The Gong Show

I recently wrapped finished Google’s three month long interview process. I applied for their Associate Product Manager (APM) position. Google’s hiring process is notoriously slow, and as a result they lose a lot of great people to other companies (not just my opinion, but the opinion of Google insiders, straight from the horse’s mouth), so that’s why it was three months. The process consisted of a total of twelve interviews, not counting phone screen and interviews with recruiters… needless to say, that’s a crushingly large number of people to impress, and that’s assuming you have the credentials to get your foot in the door. The breakdown of the twelve interviews is as follows: 7 with other APMs, 1 with a coder, 4 with more senior level people (for me it was 1 PM, 2 directors, and 1 VP).

The interviews focused on a few specific subjects, in the following order of importance: product design, technical skill, pricing, and your personal history. The product design questions were a piece of cake, and anyone with some imagination can rock them. The technical skill questions were very hard for me; some involved coding, others were brain teasers, some required knowledge of an SysAdmin’s job. The pricing questions were essentially math games; they require working your way to a sensible price for a product given a bit of information. It sounds easy, but it’s tough to do even basic division while under pressure. Finally, your own background and personal history makes it way into a few questions, but it seems pretty unimportant compared to the rest of the interview. It seems like personal history is more of a jumping off point for talking about the three other, more important subjects. I would guess that personal history is crucial to get your foot in the door and get the interview in the first place, so that’s probably why they don’t focus on it.

Feel free to contact me if you’re applying and want some advice (No, I won’t talk about specific questions, but I’ll be happy to discuss the process more generally). However, take my advice with a grain of salt as I am pretty sure I didn’t get the job.

I wanted to end this post with a video I found on digg.  It was a guy applying for an interviewing for the APM job at Google… it was absolutely ridiculous… but the video was stored on Google Video and now it’s gone, so I’m guessing that after the video was posted to digg, Google removed it either at the request of the kid or by their own choice.  Oh well. It anyone can find another copy of this video, please send me a link.

Anyone else out there with a dell laptop with a touchpoint input device (the little nub in the center of the keyboard) can probably commiserate and celebrate with me.  I had been experiencing severe mouse drift on my Inspiron 8100 for about a year now.  As long as I have my USB mouse plugged-in it’s not a problem. However, anytime I’m forced to use the touchpad or the touchpoint, my mouse is locked in a corner of the screen and I am forced to navigate my way around Windows using only the keyboard (which I’ve become quite good at… I guess that’s the silver lining.  Shift+F10 is now my favorite keyboard shortcut, barely edging out Alt+Tab).

After a year of mounting frustration I ended up going to this blog for instructions on how to cut the cable between the touchpoint and the motherboard.  The post is titled Fixing Mouse Drift with a Sledgehammer, which quickly enticed me.  The surgury was minor, and my laptop pulled through like a champ.  The beast lives to see another day.  I wanted to post about this in case anyone else is having this mouse drift problem because I am so happy with the result.  It’s like I have a brand new laptop.  Anyway, if you’re having this problem too, don’t hesitate cut the cable.

I just got back from a long and enjoyable European vacation with Lisa. I spent two weeks in Paris, Nice, and Barcelona. It was pretty amazing, so I’m compiling this post in order to keep a history of what I did before I forget. And, of course, there are photos. I think the best way to write this post is in daily diary format, so here goes:

(Note, I apologize in advance for all spelling blunders as I butcher french and spanish names. I would blame the english spellcheck in Wordpress, but really, I’m just too lazy to look up proper spellings myself).

Day 1: We arrived in Paris around 6 AM after a redeye from Boston. We wanted more than anything to just curl up in bed upon arrival, but we managed to force ourselves to go out and tour around the city in order to try to fight the jetlag. Lisa and I ended up doing a lot this day, including:

• Arc de Triumph (see pic on right)
• Champ-se-Lysee
• Place du Concorde
• Tuillieries
• Jardin de Plantes
• A small market at Moufatard

It was much more than we had initially anticipated, so we worked up quite an appetite. We ended up eating at a small Tibetan restaurant in the fifth arrondismont since it was close to our hotel, Minerve Hotel. The Tibetan food was terrific. I had a lamb curry (I know, not very Tibetan, but still delicious), and Lisa had a menu which included my favorite Tibetan dish: Momos (small vegetable dumplings to be eaten by hand). A great end to a busy first day.

Side Note: Minerve Hotel Review – This place was ok. Too small and too expensive for the money, but that’s the same with everything in Paris. I would recommend trying to find a hotel in the fifth arrondismont (latin quarter) if you’re interested in ethnic food and a buzzing nightlife. The location was probably the best part about the place. The staff was kind about our lack of French skills and spoke excellent English. I give it a 6/10.

Day 2: We spent almost the entire day at Versailles. We didn’t manage to get up early enough to beat the crowds (still jetlagged of course), but the line to get in wasn’t terrible. The whole place was beyond extravagent… it’s a tragic testament to the immense power and greed of monarchy as a style of government. But, if you can put those thoughts aside, it’s incredibly beautiful. It seems kind of funny to me that the French are so proud of it considering the subjugation of the masses it represents. Check out the view of the gardens behind the palace in the pic to the right.
We also saw Notre Dame on this day. There was a service going on at the time, which was quite a site to see. I felt like I was intruding a little bit, but atleast I had the courtisy to not gab away on my cellphone or snap flash photography unlike many other tourists there. The clergy monetizes the church well, every few feet there is a dish asking for money in one form or another. Overall, very impressive. The rose windows are unreal… no picture does justice (not that I tried).

For dinner we ate at a Vegan restaurant in the Marais. It was a very cute and intimate little place with only 6 tables all squished together in a row. I would highly recommend it. Lisa found it (along with almost all the other restaurants we ate at) on Happy Cow. Thanks Happy Cow!

Day 3: We got up early to beat the crowds at the Louvre. We hardly scratched the surface of their collection, but we pretty happy with what we saw after a few hours. One thing I learned which is pretty exciting is that the entire collection of the museum is on the Louvre website, all 35000 works of art. Pretty amazing, right?

After a quick trip to the Place des Vogues and the Picasso Museum in the Marais, we ate dinner at a small vegetarian restaurant near Notre Dame. I would highly recommend it; Lisa really like the falafal, and I raved about the veggie Paella they made with friend tofu in place of fish.

We ended up going to a “jazz dungeon” in the evening called Caveau des Oubliettes. That’s the best way I can describe it… it used to be a torchure chamber of sorts back around the revolution, but now it’s just young hipsters tapping their legs to avant-garde jazz. The band we saw described themselves a fusion funk, but it seems like pretty straight forward avant-garde electric jazz. They did a Beatles cover which was cheesy at first, but ended up being the most memorable song. Beers were pricey, but delicious.

Day 4: This was a shorter day with a fantastic finish. We hit the Musee d’Orsay in just after noon. I preferred it to the Louvre because the collection was far more managable, and it prefer the more contemporary time period. The building itself is a work of art as you can see from the pic on the right.

We ate at a dead-empty Indian restaurant in near our hotel. It was pretty good, but unfortunately Lisa and I are totally spoiled by eating at Amber India in Mountain View quite frequently (Note: Amber is in Mtn View, which is 40 minutes away from SF, and yet Amber wins the “Best Indian Food in SF” award from virtually every periodical every year). As such, we are total Indian food snobs, and this place was not even in the same league as Amber. None the less, it’s pretty great.

The highlight of the day (and perhaps even the entire Paris leg of the trip) was that Day 4 of our trip was Bastille Day, July 14th. In celebration a massive sea of people (Lisa and I included) swarmed into the park at Champ du Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower to watch fireworks. It was a brillient display set to some well projected classical music, and there were colored spotlights saturating the tower with tones to complement the fireworks. For the finale, the sky was filled with explosions, and right when we thought it was over, they threw on the tacky flashy light bulbs on the tower to cap it off. Quite a sight to see!

Day 5: On this day we hit up…

• Luxenborg Gardens
• St Sulpice
• St Chapelle (See spectacular stained glass windows on the right)
• Pompideau

So, I quit my job. I used to work at Homestead.com as a Producer Designer/Producer, but I decided to leave for a number of reasons (in no particular order).

1. Homestead was getting old. I think it has potential to make some waves eventually, but I wasn’t willing to wait around any longer.
2. My girlfriend, Lisa, is moving to NYC (for med schol at P&S), so I’m looking for an excuse to end up there too. I’m registered for a Columbia MS in CS program, so that’s always an option, but I’m not sure that more education is the right choice right now.
3. hmmm…Maybe there weren’t that many reasons afterall.

So, now I’m unemployeed and looking for a job, but the MS is certainly a nice fall back if I can’t find some employment in NYC in the next month. Wish me luck!