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United States10328 Posts
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Triscuit
United States722 Posts
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phiinix
United States1169 Posts
I loled when you mentioned driving sf. I live about an hour away, go there every now and then to see grandparents, it's pretty hectic. Unfortunately it's also where I want to move for a job next year, but it'll be public transportation and walking for me for sure haha | ||
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SpoR
United States1542 Posts
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fanta[Rn]
Japan2465 Posts
Did you consider other companies? What about famous start-ups? There's many potentially awesome workplaces in Silicon Valley I feel like. | ||
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Triscuit
United States722 Posts
 Maybe that's the difference between being spotlighted and not.  @SpoR: Yeah, and I'm sure as it was happening you were thinking "what the fuck am I doing?" and yet you were powerless to stop it. @fanta[Rn] I interviewed with a lot of companies. Only one was sort of a start-up, but not really. Optaros, Riverbed, Sandia National Labs, Lockheed Martin, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), ShoreTel (received offer), Microsoft (received offer), and now Google. I think the only startup sort of company out of those is Optaros, but it might be far along enough to not really be considered a start up. I think a lot of the very start-up companies weren't really all that interested in me because I am not graduating until May 2012, so that puts a long time between when they decide to hire me, and when I actually start contributing to the company, and I think startups have less infrastructure set down to really handle that gap efficiently. Plus, if I get into a startup, I want it to be after I've had a bit of experience so I'm able to pull my own weight sooner. Good question though, I hadn't really thought too hard about the startup possibility. | ||
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emperorchampion
Canada9496 Posts
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ryndaris
263 Posts
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TheToast
United States4808 Posts
On November 15 2011 12:48 Triscuit wrote: But in that car, following a grueling and painful day of interviews, I realized that Google is able to do this because they hire very, very smart people. People that can wrap their heads around these big problems, boil them down to something manageable, and provide the users with something good. People that are the best. And I'm not the best. As someone who also just recently graduated college, I can relate really well with how you are feeling. A lot. And I'm not half as qualified as you lol, I'm a liberal arts major with 4 years experience in IT. I feel like I'm stuck between jobs that want someone with a 4.0 GPA in rocket science and a slew of shitty jobs. But I always come back to wondering if working at some place like Google is really worth all the effort. Sure there's free time and free food, but at the end of the day I want a job where I can pick up my check and go home. :/ What I label "interview despair" is the acute perception that you can't solve a problem. That the ability to come to terms with the question given forth is just one iota out of reach and there is nothing you can do about it. It is the feeling of your heart growing smaller and icy cold in panic, that you are moments from giving up entirely, or leaving the room, or just breaking down in a way most unfitting of an interview candidate. That your future prospects at working for this company is vanishing before your eyes, and you just aren't smart enough to stop it. A couple of times now I've wanted to call back companies and just ask them, "what is it you want exactly? I'm super smart, can work really hard, and meet all of your qualifications? What are you holding out for, a friggin rocket scientist?!!" But then I have to remember that with the shitty economy, the are people with like x2 the experience and education as myself going after the same jobs. Just sucks balls. But good luck anyway! | ||
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Snipinpanda
United States1227 Posts
On November 16 2011 04:08 TheToast wrote: Cool, I was wondering when we might see the Google part of this series! As someone who also just recently graduated college, I can relate really well with how you are feeling. A lot. And I'm not half as qualified as you lol, I'm a liberal arts major with 4 years experience in IT. I feel like I'm stuck between jobs that want someone with a 4.0 GPA in rocket science and a slew of shitty jobs. But I always come back to wondering if working at some place like Google is really worth all the effort. Sure there's free time and free food, but at the end of the day I want a job where I can pick up my check and go home. :/ A couple of times now I've wanted to call back companies and just ask them, "what is it you want exactly? I'm super smart, can work really hard, and meet all of your qualifications? What are you holding out for, a friggin rocket scientist?!!" But then I have to remember that with the shitty economy, the are people with like x2 the experience and education as myself going after the same jobs. Just sucks balls. But good luck anyway! Job market for software engineering isn't bad right now. There are a lot of tech companies hiring people out of college I dunno about IT though. I don't really get what you're saying about whether or not Google is worth it. I'm not sure what you're trying to imply about the work there? | ||
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Thrill
2599 Posts
On November 15 2011 16:11 Triscuit wrote: I'm feeling a bit better now. I figure I'm not worthy of it, but that is something I'm willing to work on. If I do get an offer, I might even consider taking it as more of a challenge to my person than anything. I think I am really capable of a lot more than I give myself credit for but I need something that I'm seriously passionate about to unlock that. I worry a bit that I won't find something like that though. That's the key to it all. Passion unlocks and taps into potential. | ||
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TheToast
United States4808 Posts
On November 16 2011 04:30 Snipinpanda wrote: Job market for software engineering isn't bad right now. There are a lot of tech companies hiring people out of college I dunno about IT though. I don't really get what you're saying about whether or not Google is worth it. I'm not sure what you're trying to imply about the work there? I wasn't necessarily trying to imply anything, just me venting a bit And yeah, I've seen a lot of job postings for software engineers and cs majors. It's one of the few areas doing well right now, but even so with the shitty economy it's just that many more people competing for the same jobs. I think it sort of sucks for everyone somewhat right now. | ||
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BlackJack
United States10574 Posts
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Charger
United States2405 Posts
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Triscuit
United States722 Posts
On November 16 2011 05:47 BlackJack wrote: If you ever get anywhere with google, I humbly request that you ask them why youtube recommends videos that have 90% thumbs down ratings. You know the videos with the false titles and false thumbnails that are sometimes rickrolls that have 5 million views because they get recommended for other videos. How hard could it be to filter out videos that have a ton of thumbs down ratings... Funny, one of my interviewers actually was on the team that specifically worked on the problem of displaying similar videos on the sidebar. He said their decisions tend to rely mostly on covisitation, or the set of videos that tend to be watched together. A bit like how Amazon recommends items to buy together, based on their data of what items tend to be bought together. I do agree though that they should probably more heavily consider negative votes when recommending videos, but worry if that will cause staleness. On November 16 2011 07:22 Charger wrote: Thanks for doing this, I loved reading both blogs Thanks for reading! This is really my first foray into blogging, but all this positive support is really making me want to blog more. <3 | ||
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Loser777
1931 Posts
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StarStruck
25339 Posts
Anyway, it sounds like you understood what they were looking for and what you are. It's great that you understand your strengths and weaknesses very well because most people don't know how to accept it. In many cases they don't even have the introversion to acknowledge it. (What you may see as a strength, others may view as a weakness). Interview anxiety is more common than you might think. It comes down to how you handle high pressure situations and these companies will grill you. On November 16 2011 04:08 TheToast wrote: A couple of times now I've wanted to call back companies and just ask them, "what is it you want exactly? I'm super smart, can work really hard, and meet all of your qualifications? What are you holding out for, a friggin rocket scientist?!!" But then I have to remember that with the shitty economy, the are people with like x2 the experience and education as myself going after the same jobs. Just sucks balls. But good luck anyway! It's a number of things really. Everything from your personality to the way you go about solving the problem and do you meet their philosophy on design. There's a lot to it and that's why there are so many stages. Everyone is looking for something different. | ||
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dobbersp
United States94 Posts
If you do end up going to Microsoft, I might be looking for a roommate around that time :p | ||
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
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Armathai
1023 Posts
If you don't end up getting an offer from google and/or choose your offer from microsoft, I'm sure you'll do awesome. You sound like a supersmart person to begin with to get offers for interviews from both places ^_^ Don't ride yourself too hard on the interview pressure, most people experience that, and a lot of companies take it into account, you might've done better than any other interviewee for all you know. | ||
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