I'm curious if employees of Google acquisitions (real ones not acquihires) are thrilled or just worried about having to audition to a room of Googlers to keep their jobs?
Why would the sentiments of "real ones" be different than "acquihires"?
First, there's actually a spectrum from 'acquihire' to 'real'.
Second, as a Google employee who joined via an acquisition that falls somewhere on that spectrum, I was thrilled at the time, I continue to be thrilled to work here, and I think that characterization is inaccurate, unfair and insulting to all the folks who work here including those involved in acquisition diligence.
Not all acquihires have to interview to keep their jobs. For example, one company I'm familiar with made sure that as part of the acquisition, its employees would not have to go through the Google interview process.
As someone who likely would not pass a Google interview without significant study I wonder how common an occurrence that is. If I had to work full-time (potentially more during a busy acquisition period) and re-read cracking the coding view + deeply understand its concepts + memorize design patterns and API of relevant language(s) - that might be a bit hectic.
Lets say I'm a senior engineer at a successful startup. I helped build most of the services we have, I know the technology and I know the product. I'm good at my job.
We get acquired by google.
I now have to jump through the notorious google interview process to essentially keep the job I already know I can do.
From my own personal experience through a Google acquisition: you don't need to go through the interview process. We got calibrated to Google's system, and after that we were as able to move around as any other "real" Google engineer (read: people who went through the interview process.)
Mind you, YMMV depending on division you get acquired into and your position.
Agreed, that would be pretty irritating, but one would assume that the job offers come with significant salary bumps to compensate. They may also be trying to figure out what band to put you in. Google really protects their bands pretty carefully. Having a junior engineer in a senior engineer role can be pretty disruptive.
