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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

#131

Post by hex_3934252261 »

40acres wrote: post #57
preordained wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's maybe a bit harsh, but I'm pretty much with you. It's passed the tipping point where it's inevitable it takes on the mold of a soulless megacorp. its really obvious that so many people just "need" to get into Google because it's validation for their ego. "I told you I'm a special snowflake genius!" Google is awesome, and I'm at Google, so you know I'm awesome...yada, yada. The inauthenticity is palpable; you j…

I think this is a shortsighted view. I work for a pretty influential tech company as a Software Developer, I've interviewed with Google twice and have failed both times, but I look at interviewing with and potentially being hired at Google as a great challenge and opportunity rather than something to validate myself. I'm 25, and I think I speak for a lot of folks my age when I saw that Google is the 'Bell Labs / IBM…

I'm 25, and I think I speak for a lot of folks my age when I saw that Google is the 'Bell Labs / IBM / whatever big influential company that makes a mark on you as a young adult" company of our time.

Google is not Bell Labs. It is not a research lab. It is a large software corporation.

In a research lab, you get the autonomy to work on whatever project you want, and are expected to be starting projects after a few years. Young people get a lot of mentoring. It's a collaborative environment.

Google isn't worse than IBM or Goldman Sachs, but it's not Bell Labs.

It's a decent place to work if you're established and can get placed at Staff SWE or better. It's not the best place to grow to that level if you're not already there.

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

#132

Post by cm2187 »

ryandrake wrote: post #68
beachstartup wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it wasn't so long ago that nobody did this for tech, because we had a self-selecting industry that paid smart people very well, and those banker and consultant kids looked to us with a certain level of envy because we could naturally, seemingly effortlessly (not really), do what they studied years and years to do, which is make over 100 grand in your early 20's without really trying. those days are almost over. the b…

> it wasn't so long ago that nobody did this for tech Well, competition for jobs (especially the top ones) has never been so fierce. I remember my first job out of undergrad was programming for a (then) pretty well known hardware company. I cracked open a book on "how to write device drivers" the day before my interview and breezed through the interview and got the job. This would literally never happen today. Interv…

I thought developers were now a scarce resource.

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

#133

Post by thefastlane »

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'd like to think i could tolerate a sizable amount of opaque politics and purposelessness if it came with a 300,000k/year comp package.

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

#134

Post by elbear »

savanaly wrote: post #66
fdsfsaa wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finance.

That's true if the goal is purely money. I think, though, that if you're just looking to make six figures and don't quite care if it's 150k or 500k then working at a Google or Facebook will be the far better alternative as the workplace culture is better and the hours are likely to be better. For a lot of (most?) engineers, there's not enough money in the world to offset the difference in utility from working at a fi…

The work in finance can also be intellectually stimulating.

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

#135

Post by judahmeek »

solipsism wrote: post #128
bambax wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about: "The more I learn about Google, the more I want to work there. In brief, Google is a company that [...] gives employees the freedom to make good decisions for the user. [...] Nowadays candidates are chosen based on coding ability, technical knowledge, and Googleyness." As a user, it hasn't been my experience in a long while that Google gives employees the freedom to make good decisions for the user . Goog…

None of that approaches religiosity. Your ridiculous interpretation is colored by your preexisting opinions about Google. Your logic also fails you. Developers having the freedom to do what's right for the user doesn't imply they succeed.

All I see here are a lot of personal attacks. Feel free to explain what your definition of "religiosity" is and why it doesn't apply to what Bambax quoted.

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

#136

Post by cm2187 »

msoad wrote: post #106

I worked at Google. This makes me sad. Sad to see people are treating a for profit company like a religion. Google is a good workplace compared to other companies but it's not a religion and it's not perfect. As other commenters said it's not the thing it was before either. I left Google to work on something more interesting and I can't be happier. If we're going to hire people, I'm not putting any weight on their wo…

It reminds me of graduates who want to get into investment banking. They have a ranking in their head of which bank is better than which other, and make a massive deal out of getting into #2 instead of #1 or #3. The reality is that down to #10, they will likely get a very similar experience and chances are they will have gone through 2 or 3 of those banks on their list anyway by the time they are 30.

And at the end of the day, what makes most of your experience is the team you work with rather than which of the 50,000+ employees organisations employs you.

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

#137

Post by hex_3934252261 »

gravypod wrote: post #105
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…

He's an ex-mil, current-genious computer scientist. Working for google would restrict him to google work. Working as a contractor, with a military background and a well documented solid computer science background (not traditional of course but still rock solid), he can pretty much right his own tickets in any R&D field. I can't think of a better person to contract out too: worked intel, speaks Korean (Southern diale…

I agree with you on this.

As a cleared professional with military experience, he has more intellectually fulfilling options than being a SWE 2/3/4 at Google. He can also go and get a CS PhD (he's shown the work ethic and ability) and that's a pre-requisite for most of the good software jobs in any case.

Google isn't that special unless you're going to Google to say "I work at Google!"

Google also pays very well for low-level roles. It's easy to get misled by economic signals. ("I'm going to make $200k, so the job must be important.") Almost no one in academia or government or research is making what a Sr. SWE (which isn't that senior) makes. On the other hand, unless you land in a research division (which is next-to-impossible without a PhD) you are largely being paid for your own intellectual depreciation.

My guess is that he'll want to have his own business by his 40s, and not necessary for money. He's going to move farther in that direction by staying with research than if he gets seduced by the GoogleBucks.

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

#138

Post by user5994461 »

cm2187 wrote: post #136
msoad wrote: post #106

I worked at Google. This makes me sad. Sad to see people are treating a for profit company like a religion. Google is a good workplace compared to other companies but it's not a religion and it's not perfect. As other commenters said it's not the thing it was before either. I left Google to work on something more interesting and I can't be happier. If we're going to hire people, I'm not putting any weight on their wo…

It reminds me of graduates who want to get into investment banking. They have a ranking in their head of which bank is better than which other, and make a massive deal out of getting into #2 instead of #1 or #3. The reality is that down to #10, they will likely get a very similar experience and chances are they will have gone through 2 or 3 of those banks on their list anyway by the time they are 30. And at the end o…

By all accounts, both big tech companies and big investment banks are good places to be, with some variance per team.

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

#139

Post by beachstartup »

com2kid wrote: post #121
beachstartup wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it wasn't so long ago that nobody did this for tech, because we had a self-selecting industry that paid smart people very well, and those banker and consultant kids looked to us with a certain level of envy because we could naturally, seemingly effortlessly (not really), do what they studied years and years to do, which is make over 100 grand in your early 20's without really trying. those days are almost over. the b…

> it wasn't so long ago that nobody did this for tech How long ago is this? When I was in school 10 years ago, I know I spent ~3 months studying for my upcoming interviews. I memorized all the big algorithms, and an entire book of programming puzzles. Prior to that, in HS, I remember reading on /. about programming puzzle interviews.

waaaaay back in the 90s.

i remember having a stark realization one day that i probably couldn't get hired to do the same damn job again with any reliability, so thats when i took things into my own hands and started a company so i could deal with a different set of problems other than ace-ing stupid interviews.

that was right when i heard questions about interviewees being left in a room alone for 30 minutes, were being asked idiotic questions like "how many ping pong balls..." or being put in uncomfortable situations on purpose to test their reaction, dumb riddles, or any of a number of other non-work-related questions.

as someone who now has interviewed hundreds of people and hired dozens, i can unequivocally say that the above techniques are a stupid, idiotic, fucking dumb and counterproductive waste of time for hiring good people _for anyone who does not have the time and luxury (read: cash) to indulge in it_.

i would fire anyone who worked for me that insisted on doing interviews like that, because we are not google or mckinsey or goldman sachs and we do not have a never-ending supply of money.

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

#140

Post by tekromancr »

40acres wrote: post #57
preordained wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's maybe a bit harsh, but I'm pretty much with you. It's passed the tipping point where it's inevitable it takes on the mold of a soulless megacorp. its really obvious that so many people just "need" to get into Google because it's validation for their ego. "I told you I'm a special snowflake genius!" Google is awesome, and I'm at Google, so you know I'm awesome...yada, yada. The inauthenticity is palpable; you j…

I think this is a shortsighted view. I work for a pretty influential tech company as a Software Developer, I've interviewed with Google twice and have failed both times, but I look at interviewing with and potentially being hired at Google as a great challenge and opportunity rather than something to validate myself. I'm 25, and I think I speak for a lot of folks my age when I saw that Google is the 'Bell Labs / IBM…

Posting here because a sibling comment (throwaway username starting with hex_) is dead, but the content seems reasonable.
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