Last October I became disenchanted with where my startup was heading, and especially with how it was being managed – and decided to see what else was out there. My options were to look for new tech work in the bay area, or to go to another one America’s other tech meccas: Seattle or New York City. Being originally from Chicago, and having visited several times – New York seemed like the ideal place to go, and a much needed contrast to the suburban wasteland of the South Bay. Throughout October I interviewed with several tech companies in the city, and was lucky enough to get three offers – two from startups and one that was THE offer you can’t refuse – a chance to work for Google.
I had decided to interview with Google after hearing that even if I didn’t make the cut – it was worth going through just for the experience of going through their gauntlet. The interview itself was a nightmare in itself which is a story best saved for another post (having nothing to do with Google and everything to do with colossal incompetence by American Airlines) but in the end I survived, and two weeks later had to make one of the more difficult decisions of my life: continue to work in the startup world, or go work for Google. In the end I decided that irregardless of pay (offers from startups were for higher base salaries) or perceived loss of freedom in going to work for a big company, it was a chance I couldn’t pass up.
Fast forward four months later – this was 100% the best decision possible. Working at Google is as good as it gets, for reasons that have nothing to do with free food (although thats a pretty great perk!) To start with – everyone here is good, like scary good, at what they do. There is just an atmosphere of excellence that is hard to find almost anywhere these days. People here seem to love what they do, and that makes a world of difference.
Something else that’s mindblowing is when you sit down for breakfast with your team one morning, and you find out the other guys at the table you’ve been chatting with: invented AWK… or headed up IBM Research… or invented lex… or coauthored K&R… Chances to interact with living legends like this on a daily basis just don’t exist elsewhere. Like it’s pretty amazing when you send out an email with a question on the most pythonic way to tackle a given problem, and you get a response from Guido van Rossum.
Aside from brushes with celebrity – Google is somewhere where you learn something new everyday, and an awesome place to grow as an engineer. You work with technology that doesn’t exist commercially and at scales that just don’t exist anywhere else.
If you get the chance to interview here, or are lucky enough to get an offer – take it. Google IS Google. Nobody else comes close. So go read Steve Yegge’s post on preparing for the interviews, and send in your resume. You won’t regret it!