
Google replants its garage roots in tech workshops - profitbaron
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYC4weL-2Qswq77qRU1-gwc1jwlg
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kaib
I've actually worked at Google and been certified to use all of the shops
including welding and metalworking. And the industrial grade heavy duty plasma
cutter. The shops are really cool and they serve a slightly different purpose
than for example TechShop. At TechShop a lot of the tinkering is more social,
the Google shops are definitely less crowded. We run a similar much smaller
shop at Tinkercad and I hope to expand that one in the future as well. The
only gripe I have is that the campus is large enough that the Pi shops are a
short distance away so you might not drop down there as often as you would
like. That said the EE shop was pretty close to core campus.

As for the certification and elitism. The cert process was very
straightforward and relevant. People easily forget that metalworking and some
woodworking machines don't let you learn by experimenting. These machines kill
in seconds, sometimes for mistakes that are very unintuitive. Like wearing
gloves has killed several people. Which is unintuitive when you are handling
razor sharp pieces of metal. Or the recent fatal accident at MIT where student
was pulled in by her hair.

As for the particulars of Ihab. He is a very smart and diligent guy but he had
very little practical machine shop experience. He recognized it himself and
took classes to compensate. These standards aren't high just due to Rod, but
because most Googlers are smart enough to be critical of their own skills when
faced with lethal equipment.

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phlux
>The screening standards are so strict that a college degree in mechanical
engineering wasn't enough for Google software engineer Ihab Awad.

>He attended a local high school's wood shop class for a semester before
earning Broome's clearance. Awad also won Broome's approval to use the welding
equipment.

\---

I'm sorry - but the certificated elitism at Google is just out of hand, having
to take a freaking HS woodshop class before using the shop, as opposed to
simply having someone show one how to use equipment -- these stories, and the
hiring process, they all just become tiresome.

It's as if they take the meritocracy on acid... they get a warped sense of
reality that only their academic affiliations serve as the measure of a
person.

Google is a great company, I know plenty of great people who work there -- I
also know a good number of people that turned down working there or quit after
some time.

Not all can live the college social measurement lifestyle forever...

(Yes I am jaded about my personal experience with them - but statements like
the above are annoying coming from any company)

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jnhnum1
A few things:

Machine shop safety is really important. People die. You need to know how to
use the equipment.

These "strict" screening standards that Google has are, well, standard for any
machine shop.

I think it's awesome that they have this stuff available to employees for free
at all.

~~~
phlux
Yeah - see my point about having someone on staff train them proper use of the
equipment, even if its the guy from the high school.

Having the employee take a semester of woodshop at the HS is not bizarre to
you at all?

Of course it is awesome - but you can also get a TechShop membership for 99 a
month, and take bad ass classes as well.

Though, I am sure the google classes will get even batter with time...

However - I stand by my point.

~~~
jnhnum1
Yes, I agree that it would be ideal if Google had staff to train employees on
the use of the machines. Hopefully they're moving in that direction.

But, I get the sense that right now they just have one busy foreman who is
doing all he can by restricting access to those who have demonstrated they
know how to use the equipment.

I'm sure the employee could have also taken his classes at the TechShop and
then gotten certified at Google.

