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by Russell Beattie.
Original Post: Wanna Work for Google?
Feed Title: Russell Beattie Notebook
Feed URL: http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/rss.jsp?q=java,code,mobile
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Neat! A Web Application Engineer position just passed through my Craig's List job feed for San Francisco.
Google's Engineering Services team is seeking a Web Application
Engineer to design, implement, and maintain web-based applications for
both internal and external business use. Sample applications may
include a secured support web site, a reseller website, and other
internal process tools. We offer an exciting opportunity to be a key
contributor in implementing new tools to increase the effectiveness of
our technical service. In addition, you will have the opportunity to
work directly with customers in providing technical solutions to their
post-sales product issues.
Position requirements:
BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent
3+ years of web application development using Java, servlets, PHP, JSP or others
Expertise with web technologies, i.e. XML, XSLT, HTML, perl
Working knowledge of UNIX/Linux, Apache and Tomcat
Experience with SQL/MySQL and logical database design
Ability to interact with customers and internal cross-functional teams
Excellent follow through, technical documentation writing in HTML, good presentation and code documentation
Python experience a plus
Cool beans. I think I read that it's quite a challenge to get a job at Google, isn't it? I've read at least 2 bloggers move on to Google (one as an employee, the other bought out). I wonder if I should drop my resume? Naaah. There'll be *tons* of competition and these types of Silicon Valley companies get uptight that I'm not a "sit in a dark corner coding" type of programmer or a CS grad. Well, that's just a guess, but they've had a few ads pass through and they all stress CS degrees.
I've worked just about everywhere, and for every place I've worked, I've had 10 interviews, including lots of places in the Valley. Some places really have a tech-head culture. After so many interviews, I've got the process down pretty well so I don't fuck around. Ask me something I don't know and I say, "beats me". Watch the tech-heads get *nuts* when they ask something they think is basic and I'm clueless. I suck at logic puzzles and problem solving as well - try a Microsoft question on me (interviewed with them twice) - and you might as well ask me questions in Chinese. The jobs I get is when the employer is desperate for a technical person who can speak clearly and doesn't express some form of mild autism. I get those jobs pretty easily. :-)
I have noticed that the requirements written in the jobs nowadays have become acronym hell. More than ever. I wonder if anyone *ever* meets these all these "required" skills. I saw an ad the other day for someone with "Java, J2ME, C++, 3D Programming, Symbian OS/Pocket PC". Umm, fuck, anything else? Though most of the Java job requirements are essentially "J2EE, XML and Struts", sometimes they get nuts and include every TLA on the JCP page... Actually, I'm amazed by the popularity of Struts. It may be a bloated mess, but it's obviously got a lot of momentum.
After a month of watching the numbers, it looks like Java developers get around $45-50 an hour, or the equivalent amount in perm salary $100,000/year, which is a bit weird since normally hourly rates are a bit higher than the perm salary. (If you never made the comparisions before, it's simple. There's 50 work weeks in a year x 40 hours a week = 2000 hours. So if you want to compare hourly to perm, you simply double the hourly amount and add a few zeros. Same thing goes the other way, $70k a year ~= $35/hr give or take the benes.) In theory, because hourly is more risky and without benefits, you get a premium over perm work in terms of hourly rate. Obviously, this has changed.
Anyways, a decent amount of Java jobs are passing through my aggregator. As soon as we get Ana's paperwork (which we still haven't) I'll start sending out my resume. There's no reason to do it beforehand since if someone says "Great! Start tomorrow!" I'm obviously not in the position to do that.
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