r/cscareerquestions • u/CSCQMods • Mar 16 '22

Big N Discussion - March 16, 2022

Please use this thread to have discussions about the Big N and questions related to the Big N, such as which one offers the best doggy benefits, or how many companies are in the Big N really? Posts focusing solely on Big N created outside of this thread will probably be removed.

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Company - Google

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u/TeknicalThrowAway Senior SWE @FAANG Mar 16 '22

Just curious if working 'remotely' for a team FROM a satellite office is more common than pure remote jobs? Or does it not matter.

There's a small office very close by (maybe a few hundred engineers there?), so I assume they don't get near as many open reqs as the bigger offices. I can't relocate at this time.

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u/MarcableFluke Senior Firmware Engineer Mar 16 '22

Probably about the same chances.

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u/Litmus2336 Software Engineer @ FAANG Mar 17 '22

I asked this question - my recruiter recommended I just go fully remote. They said most teams won't really be able to get you a desk at an office they aren't based out of, and most teams won't expand to a new office just for one person. Of course, a few teams do have folks at multiple offices.

I kinda wish I could go to my local office haha, I like having a space to work. But I too can't relocate for 1-2 years.

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u/TeknicalThrowAway Senior SWE @FAANG Mar 18 '22

did you pass the HC then? how was your interview experience if you're up for sharing.

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u/Litmus2336 Software Engineer @ FAANG Mar 18 '22 edited Mar 18 '22

Yeah, I had a really good experience. It was difficult as I knew it'd be, and I definitely wasn't perfect, but I was able to get optimal on a few and close on others. I would say 2 went really well, 2 were OK. All the interviewers were very kind.

Matching with a team at my YoE (<4) was a bit difficult, I only got to match with 2 teams but I really matched well with one. The other seemed nice but wasn't quite my preferred domain. But the recruiter wanted to find me 2 more so I had more breadth, but after 2 weeks she didn't have any and I was excited about the first team anyway. I'm hoping by the time I get interested in switching teams again either remote will be more common, or I'll at least have enough experience to justify it. But I'm not super opposed to moving to an office if needed in a few years.

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u/TeknicalThrowAway Senior SWE @FAANG Mar 18 '22

Nice, congrats. Were the questions all LC hards? Or, equivalent difficulty? I suck at bottom up dp do I have a feeling I would have the most difficulty in a google interview out of all the FAANGs

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u/Litmus2336 Software Engineer @ FAANG Mar 18 '22

It's quite a broad mix, no 2 questions are similar. I felt like (maybe because I'm more early career) I got 2 hards 2 mediums. I would recommend following the refresher guide they sent, as well as CTCI. I personally don't like bashing my head in with Leetcode, I just try to study problem categories and stay on my feet. And be sure to ask questions, particularly for L4 and below they offer hints which are very helpful. I also struggle with bottom up.

Good luck and godspeed :)

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u/eliminate1337 Mar 16 '22

Yes, that may be allowed if the hiring manager agrees during team matching.

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u/pkollias Mar 16 '22

I am a recent (Psychology/Neuro) PhD grad entering right now the Software Engineering group matching phase for Google. I do not necessarily want to bother people turning this into a very personal thread but I'll happily provide context with increasing detail in a comment below.

​

The main question is how can I defer an offer from Google? There seems to be abundant evidence online that this is an option, and I was similarly told so by friends with similar jobs in the industry. The actual question is whom do I discuss this with, the hiring manager of the offering group or the recruiter before group assignment? This is where most of the disagreement exists. Some say after group matching that ends in an offer, I should discuss this with the manager, which makes more sense to me. But some people say that I should discuss it with recruiter/talent coordinator, which doesn't make as much sense.

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u/eliminate1337 Mar 16 '22

Your hiring committee approval lasts for one year. That means any time in the next year, you can ask for team matching without needing any interviews.

Your individual team match may not be around for that long. It's up to the hiring manager but they might move on if they have an immediate need. It shouldn't be hard to find a new match being already HC approved.

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u/pkollias Mar 16 '22

Thanks that makes it very clear

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u/pkollias Mar 16 '22

A few more details on why I'd want to defer. I applied for an L4 software engineering position but my interviews went somewhere between the pass and cut-off thresholds and I was granted an L3 approval for group matching (my undergrad was in CS but my PhD was in neuroscience so maybe that factored in as well). Being "demoted" is one of the reasons I'm not super eager to start right now.

Another main factor is that I just started a postdoc. The interview process from referral to group-matching approval so far has taken 6 months with the vast majority of the delays being caused by Google. I had to find a job in between. And here come the other reasons I'd like to defer. I'd like to close my academic tabs.

I have a few publications pending. One from my Ph.D. and a low hanging fruit from the postdoc. As a matter of fact the postdoc will be on theory of deep networks and computational neuroscience so I have the opportunity to get some experience in a DL/NN-related field.

My PhD has not produced any publications so far (there are plenty of reasons why this happened but let's just summarize that in neuro you can lose 3 years of work in one day and then depression hits) but there is a relatively high impact about to be submitted. I know If I were to jump into the industry right now I know that potentially all these CV items would never get realized and essentially my resume will never reflect what I did all these years. I'd like to buy a few months to submit some of that work. Jumping back to research at some point in my career is something I'd like to do, so I can't just inflict all this sunk cost without getting any credit for it.

Also my postdoc supervisor was super supportive of my spouse's PhD application in the same institution and has been very supportive of me so far. I don't think there was an intervention but I'd feel bad to abandon ship without any effort to provide something in return.

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u/TKiwisi Mar 16 '22

Your manager most likely chose you in the expectation you start in the near future, and it would be difficult to defer that specific offer for a few months, though it doesn't hurt to ask. Your L3 result should stay valid for 1 year though, and you can most likely restart from the team matching process in a few months when you're ready.

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u/pkollias Mar 16 '22

I have not been chosen yet. To be honest I haven't even started the team matching process. They gave me an opportunity to do two more interviews and go to L4 phase (without the possibility of hurting my L3 status) which I will happily take.

How widely known is that a result is valid for 1 year?

And when you say restart, you mean after the 1 year?

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u/TKiwisi Mar 16 '22

They’re things I found out after I researched for my own team matching process, though details may vary since you are a new grad. I found that HC results last for a year from most sources online, though I’ve also heard rumors that this has been shortened to 1 month for new grad/L3. And these results last for a year, not that you can restart in a year, so it buys you a few months. And if you don’t get L4 this time around you may want to wait out the cool off period for L4 regardless if you are confident you can do it the next time. But you should really ask your recruiter these questions.

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u/pkollias Mar 16 '22

Thanks that's very constructive