Lots of things have happened since I last posted en entry. I went to Vancouver again and to New York once more. The person from Microsoft I interviewed with contacted me (much to my surprise) to tell me he had been impressed by my performance (!?) and wanted to cut the red tape and have me work for Microsoft should I feel that Amazon isn't the right place for me. Also, things progressed on the Google front and after two phone screens, I got flown to an on-site interview with the company of my dreams.
I arrived in San Jose on Friday night. Even though I saw buildings bearing the logos of Sun, Oracle, Yahoo and such, it was hard to fully realize that I was in the middle of it all - the heart of the technological empire. That night, I slept at Ricky's place, on the carpet.
The next day, I visited San Francisco with Ricky and Do-Yong, a Korean intern at Google. On the 75-minute train ride from Mountain View to San Francisco, I learned that Do-Yong got flown-in by Google; given 5000$ of relocation money and paid one month of rent. All this for a mere three-month undergrad internship!
It was nice to walk the streets of San Francisco again. However, this time around, I was not there as a tourist but as a prospective resident. The perspective is immensely different. This time around, I noticed more the high number of junkies and bums; the oddness of the transit system and the relative "desertedness" of the city. Of course, the place is light-years beyond Seattle, but it is no New York and the quality of life over there doesn't compare to that of the average Canadian city. I'm starting to realize just how much the American Dream is just a sham.
On Sunday, I visited Google's headquarters with Ricky. There really is a lot of food free for the grabbing over there. And good stuff too! Many cafeterias and many kitchens stocked with lots of ingredients for people who prefer to cook themselves. Lots of snacks. Lots of free laundromats; a gym; a piano; electric scooters; electric cars (that you can take to run errands at the other end of town), ... It's pretty cool. Being there, we made sure to benefit from the free dinner. I had salmon with rice and salad.
The place looks almost too good to be true. Many people were there even though it was a Sunday probably because it feels nicer to be there than alone in a plain apartment cooking for themselves. I was a bit nervous, though. I was thinking about all the changes moving yet again would mean. Also, Mountain View isn't a great urban center. It's just plain Californian Suburbia. If I get a job with Google, I'll try to be assigned to a position in NYC. That would be the dream job in the dream city. I couldn't ask for more than that.
On Monday, I had my interview session. I interviewed with four people and had lunch with a fifth. For three of the four interviews, I gave a performance of a similar caliber to that of my phone screens. For the fourth, I think I fared a bit better. All in all, I think I did well and I have the feeling I will get an offer from Google.
So, my life keeps on changing. I can't wait to know where I will be in two months!
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