Hi. Before joining FAANG I was able to develop games and write texh books. Do someone knows what are the policies for that at Google? (SDE TC 400k)
Our policy is that if you do these things on your own time without using Google resources, your work belongs to you. This is called out very clearly in our offer letter. Google is very people-first compared to other large tech companies. If you are widely successful with your side projects, we are happy for you. There are many Googlers that have very successful side gigs. The only caveat would be if you created something that directly competes with Google’s core business. I don’t think anyone is building the next Google search, maps, or YouTube anytime soon, especially while you work at Google. Like anything else though, we do have a reasonable approval process, just in case.
Your last paragraph is the answer, and it directly contradicts everything before. You don't have to set out to build the next YouTube to be rejected, building any feature that competes with any feature that Googe builds is considered competing. So definitely definitely definitely get it in writing about getting approval before accepting the offer.
OP says they are going to develop video games and textbooks. We have a lot of folks who do that and it’s never been an issue. Proof is in the pudding.
Before you start work on the project you have to think of it’s exact name (no tbd name) and send an IARC request form with details on the project and why you think it doesn’t introduce a conflict of interests with ANY of the company’s products, and especially that it’s unrelated to your current role. A few weeks later it should be approved and then you’re in the clear. If anything changes (scope of the project or even its name) you’re supposed to do an entirely new IARC approval. I’m not sure if this is the same outside of California. This is at least the process in California where the state provides certain protections on personal inventions that weren’t on company time or property, were unrelated to your company’s business or your role in the company.
From my side is mostly video games (desktop / mobile) and tech books. Hopefully that should be fine I guess... Amazon was a little more strict, if you make a game you own it but they own the IP.
If you do it on your own time??
Yes. Because Amazon has a videogame studio so they want to protect themselves if they do something similar to what you did.
Publishing papers and talks go through a reasonably lightweight approval process. There is a mechanism to publish code that Google doesn't own the right to and it's not meant to be too onerous, but haven't done it personally. By default of course they assert the right to everything related to any area Google does business in, which is a lot. (In California at least they can't assert the right to things you develop on your own time that aren't related to Google's business). Overall I'd say it seems to me pretty permissive for a company but nothing is guaranteed. Writing text books sounds particularly likely to be easily approved to me.
Pretty sure it's the same at most FAANG. Whatever you create while an employee is theirs. Maybe I am wrong though.
Not at Google. We even clearly say so at the time of offer signing.