| Friday, October 7, 2005 |  |
| No Google |
| Seems like Google didn't want to hire me after all. Well, it was a fun thought, and I wish I at least had gotten to the point where they'd fly me somewhere to see their operation. Or to where they gave me an offer I could or couldn't refuse.
I suppose, like most big companies, they have different people who look for candidates than who actually make the decisions. The first guy who called me was super positive, and seemed to be ecstatic about my background. They had basically a whole bunch of jobs of various kinds, in various locations, and I could pretty much pick. But then again, that was probably just the headhunter guy, who didn't decide anything. Anyway, their approach is a series of interviews, which also are tests. I.e. they ask you lots of hard technical questions within what is supposed to be your area of expertise. And if that works out, they'd fly you to one of their headquarters, to spend a day talking to people and seeing what they're doing. And then they'd give you some kind of offer, if you survived the process. So, I've spent several hours on the phone with them. Last call was a 45 minute interview on systems, with one of their systems managers of some kind. I'm pretty sure I aced that. But then, a couple of weeks later, I just get a brief, one paragraph form letter e-mail from some different person than the guys I had been dealing with. Essentially: "Thank you for your interest in Google. After carefully reviewing your experience and qualifications, we have determined that there is not a fit." I suppose they passed it on to the actual decision maker, who didn't like my resume. Or maybe he took one look at my blog, and decided, no way. Or he did a search on my name in Google, and found all sorts of weird stuff. I don't know. Well, good, I can go on bitching about big corporations without having to censor myself because I work for one. I would really have liked to figure out Google's well-guarded secrets, though. And, curiously, a couple of hours after getting the e-mail from the guy, my one website I was having trouble with suddenly re-appeared in the Google index. Bing, traffic suddenly doubled. Makes me wonder if the guys at Google sit there with a whole picture of my Internet life on their screen while I'm talking with them. My gMail account, my Orkut friends list, my Blogger comments, my browsing patterns, my desperate pleas to Google support. Nah, probably just a coincidence. [ Diary | 2005-10-07 17:37 | 8 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| American Strangeness |
Al Gore:I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse . I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions. How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alternate universe"? I thought maybe it was an aberration when three-quarters of Americans said they believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11, 2001. But more than four years later, between a third and a half still believe Saddam was personally responsible for planning and supporting the attack. Excellent speech. Why is it that U.S. presidents and vice presidents become really intelligent and sensible people after they've left office, when they had nothing much to say when they were there, or when they were running their campaigns? Well, some of them at least. I'd rather not want to hear what Dan Quayle has to say nowadays. [ Politics | 2005-10-07 18:07 | 3 comments | PermaLink ] More > |