Oh well, I thought my interview and hiring process was an anomaly
Google’s net income for 2006, when I left, was 3 billion. 22 million a year? Less than 1% of their *profit*. “Thousands of dollars a day”? Even if it’s ten thousand, that’s still well under 1%.
Reduce profit by 2% to make your employees much happier . . . well, I know what I’d choose. In some ways it seemed like Google was getting increasingly pennywise/poundfoolish, and that just seemed like a dubious situation.
(Although, to Google’s credit, they opened up a new cafe that solved many of my food-related issues . . . after I left. Sigh.)
Sounds familiar (I was at Kirkland too.) Google took longer than any company I ever worked for to get thru the hiring process (approx 5 months from resume to job start.)
The interview process was very mixed: They had me slated as a Windows Developer for some reason, tho everyone on my interview loop wondered why. I flubbed my first coding pretty bad but after that it was clear that no-one on my interview loop had enough experience or knowledge to level me. On the other hand they figured that out and scheduled a follow on interview with the head of the Kirkland office who asked reasonable and pertinent questions.
Unlike the previous posters, I was happy with my salary and (for some reason I can’t articulate) I kept my own private medical insurance…
Also I was surprised that Google seemed to be proud that they didn’t communicate from one interviewer to the next: at Microsoft it was a good opportunity to find more appropriate interviewers, etc. if a person seemed misslated.
I did however meet with Larry and Sergey during a product review meeting, and have only good things to say about these 2 guys.
What was strange with me at Google was: while outside, I had all these big ideas I could do if I ever worked there.
I think it’s a good move for them to have App Engine: they won’t need to hire that many people anymore, or buy small garage-guys because now developers will be able to develop over the Google OS for free for Google 🙂
One last thing: Google also thinks inside a box (the browser). I felt this a lot, and was another reason I left. (too constrained)
Yes, I do agree with Stephen about HR. I totally second the statement that Google’s Hiring process is slack. Agreed, they receive a record number of applications everyday, but still the feeling that the resume is lost in a ‘black hole’ when there is no reply in as long as 6 months, is terribly disappointing. Also, the whole exit process could be bettered and ironed out.
I understand when Eric Schmidt says, one doesn’t work for Google for the money alone. Job with Google is sure an experience. But, yes, bringing the perks on par with other bigwigs will bring down the attrition level to some extent, thou we all do understand that attrition is not a big problem for Google right now.
Lucky for me the recruiter agreed it was incredibly sexist and fought with HR to bring me on as a temp
I had an equally ridiculous hiring process – although mine actually seemed normal (by Google standards) until the result. “And let me say this: if Larry Page is still reviewing resumes, shareholders should organize a rebellion. That is a scandalous waste of time for someone at that level, and the fact that it’s “quirky” is no mitigation. ” – this couldn’t be more true.
My experience actually in when I was interviewing for a sales position in the Seattle office was the typical 13+ interviews, including a day trip to MV where I was told that someone would take me to lunch and instead she took me in a conf. room and interviewed me. So I ended up not eating at all that day until I returned to the airport at 4pm. However, I passed my interviews with flying colors and was surprised 3 weeks later when I still hadn’t heard from my recruiter about the results of the hiring committee meeting. Finally he called to tell me that I was rejected because I was currently working as a Flight Attendant. A job I had started 4 months prior because it was a great opportunity to move into their management group but then the airlines started downsizing management and so I applied for the Google Travel Sales role instead. However, apparently the elitist hiring committee members believed that FA’s are stupid and there was no way they would be able to work at Google. Three months later they resubmitted me to http://besthookupwebsites.org/sugar-daddies-usa/ga/ the committee and had me remove my former job – instead I mentioned that I was “traveling” for four months and bingo! I got hired full time. 3+ years later I was promoted twice and named a Google Luminary! Good think Larry is such an excellent judge of character.