My Google interview

Signs of the Apocalypse... last month I was actually contacted by a Google recruiter, claiming that my skills might be an excellent match for some job openings at YouTube.

Without going into too much detail: I went to the YouTube interview day, where I was grilled together with around 15 other candidates. Google interviews deserve their reputation... I was interviewed five times, and pelted with puzzles, brain teasers and difficult programming problems. (Some of which had topics that I don't encounter every day... C++, state machines, to name a few.)

Anyway, I didn't get the job... judging from the (rather vague) rejection email, it almost seems like there was only one job opening, and they didn't hire anybody at all for it. Weird.

While the end result was disappointing, this was actually a positive experience for me, for several reasons.

Going to California and the interview day forced me to overcome my agoraphobia. So that was a great success. (Well, sort of. I didn't travel alone.) I couldn't pass this chance up, so I went. Probably a no-brainer for most other people, but it required overcoming lots of fears.

I like California (or at least the Bay Area) very much, and have decided that I want to live there. So I now have a bright new goal. I am now going to work on improving my skills and look for a job there. Maybe not at Google (although that would be powerful cool), but there are tons of IT companies in Silicon Valley.

It has also become clear that I miss having "peers"... other programmers, or people with similar interests, that I can talk to. While I am not the most social person, going for 5 years without meeting any other hackers, is a bit much even for me. :-)

(Google really does hire exceptional people, by the way. For example, the recruiter that first contacted me is not just that... she's also a captain of the US Air Force and a TV producer. ^_^)