Google Team Match / HC Help
Hi, I had an onsite at Google a couple of weeks ago. The recruiter said the feedback was that I was borderline L5/strong L4. He also added that nothing was guaranteed and the next step is HC. Prior to going to HC, the recruiter said it'd be good for me to get a statement of support from a HM (he can only submit one per package) and that would be the team match for me. So, I chatted with the hiring managers of the following teams. 1. Youtube Main App Eng Prod (San Bruno) 2. Build, Test, and Release Infrastructure Eng Prod (Sunnyvale) 3. Gmail FE Eng Prod (Sunnyvale) Questions I have: 1. How does Eng Prod teams compare to traditional product teams? I don't have a problem building infrastructure as I have done plenty of product engineering in my life, but I would prefer not to be in an automation testing position which I have read on some other posts. 2. What are some of the pros/cons of each team? Which team would you choose? I'm mainly looking for a place where there is ample amount of opportunity with relatively little bureaucracy. I am leaning towards the YT or Gmail team. BTR doesn't seam as appealing to me, because I'm slightly more comfortable on the FE. 3. Any other considerations I should take into account? YOE: 7 TC: 190
eng prod is like test tools productivity tools etc. Not quite exciting if you are currently a swe. Among these teams Youtube is the best. Stay away from caribou aka gmail
The Director of Gmail did a great job of selling me the product vision. He said that it's a huge priority right now for G to re-vamp the Gmail and other G Suite products. I have heard that from folks at G as well. A tradeoff seems to be there is a decent amount of bureaucracy in that org. After 7 YOE, mostly in startups, I've done my fair share of shipping features and building web apps. I don't mind getting a little deeper and building out tools that help engineers. I am fearful that this is 90% setting up E2E tests.
Gmail has the highest bureaucracy at Google. Slowest moving organization in Google. Full of Politicians.
Don’t ever, EVER work on internal products. Promotions and reviews are very specifically biased towards results and metrics that come from public customers. Everybody at Google knows that internal tools and products are a career killer. Stay away.
Right now, those are my options. Would you recommend me either going with: 1. Hold off on TM until the new year and then chat with more teams and then go to the HC? 2. Go to HC without a statement of support? I've read elsewhere on Blind that transferring positions after 1 year is reasonable and has happened successfully quite often as long as you get SEE.
Don’t expect to get SEE your first two reviews. The bureaucracy simply won’t allow it. It’s incredibly easy to switch teams, but your performance and promotion basically gets stunted. It’s not as easy as the recruiter will say it is. As far as being rated a 4/5, the recruiters said that to me and one of my teammates as well. It’s to avoid conflict and negotiations. There’s an actual internal document that states a plan to higher fewer l5 as a cost cutting measure. You’ll get a statement of support from any manager that approves a match. It’s not a big deal. Go to youtube if it sounds interesting. But stay away from the internal build team. I believe you also have 12 months for team match. They won’t say that, but maybe someone else can confirm.
Transferring from eng prod is harder compared to other teams. I would recommend going without support if you don’t have an urgency to switch jobs.
Ask your recruiter if support is necessary then you want to match with another team which is not engprod
No harm in trying
How's Geo EngProd?
OP, have you cleared HC?
Are you a swe now ?
I'm an eng manager and team lead at my current gig.