Working for Google

I think geoffh works there (or used to). That was pre-IPO, however, but he said he really liked it.

The question is if someone with a < 1000 rating can get hired at Google. I know it's part of the standard interview at every tech company I've interviewed with.

Google doesn't need to ask any questions, It already knows everything about you including every post you made on gamedev. :D

Seriously, no I wouldn't take a job there. It's a big corporation with all that implies and I wouldn't like it. They probably wouldn't like me either for the same reason.

Hell yes. The benefits alone would be enough for me to pack-up and get out of Iowa.

Sounds like a good place to work to me.

[lol]

Quote:

Original post by Driv3MeFar Sounds like a good place to work to me. [lol]

And I thought I had it good at Microsoft with free soda/juice. I want free laundry, haircuts, snacks now :(

Quote:

Original post by Driv3MeFar Sounds like a good place to work to me. [lol]

Front and rear cleansing? Sign me up!

I drive by google quite a few times when I'm on my way to the local park just down the street from googleplex.

I see people riding bicycles around googleplex. Flying RC helicopters. Dicking around in this field next to google. It is almost like they're not working at all.

Any workplace where you don't actually do any work would be the kind of place I'd like to be.

I did an internship at Google last summer, and having done an internship at IBM prior to it, I can describe some reasons that I liked working at Google more.

First of course is the free food. You get 3 meals every weekday (and not cafeteria food either, you get duck, lamb, steak, etc depending on the day, last time I checked there were around 10 places to eat) in addition to free snacks and drinks (including bawls!).

Another thing I loved is that while you do have a "primary" project, you're allowed (even encouraged) to pick up projects that YOU are interested in. Also, even as an intern, I had a great deal of freedom on my project. I was basically told "We have this problem that we want to solve, so go figure out how to do it.", and so I spent a few weeks doing some research, then did some design (also went to a few meetings) and coded up a prototype. While this project was largely individual-oriented, I also picked up a side project which was largely team-based where there were lots of meetings with people within the team and in other groups to discuss various design issues (keep in mind this was just a bunch of engineers and project managers that wanted to do something, so "upper" management wasn't even involved). All-in all it was a great learning experience.

Another cool thing are the "tech talks", which most of the time aren't even about technology. For instance, Al Gore has spoken, the president of Harvard University gave a talk on various economic issues, and Will Wright gave a demo of "Spore".

And of course there's the culture. You're in a very diverse environment surrounded by lots of very smart people that you can just discuss whatever with. There's a big company-wide meeting every Friday that includes a Q/A session with the founders, and there's free beer and hors d'oeuvres. There are various company trips (for example the entire engineering group went to the arcade/theme park/beach), and they took us on a scavenger hunt in San Francisco. You aren't expected to come/leave at a particular time (I know of one person, in particular, who likes to work only at night time). And of course there are various games (foosball, ping-pong, board games, beach volleyball) that can keep you occupied if you get burned out or frustrated.

But of course, like all big companies, there ARE deadlines and expectations, and such an "unrestricted" environment may not be for everyone. Some people also just like the "small company" feeling, which is certainly understandable. But as for myself, I can hardly imagine working at a more enjoyable location (I already miss that internship..having to take classes this summer so that I can graduate on time, ugh).

</fanboi>

I've heard that a lot of Google employees actually refer to their 20% self-project time as "120% time" because they don't have enough time to finish their actual work during the week. Did you get that impression? Seems like it would be hard to take a day off a week to work on personal projects during a milestone crunch.