Announcing Google Research, Europe • Hacker News Board

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#121

Post by pcurve » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 6:16 PM UTC

make3 wrote: post #49

XCSme wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually applied to Google Zurich (but after 10 interviews they didn't hire me) and studied a bit how the life is there. There are many advantages or living there, but the cost of life and the fact that most people in Zurich are immigrants makes it a pretty cold city where it is hard to make friends or stay for a very long period of time. I think that now your point about "tech friendly environments" is not re…

10 interviews? is that normal for a research job? that feels like a lot

I do 1 or 2 interviews max. 1 hour interview each. I've hired 12 people so far. It's not perfect, but it's worked out ok. Granted I don't exactly work for Apple or Google, but it is $100B company...

There have been problematic hires, but issues wouldn't have been detected during interview processes.

I think 3-4 is probably optimal.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#122

Post by SystemOut » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 6:20 PM UTC

make3 wrote: post #49

XCSme wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually applied to Google Zurich (but after 10 interviews they didn't hire me) and studied a bit how the life is there. There are many advantages or living there, but the cost of life and the fact that most people in Zurich are immigrants makes it a pretty cold city where it is hard to make friends or stay for a very long period of time. I think that now your point about "tech friendly environments" is not re…

10 interviews? is that normal for a research job? that feels like a lot

It's also possible that this was for two different jobs. In other words, after a phone interview and 3-4 onsite interviews the first position passed and then another group felt the feedback was good enough to try them in another role. I could see it getting to 10 total interview sessions pretty easily.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#123

Post by secure » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 6:34 PM UTC

Aoyagi wrote: post #101

Yeah, surely this isn't a move to get some EU funding... And to provide a base for the massive lobbyist team in Brussels.

Switzerland is not even in the EU — I think being in the EU is a prerequisite for any EU funding, though :).

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#124

Post by RBerenguel » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #67

RBerenguel wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barça is only used for the football team, the city is Barcelona, Bcn (for short) or "down there" if you are not in the area but still in Catalonia

Barna is the short name of the city ;-)

I think only people from the city or longing to be part of the hip people actually use Barna in speaking or writing. At least this is my experience.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#125

Post by jventura » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 6:59 PM UTC

zerr wrote: post #64

Roritharr wrote: post #3

This really makes me consider moving my family to Zurich. Looking back at growing up in Germany/Europe made me really feel disadvantaged compared to people growing up in more tech friendly environments. I would want my child to grow up somewhere where technology is not overwhelmingly debated about in a negative light. So much good stuff is coming out of ETH that it really seems to be a place where people talk more en…

Not at all. Germany is one of the most tech/dev friendly country, especially if you are outside web dev. I see a lot of C++ engineering opportunities there. If only it was an English speaking country, and they had a sun... (It's a shame that we don't have a good English speaking country in whole Europe...) ;)

Lisbon fulfills both your criteria: lots of sun and even kids learn English on the first year at school. I can surely bet that we speak better english than British people will ever speak Portuguese! :)

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#126

Post by krzyk » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 7:02 PM UTC

xiphias wrote: post #51

XCSme wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually applied to Google Zurich (but after 10 interviews they didn't hire me) and studied a bit how the life is there. There are many advantages or living there, but the cost of life and the fact that most people in Zurich are immigrants makes it a pretty cold city where it is hard to make friends or stay for a very long period of time. I think that now your point about "tech friendly environments" is not re…

I'm moving back to Google Zurich. The male/female ratio is a huge issue there, so it's good to bring a girlfriend, but cost of living was never a problem. Taxes are minimal, salary at Google Zurich is huge.

My colleague worked in Zurich for 6 years, he didn't even try Google because he was already making comparable money in other company, so I would call salary in Zurich as "huge", just average for Zurich.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#127

Post by jast » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 7:08 PM UTC

zerr wrote: post #98

randomsearch wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook average inc. bonuses £210K In London last year: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-3268356/F...

In London, Google was paying GBP 70-80K, same for Skype/Microsoft.

That seems low for London since it's also a city with high living costs... Do they give any other extra benefits, or what about bonus/stock?

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#128

Post by tormeh » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 7:15 PM UTC

Anyone know why so many tech/pharma companies have research/development departments in Switzerland? It sounds expensive and not very centrally located.

A young company where I live have HQ in Switzerland, but that's just a post box and some servers for tax reasons. The are so few people working there it's negligible.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#129

Post by dominotw » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 7:37 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #95

dominotw wrote: post #68

>This really makes me consider moving my family to Zurich. If you immigrate to America you can become an American. You can shop till you drop, eat mc donlads, celebrate 4th of july and call yourself an american. This can not be said for any other country. In Germany you will always be an "immigrant", maybe if your kids are white and young enough to pick up the language maybe they can become invisible. But for anyone…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11915218 and marked it off-topic.

sorry about offtopic comment. I just love America too much, hehe. I'll make sure to be more mindful going forward.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#130

Post by germanier » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 8:07 PM UTC

secure wrote: post #123

Aoyagi wrote: post #101

Yeah, surely this isn't a move to get some EU funding... And to provide a base for the massive lobbyist team in Brussels.

Switzerland is not even in the EU — I think being in the EU is a prerequisite for any EU funding, though :).

Not at all. There is quite a lot of EU funding in Switzerland going on as they are very closely associated. It's been reduced bit in recent yours though because of the political developments in Switzerland.

Anyway, there is also a lot of EU funding in countries much farther removed, see e.g. Horizon 2020 which is the most important EU science fund http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding...