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My Google Internship

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Re: My Google Internship

#141

Post by jacques_chester »

lostboys67 wrote: post #110
munificent wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

And also in the USA the IRS is very lenient when it comes to taxing benefits in kind. Back when I worked for British telecom in new buildings they wanted to offer free tea and coffee - HMRC said no you have to pay tax and that was the end of that. Of course then one senior manger worked out that there was tax allowance that allowed a tax free profit related bonus and the company gave every one a $300 tax free bonus a…

In Australia, the Fringe Benefits Tax is similarly capable of sucking the frills and perks out of any situation.

I've worked in offices where we paid for coffee by an honour system.

A local council, which makes some revenue through parking metres, was required to put parking metres on its own carpark and charge its own employees, because it was Council land and this would make it a fringe benefit. There wasn't much sympathy, but still.

Re: My Google Internship

#142

Post by mountaineer22 »

Jaruzel wrote: post #123
cromwellian wrote: post #49

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'd say one of the most valuable things about Googley culture is the lack of prima donna alpha-male macho-engineer behavior. I'd love to work in a place like that. I'm sick and tired of people riding rough-shod over others in the workplace just because they think they are better than them. Most places now value the voice of the loudest shouter, over the voice of the experienced knowledgeable specialist, so much in…

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Re: My Google Internship

#143

Post by nofugsgiven »

The fine article describes exactly the environment one would expect of people who run the worlds largest search engine but who still couldnt see a Trump victory coming a mile away. People living in a well cocooned safe space. A superb fit for university students.

Pretty much consolidates my view that AlphaGo was Google's IBM Deep Blue moment ie now past their peak. Their future products and services are going to be increasingly as distant from reality as the people themselves are, and thus much less useful or profitable.

Re: My Google Internship

#145

Post by rampage101 »

nedsma wrote: post #130
steven777400 wrote: post #3

I love reading accounts like this. It's fun and well written and I enjoy the photos too. I work in a cube farm of grey cubes on boring LoB applications. I know I'll never be skilled enough (or, more correctly, I'll never be ambitious enough to become skilled enough) to work at Google et al but it's really fun to sample the experience from the outside. :)

I suggest you read The Python Paradox ( http://paulgraham.com/pypar.html ), if you haven't already. It's not that your projects are simple, stupid, don't require skills (I believe it's actually quite the opposite), it's that your current skillset/projects aren't that exciting/sought after in the SV.

Python has come a long way since 2004 when it was not used much in industry. Now it's the top language for data science, along with some good web frameworks such as Flask/Django. Although, I'm pleased to see that Python was thought of highly then.

Re: My Google Internship

#146

Post by Chris2048 »

chmln wrote: 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…

I'm a little disturbed that "Googli[ness]" involves both reasonable, sociable behavior and attitudes, but also leftist principles such as the above, as it might then serve to conflate the two.

Re: My Google Internship

#147

Post by ChicagoBoy11 »

rubicon33 wrote: post #55
lambda_func wrote: post #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.

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.

While you may argue that it is inefficient, there is something to be said for the power of signaling theory. I think that if the interview process ends up simply weeding out candidates that are willing and have the motivation to study for a few months for the job versus candidates who aren't, it is in it of itself probably extremely valuable as a selection tool. Heck, there is a lot of literature suggesting that this is what college is mostly about.

The thorny -- and important issue -- in all of this is recognize that the cost of "studying for a few months" varies sharply between people. when it comes to matters of equity of access, this is something that this model is bad at dealing with. Some 17yr old with a solid family background who has no responsibilities is facing very different constraints on "studying for a few months" then an older single-family professional trying to make a career switch.

Re: My Google Internship

#148

Post by Chris2048 »

amputect wrote: post #83
chmln wrote: 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…

Yes, it is, but I think the implementation matters. In my building on the Google Kirkland campus, we have men's and women's bathrooms in a few different places, and also one place where there's 5 single-occupancy unisex bathrooms and one mother's room. It's great! It doesn't take any space away from the other bathrooms, and it accommodates people who are uncomfortable in the cisgender multi-person bathrooms for whate…

single unisex stalls are great because they also accommodate for people who prefer them for any reason, without out requiring political or clinical validation of those reasons.

Re: My Google Internship

#149

Post by Chris2048 »

rincebrain wrote: post #136
thegenius2000 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very fair point, but what about the fraction of people who not only consider it an expense, but an affront to moral dignity? For example, Politico did a poll which showed that 46% of Americans believe that everyone should use the bathroom of their birth. Should their comforts be sacrificed for the sake of 0.6% of the population?

"Believed that they should" is not necessarily the same as "affronted if they don't". There are, for example, a number of people who would not get an abortion, but believe in the right of others to doso.

But does it matter in that context? Does/should a belief be weighted higher if it causes "offense" - this would mean the easily offended would have their beliefs weighed higher, and thus people would be encouraged to be so.

Re: My Google Internship

#150

Post by Chris2048 »

tedks wrote: post #101
chmln wrote: 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…

>but having to share the bathroom with females The fact this comment is not gray having such overt misogyny speaks poorly of HN as a tech community. This is what keeps women out of tech. Mods, please delete this.

Explain you point of view rather than calling for censorship. No, its not obvious.
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