> The first year was serious ego boost, having Google on the resume opened doors all over the place.
Before I worked in FAANG, My subjective view of big tech SWEs was they were very skilled, in a different league.
My current view is that it "just" takes very good preparation and a decent resume to get in. And they've hired so many people that it's not so special anymore to be an "ex-Google". There are just a lot of them.
That being said, I think someone who gets hired in such a company, and manage to stay for many years has to be quite productive and competent. Especially if they reached higher levels.
Google is not a "produce a lot of code" place. It's a careful and deliberate and systematic type of place.
One thing I think ex-Google does bring especially to the table is a disdane for over-complicated and overly trend-driven solutions.
For one Google's internal review culture is (or at least was when I was there) very stringent. Pointless complexity and showboating is usually spanked.
For two, because Google basically rolls its own everything in regards to frameworks and the like, developers who come out of there have been mainly cured of "flavour of the month" and "my ego wants us to use this new shiny new-coloured tech".
Before I worked in FAANG, My subjective view of big tech SWEs was they were very skilled, in a different league.
My current view is that it "just" takes very good preparation and a decent resume to get in. And they've hired so many people that it's not so special anymore to be an "ex-Google". There are just a lot of them.
That being said, I think someone who gets hired in such a company, and manage to stay for many years has to be quite productive and competent. Especially if they reached higher levels.