more rare. So while there are lots of places where $140k is practically king-like, the number of positions with that salary are both hotly competed for and far fewer in num…

This is the paradox. You can phrase it as a question: Why don't blubsoft or blub.ly open offices in city X and continue to pay the same salaries there . Relocated employees would be richer and blub.ly should have an easier time hiring. Obvious'y this doesn't happen even though a simple common sense "story" suggests that it should. Hence unintuitive. I'm not saying that individuals don't have their reasons for doing w…

There are companies that hire in the top-20 (as opposed to top-5) markets. They usually have their own idiosyncrasies (like taking 3 weeks to schedule an onsite interview), but they are out there.

I'm on the job hunt now and hiring is still a huge mess as it ever was.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#198

Post by nether »

awjr wrote: post #73

I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere. Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang. 2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use…

subscribe to reddit.com/r/vandwellers. for pooping, you could resort to biffy bags.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#199

Post by Padding »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #167
vonmoltke wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question I have always wanted to ask someone like you: How many changes of clothes do you own? I don't have an extensive wardrobe, but I couldn't fit the clothes I wear in an average week into a bag of that size, let alone everything else I use regularly.

I have 4 pants, maybe 4-5 pairs of shorts, 6 button down shirts, and 15 t-shirts. On my most recent flight from India, I even managed to fit a suit in. Let me emphasize that the larger backpack is not carry-on luggage. It's a $200 fancy pack, something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00388W5KO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...

I'm curious too.

What's the "turnover" with those clothes - i.e. how often do you buy new ones and throw out the old ones? Ever gotten any weird looks for running around in mostly the same outfits? What do you do when you need a suit?

What do you do about your data? Do you carry any additional HDDs in those backpacks? Don't you keep any spare hardware around for when things break to be able to replace them quickly?

What about legal documents (birth certificate, graduation certificates, tax declarations, etc.)? Do you store them somewhere safely, or keep them on you?

Also, do you have any allergies? One thing I allways seem to have too little of when travelling is napkins/tissues.

What do you do for more mundane things like scissors and paper and priting stuff?

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#200

Post by tbrownaw »

netcan wrote: post #156
TeMPOraL wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don't blubsoft or blub.ly open offices in city X and continue to pay the same salaries there. Because they could open offices in city X and pay smaller salaries in absolute value, though equivalent relative to living costs, and get the same hires for less money. I don't see the paradox here; you could phrase it as a question: why should blubsoft or blub.ly pay more for something, when they can pay less and stil…

They don't have to be in silicon valley. The only reason for Google to be anywhere is employees and to a lesser extent investors, lawyers and other service providers of the cluster. It's mostly employees though. Why are they there, paying high salaries if they could be getting the same for less elsewhere?

Or, what might they be getting (or think they're getting) that they wouldn't (think that they would) be able to get elsewhere?

Maybe they're concerned about lead times for hiring new people (stealing someone from a competitor vs all new employees needing to move first)?

Supposedly one of the reasons that Silicon Valley did so well, is that California doesn't allow non-compete agreements. Perhaps there's actually some benefit to exchanging employees with your competitors more often? (But then, what about the no-poaching agreements that companies were getting sued over recently?)

Maybe they're concerned that being the only shop in town would make managers more reluctant to fire people who need it (does corporate location preference correlate to corporate culture regarding expected length of service)?

Maybe having offices in less expensive locations hurts the company image (for customers, or potential employees, or both) enough that the extra salary cost is worth it?

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