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Announcing Google Research, Europe

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Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#51

Post by xiphias »

XCSme wrote: post #39
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…

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.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#52

Post by tobltobs »

Roritharr wrote: post #48
tobltobs wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My anecdotal evidence from the Rheinknie would "prove" the opposite. And in the year 1990 we already had IT lessons in High School where we programmed in BASIC and Pascal. I think the social stigma came from the your mother being a single parent. There was a lot of discrimination against them in those times.

It was not a social stigma in general, what I've tried to describe is more the general attitude, which is reflected by the wide usage of Google Streetview Blocking ability. Sure there was a Pascal class, and its not like you are physically unable to learn CS if you want to, but the environment does not lend itself to leading kids down that path.

The blocking of Google Streetview and the general objection of tracking enabling technologies has more to do with the Stasi history then a general objection against technology.

Also there isn't any requirement to lead kids especially to IT. You can get good jobs in mostly all thinkable sectors of industry or services in Germany.

What is true is, that IT was more seen as a nerd hobby than a profession until around 1998. But this was true for the most parts of the world apart from a few pockets like Silicon Valley.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#54

Post by dharma1 »

amelius wrote: post #41

I would rather see Europe monetize their own tech instead of some US company.

Would be great if the next Google/Facebook/Microsoft was European and HQ'd in Europe, but it's hard to see that.

ML anecdotes - Schmidhuber makes a point of how LSTM was developed on European taxpayer's dime. Backpropagation was invented by Esko Linnainmaa (a Finnish researcher) in the 70s.

Universities or startups can't compete with finance/Google/FB level compensation, so that's where a lot of the bright minds go.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#55

Post by zerr »

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.

Glassdoors shows pretty average. What do you call huge?

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#56

Post by sotojuan »

geodel wrote: post #15
wbhart wrote: post #12

I wonder if this is because Google is having trouble recruiting people to the US, due to the crazy political system there, or because of visas or because of people with concerns about surveillance, gun control, the death penalty, lack of whistleblower protections, etc.

Or it could be just because they want distributed teams with multicultural talent in different timezones.

From what I've seen there's a ton of research or computer science-y talent in Europe. Makes sense for Google to try to get some of that.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#57

Post by ocdtrekkie »

dharma1 wrote: post #54
amelius wrote: post #41

I would rather see Europe monetize their own tech instead of some US company.

Would be great if the next Google/Facebook/Microsoft was European and HQ'd in Europe, but it's hard to see that. ML anecdotes - Schmidhuber makes a point of how LSTM was developed on European taxpayer's dime. Backpropagation was invented by Esko Linnainmaa (a Finnish researcher) in the 70s. Universities or startups can't compete with finance/Google/FB level compensation, so that's where a lot of the bright minds go.

Maybe they'd be able to if Google et. al. had to pay their taxes and had their monopoly practices broken up.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#58

Post by Maro »

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 work at Facebook, I think I had ~10 interviews in total. I think 5-10 is pretty normal for large companies: 3-4 on the phone, 3-5 on site, plus followup. It's very exhausting. In my case it took 4 months from first contact to offer accepted.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#59

Post by 1010310201 »

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…

It is really a stretch to claim that Germany isn't tech friendly. It isn't pseudo-tech friendly, i.e. Germans have the obnoxious habit of separating hype from tech.

The only area where I'd agree is nuclear power, which regrettably doesn't have wide acceptance.

Re: Announcing Google Research, Europe

#60

Post by delroth »

planetjones wrote: post #30

A good sign of commitment by Google to their Zurich office - recently the Swiss papers had stories of Google looking towards building their London office, due to limitations in acquiring work permits for staff in Switzerand. This news somewhat contradicts it; Zurich really is an attractive location for talent to flock toward.

Google secured 5 new buildings in a very nice location in Zürich at the end of 2014: http://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/google-zieht-an-die-europaallee-1....

This article says this is enough space for 5000 more employees.

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