Comments on: Career update

By: Tomas Sancio

Tomas Sancio — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:36:48 +0000

Congrats for getting the job. I believe you have a family to take care of and if you don’t cover their expenses first, you won’t have much of a head for developing your personal projects.

Cheers.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:57:31 +0000

Unfortunately I don’t think I’m allowed to tell… One of the great presentations at the Google I/O conference was called Underneath the Covers at Google: Current Systems and Future Directions. It provides some very interesting stats on what happens when one operates machines on the scale that Google does, including some stats on what that scale is.

By: Jens Alfke

Jens Alfke — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:30:24 +0000

Lauren — Well, I talked with enough people there to determine that, in practice, that policy doesn’t get used against people. And employees who ask in advance are often given clearance to work on a spare-time idea as their own. (I know of a few Googlers who have outside shareware projects.) At a high level, the company gives employees a great deal of discretion to make their own decisions and do what’s right, rather than trying to micromanage their outside behavior the way Apple does.

You could say that I gave up, weakened by the allure of free food and massages. Or that I’m being realistic in accepting a great offer. It’s way too early to tell which is right; so far I’ve been too swamped with coming up to speed, to do any programming at home anyway!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:07:03 +0000

I thought the problem with Google was that their claim to your IP was just as onerous as Apple’s. I thought you posted to that effect a few weeks ago (though oddly I can’t find that post?)

What changed?

By: Jens Alfke

Jens Alfke — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:48:28 +0000

Moritz — Nope, they’re not. Food is still great, still free.

By: Moritz

Moritz — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:32:25 +0000

Congrats.

But wait, didn’t I read recently that Google is going to cut the free food?

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:10:51 +0000

Congrats, Jens. Getting hired at Google is still (I assume!) no small feat. I hope it works out great for both parties.

By: Dario Salvelli

Dario Salvelli — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:27:39 +0000

Wow..!!! Great! Mithology. :-)

By: Jeffrey J. Hoover

Jeffrey J. Hoover — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:54:40 +0000

Congratulations Jenz. I hope that all goes well for you!

By: Laurent

Laurent — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:35:40 +0000

Nice one