Last week end, I received an email from a recruiter from Google offering me to try and join Google as either a dev or as a Unix Sysadmin, which is nice since I was actually gonna get started with looking for unix sysadmin jobs, and I happen to be a relatively skillful C programmer (but I'm more interested in a sysadmin position right now). After checking the genuinity of this mail, I started to gather information about this type of recruitment from Google and a couple of things appeared obvious, they found me on SourceForge, most likely from my ARSE project, and if I reply positively to this offer, a long series of a dozen of interviews, starting with a hour long phone interview mainly consisting in technical questions I don't think I could correctly answer to and ending up with a couple of days of interviews on site, awaits me.
To provide some context to this whole thing, I'm a 21-year old frenchman who's never had a job, let alone an IT job, with a passion for low level C (and some ASM) programming and digital signal processing, who's currently at a sysadmin school. I'm pretty sure I don't need to mention my fluency in english, which is not quite a very common thing for a frenchman. Our school now wants us to find a job or an internship in the field, so this Google offer comes at the perfect time.
However, there are a few problems with this whole thing. First one is, it's Google, probably the hardest IT company to get in once you get scheduled for an interview, and I don't have any experience. They might ask me such things as "explain cron to a 8-year old" or how to do something precise in a shell script (and although I can do stuff in Shell I just couldn't write a shell script on a whiteboard let alone make it up on the phone) and I'm not sure I'd do too well at that. Not to mention that I hate speaking english when i'm in France (due to not being "warmed up", in other words, suddenly starting to speak english out of nowhere) and I hate speaking on the phone, so I think I'd hate talking for an hour on the phone to some american engineer who'd know a hell of a lot more than me about the topic at hand, and who'd ask me tricky ass questions. The last relevant detail is that I live in Nantes, France, as the job would be in Dublin, Ireland. Which means that if I passed the phone interview, I'd probably be invited for a trip to Dublin, to reportedly undergo a couple of days consisting in a dozen of interviews.
On the other hand, well, I could give it a shot.. but is it worth the huge hassle?
EDIT #2 : It's not like this occasion will only happen once in my lifetime, actually it will pretty much happen whenever I'll want, which implies I could try again when I'll have more experience
EDIT : Here's the mail I received
QUOTE
Hi Michel,
My name's <snip> and I work in the recruiting department for Google.com
engineering, internally known as SRE (Site Reliability Engineering).
We've been looking for people that have a passion for what they do for
positions as Software Engineers and Unix Systems/Application
Administrators. The Google.com engineering group is responsible for
our Google website from start to finish, quite distinct from our
operations group.
I wanted to see if you may be interested in an opportunity in this
group. We are constantly seeking extraordinary developers and Unix or
Linux experts to join our exciting team and growing organization. We
have positions around the world. I've attached two job descriptions
that I feel may be a match for you, if you'd like more information
feel free to contact me with any questions.
If you feel either of these positions strike your interest I'd like to
schedule a time for me to give you a call and discuss further details.
Otherwise, if you know any other talented people who might be
interested in either of these positions please forward my contact info
on.
Thanks, I hope to hear form you soon,
--
<snip>
<snip>@google.com
work: 555.<snip>
Software Engineer, Google.com
This position is available in:
USA-CA:Mountain View, Santa Monica WA: Kirkland NY: New York
Switzerland–Zurich
Ireland-Dublin
Australia-Sydney
Are you part ace coder, part adrenaline junkie? Do you have a knack for seeing a problem and immediately discerning the likely solution? Maybe you have been coding for years, are bored with the old design-build-review-test-ship-repeat routine, and yearn for some faster-paced challenges? Or perhaps you are a seasoned software engineer who is also a genius at jockeying networks and administering UNIX clusters.
We are looking for Software Engineers to join the Google.com Engineering team. Google.com Engineers are in the thick of everything involved with keeping Google running, from code-level troubleshooting of service anomalies to safeguarding the availability of our most popular services; from monitoring and response to building new automation infrastructure to balancing the desire for change management with the need for stability. All team members must have strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, fluency in coding, good communication skills and most of all enthusiasm for tackling the complex problems of scale which are uniquely Google. We tackle challenging, novel situations every day, and work with just about every other engineering and operations team at Google in the process.
In this role you will need:
•Expertise in coding, analyzing and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems.
•Experience in a high-volume or critical production service environment.
•Strong understanding of IP networking, including the ability to analyze network behavior, performance and application issues using standard tools like tcpdump.
Qualifications:
•BA/BS in Computer Science, MS or PhD is preferred.
•0-15 years experience.
•Expertise in data structures, algorithms, and complexity analysis.
•Fluency in one or more of: C, C++, Java.
•Fluency in one of more of: Shell, PHP, Perl or Python.
•Ability to handle periodic on-call duty, as well as out-of-band requests.
•Solid working knowledge of UNIX, preferably Linux.
•Tack-sharp analytical abilities.
•A strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive.
•Fluent written communication and unusual verbal agility are strong assets.
•SQL experience a plus, MySQL a plus.
•Experience leading short projects involving outside teams is a plus.
Unix System/Applications Administrator, Google.com - Mountain View
This position is available in:
USA-CA:Mountain View, Santa Monica WA: Kirkland NY: New York
Switzerland–Zurich
Ireland-Dublin
Australia-Sydney
Are you:
•...a seasoned Unix jockey, database wizard, performance specialist, networking guru, and code slinger all rolled into one?
•...looking for the next cool problem to solve, in a fast-paced and engineering-driven environment?
•...into writing scripts which perform practically the entire job you once held earlier in your career?
•...entertained in your off hours by taking things apart just to see how they work? Are you successful putting them back together when you're done?
•...excited by the idea of making Google even faster, more reliable, more available, more – well, Googly?
If you answered "Yes" to more than three of the above questions, you may be our kind of System Admin! Keep reading.
Google.com team members are involved in every facet of Google's production site. From design issues to troubleshooting, from performance analysis to capacity planning, from DNS to networking to application [mis]behavior, Google.com engineers are ultimately responsible for making sure that Google always works. We take that responsibility very seriously, but if you think you've got what it takes then we're eager to talk with you.
Working in the Google.com team, you will wear many hats for Google's entire production site: first responder, performance analyst, service architect, system/database administrator, capacity planner, tools developer, monitoring expert, and technical evangelist.
In this role you will need:
•Expertise in UNIX system administration, including configuration, troubleshooting, and automation.
•Fluency in at least one scripting/coding language.
•Experience running high-traffic web services, including requirements and capacity analysis, service configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting, and change management.
•Strong understanding of IP networking, including familiarity with the functionality, operating, and failure modes of common networking devices, and the ability to analyze network behavior, performance and application issues using standard tools like tcpdump.
Requirements:
•BA/BS in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience.
•3 - 5 years experience with UNIX systems administration (5-15 years for Senior position).
•Solid scripting skills in Shell, PHP, Perl or Python.
•Proven technical troubleshooting and performance tuning experience.
•Experience in a high-volume or critical production service environment.
•Ability to handle periodic on-call duty as well as out-of-band requests.
•Tack-sharp analytical abilities.
•A strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive.
•Fluent written communication and unusual verbal agility are strong assets.
•SQL experience a plus, MySQL a plus.
•Experience leading short projects involving outside teams is a plus.
To provide some context to this whole thing, I'm a 21-year old frenchman who's never had a job, let alone an IT job, with a passion for low level C (and some ASM) programming and digital signal processing, who's currently at a sysadmin school. I'm pretty sure I don't need to mention my fluency in english, which is not quite a very common thing for a frenchman. Our school now wants us to find a job or an internship in the field, so this Google offer comes at the perfect time.
However, there are a few problems with this whole thing. First one is, it's Google, probably the hardest IT company to get in once you get scheduled for an interview, and I don't have any experience. They might ask me such things as "explain cron to a 8-year old" or how to do something precise in a shell script (and although I can do stuff in Shell I just couldn't write a shell script on a whiteboard let alone make it up on the phone) and I'm not sure I'd do too well at that. Not to mention that I hate speaking english when i'm in France (due to not being "warmed up", in other words, suddenly starting to speak english out of nowhere) and I hate speaking on the phone, so I think I'd hate talking for an hour on the phone to some american engineer who'd know a hell of a lot more than me about the topic at hand, and who'd ask me tricky ass questions. The last relevant detail is that I live in Nantes, France, as the job would be in Dublin, Ireland. Which means that if I passed the phone interview, I'd probably be invited for a trip to Dublin, to reportedly undergo a couple of days consisting in a dozen of interviews.
On the other hand, well, I could give it a shot.. but is it worth the huge hassle?
EDIT #2 : It's not like this occasion will only happen once in my lifetime, actually it will pretty much happen whenever I'll want, which implies I could try again when I'll have more experience
EDIT : Here's the mail I received
QUOTE
Hi Michel,
My name's <snip> and I work in the recruiting department for Google.com
engineering, internally known as SRE (Site Reliability Engineering).
We've been looking for people that have a passion for what they do for
positions as Software Engineers and Unix Systems/Application
Administrators. The Google.com engineering group is responsible for
our Google website from start to finish, quite distinct from our
operations group.
I wanted to see if you may be interested in an opportunity in this
group. We are constantly seeking extraordinary developers and Unix or
Linux experts to join our exciting team and growing organization. We
have positions around the world. I've attached two job descriptions
that I feel may be a match for you, if you'd like more information
feel free to contact me with any questions.
If you feel either of these positions strike your interest I'd like to
schedule a time for me to give you a call and discuss further details.
Otherwise, if you know any other talented people who might be
interested in either of these positions please forward my contact info
on.
Thanks, I hope to hear form you soon,
--
<snip>
<snip>@google.com
work: 555.<snip>
Software Engineer, Google.com
This position is available in:
USA-CA:Mountain View, Santa Monica WA: Kirkland NY: New York
Switzerland–Zurich
Ireland-Dublin
Australia-Sydney
Are you part ace coder, part adrenaline junkie? Do you have a knack for seeing a problem and immediately discerning the likely solution? Maybe you have been coding for years, are bored with the old design-build-review-test-ship-repeat routine, and yearn for some faster-paced challenges? Or perhaps you are a seasoned software engineer who is also a genius at jockeying networks and administering UNIX clusters.
We are looking for Software Engineers to join the Google.com Engineering team. Google.com Engineers are in the thick of everything involved with keeping Google running, from code-level troubleshooting of service anomalies to safeguarding the availability of our most popular services; from monitoring and response to building new automation infrastructure to balancing the desire for change management with the need for stability. All team members must have strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, fluency in coding, good communication skills and most of all enthusiasm for tackling the complex problems of scale which are uniquely Google. We tackle challenging, novel situations every day, and work with just about every other engineering and operations team at Google in the process.
In this role you will need:
•Expertise in coding, analyzing and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems.
•Experience in a high-volume or critical production service environment.
•Strong understanding of IP networking, including the ability to analyze network behavior, performance and application issues using standard tools like tcpdump.
Qualifications:
•BA/BS in Computer Science, MS or PhD is preferred.
•0-15 years experience.
•Expertise in data structures, algorithms, and complexity analysis.
•Fluency in one or more of: C, C++, Java.
•Fluency in one of more of: Shell, PHP, Perl or Python.
•Ability to handle periodic on-call duty, as well as out-of-band requests.
•Solid working knowledge of UNIX, preferably Linux.
•Tack-sharp analytical abilities.
•A strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive.
•Fluent written communication and unusual verbal agility are strong assets.
•SQL experience a plus, MySQL a plus.
•Experience leading short projects involving outside teams is a plus.
Unix System/Applications Administrator, Google.com - Mountain View
This position is available in:
USA-CA:Mountain View, Santa Monica WA: Kirkland NY: New York
Switzerland–Zurich
Ireland-Dublin
Australia-Sydney
Are you:
•...a seasoned Unix jockey, database wizard, performance specialist, networking guru, and code slinger all rolled into one?
•...looking for the next cool problem to solve, in a fast-paced and engineering-driven environment?
•...into writing scripts which perform practically the entire job you once held earlier in your career?
•...entertained in your off hours by taking things apart just to see how they work? Are you successful putting them back together when you're done?
•...excited by the idea of making Google even faster, more reliable, more available, more – well, Googly?
If you answered "Yes" to more than three of the above questions, you may be our kind of System Admin! Keep reading.
Google.com team members are involved in every facet of Google's production site. From design issues to troubleshooting, from performance analysis to capacity planning, from DNS to networking to application [mis]behavior, Google.com engineers are ultimately responsible for making sure that Google always works. We take that responsibility very seriously, but if you think you've got what it takes then we're eager to talk with you.
Working in the Google.com team, you will wear many hats for Google's entire production site: first responder, performance analyst, service architect, system/database administrator, capacity planner, tools developer, monitoring expert, and technical evangelist.
In this role you will need:
•Expertise in UNIX system administration, including configuration, troubleshooting, and automation.
•Fluency in at least one scripting/coding language.
•Experience running high-traffic web services, including requirements and capacity analysis, service configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting, and change management.
•Strong understanding of IP networking, including familiarity with the functionality, operating, and failure modes of common networking devices, and the ability to analyze network behavior, performance and application issues using standard tools like tcpdump.
Requirements:
•BA/BS in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience.
•3 - 5 years experience with UNIX systems administration (5-15 years for Senior position).
•Solid scripting skills in Shell, PHP, Perl or Python.
•Proven technical troubleshooting and performance tuning experience.
•Experience in a high-volume or critical production service environment.
•Ability to handle periodic on-call duty as well as out-of-band requests.
•Tack-sharp analytical abilities.
•A strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive.
•Fluent written communication and unusual verbal agility are strong assets.
•SQL experience a plus, MySQL a plus.
•Experience leading short projects involving outside teams is a plus.
