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[Blues guitar music]
Ben: Good afternoon, Mr. Fitz.
Fitz: How ya doin' Ben?
Ben: Great. We're not going to introduce ourselves again because we already did.
Fitz: Did we?
Ben: We did.
Fitz: Okay.
Ben: Let's do the next question on your excellent gPad there.
Fitz: gPad.
Ben: Love the gPad.
Fitz: Don't leave home without it. Okay, so what are the qualities you look for in a prospective
employee?
Ben: Hmmm...
Fitz: Well.
Ben: Well.
Fitz: Clearly, dashing good looks and a nice lab coat is a good start.
Ben: And banjo.
Fitz: Banjo, yes.
Ben: Absolutely. So, what I always tell folks when I'm doing interviews, at least, is that
the people that do programming, computer science. It's kind of, there's this long sliding scale
of extreme practical experience all the way to extreme theoretical experience. Right?
And at one end of the extreme you might have somebody who just got a Ph.D. in computer
science to write essays on computational complexity, but you ask them to write five lines of code
on the white board and they can't.
Fitz: Right.
Ben: On the other extreme, you've got somebody who's maybe been programming on a microprocessor
in a cell phone for 20 years and is so incredibly specialized and amazing at writing assembly
language that they've forgotten all the theory they've ever learned. Right? And so, Google
is looking for someone in the middle, who's got theory at their fingertips but also has
some practical experience and can write good code.
Fitz: Right.
Ben: That's what our interview process is about.
Fitz: Well, I mean, we often talk about generalists, right? And the example I use is that we don't
want somebody (to sort of describe what a generalist is), we don't want somebody who
knows how to fix the model 400 XYZ of the Acme dishwasher. Right?
Ben: Right.
Fitz: And then the model 500 XYZ comes out and they're at a complete loss as to what
to do. Right?
Ben: Right.
Fitz: We want somebody who understands how dishwashers work and can build a dishwasher,
fix the dishwasher...
Ben: Figure out new models as they come out.
Fitz: Figure out new models that come out and, you know, sort of roll with the dishwashing
innovation.
Ben: Yeah so, we are going to look on your resume for proof of some sign of generalism,
right? That you've got practical experience, you've got theoretical experience, and that
you're able to learn new things and adapt.
Fitz: Right.
Ben: And then the theory is that if Google hires you they're hiring you as a generalist,
and the theory is that they could put you on any project and that you would do pretty
well...
Fitz: Right.
Ben: ...and that you could move between projects and people do, in fact, move between projects.
Fitz: But beyond that we look for someone who's a good fit for Google in the long haul,
okay? Someone- so skills and experience are important, but you've gotta be a good fit
for the company, for the culture. I mean, we work in the internet, right? The internet
world is a very disruptive world, a lot of change, a lot of new stuff's constantly coming
up. You should have to be able to learn new things and roll with the punches, so to speak.
Ben: And play well with others, which is not always a given.
[laughing]
Fitz: Right. Well, that's important, but the other thing is that we want to look for something
that is going to make you stand out. That's what we look for in a prospective candidate.
Whether it's an interesting hobby or an accomplishment or some leadership thing that you've done.
Ben: Right. Because we see a lot of resumes that are just full of millions of generic
acronyms, and they all kind of look the same after a while. So...
Fitz: Right.
Ben: ...figure out some way to distinguish yourself. That says, I not only know what
I'm doing, but here's something interesting that proves I have a passion for computer
science.
Fitz: Right.
Ben: That's another thing I always say to folks...
Fitz: Or not even just computer science...it could be anything just so...
Ben: or anything, yeah. Engineering in general.
Fitz: Yeah, engineering in general.
Ben: So, you know, I always tell people, or I always I think to myself when I'm interviewing
somebody, "If this person were a millionaire and did not have to work at all, would they
still be playing around on a computer? Would they still be writing code or doing engineering
things for fun?" And, if so, then that's the kind of person I want to work with.
Fitz: Right, is it their passion?
Ben: Is it their passion? Right. They're not just doing because they have to pay the rent.
Fitz: And we come from the open source world, so that's something we are particularly looking
out for in people. We find that people who write open source code are often a good fit
for Google...
Ben: They're passionate. [laughing]
Fitz: ...because you're not going to spend you spare time writing software if you're
not good at it. Right?
Ben: Or if you're not passionate about it.
Fitz: Or if you're not passionate about it. So those are two qualities that tend to fall
in to people that write software in their spare time I'd say.
Ben: It's not a requirement that you work on open sources...
Fitz: Right.
Ben: ...its, that's just an example of something that might stand out on a resume.
Fitz: Right so-so, good fit, solid skills and experience, good fit for the long haul
especially, and you've typically done something outstanding.
Ben: Yeah, great.
Fitz: All right.
Ben: We'll see you next time.
Fitz: Come back soon.