Birth of a Noogler

Yesterday was my last day working as a Junior Software Developer at PROS.
And I learned that quitting your first job is literally easier said that done. Luckily, I was leaving for my dream job, so I stood firm whenever it got tough. And what is my dream job? Working as a Software Engineer in Test at Google. The funny thing is: I just recently found out it was my dream job. I've always wanted to work at Google, but it took me a year working somewhere else to realize what I really wanted to do once I got there. Perhaps I should start from the beginning...

It was a bright, sunny morning on June 9th, 1984 when... Maybe not that far back. Lets fast forward 22 years...

As I was coursing the 7nth semester of my Computer Science Bachelor (a year and a half before graduating), I decided to apply for a job at Appian, who visited my university to recruit young minds. After an exciting recruiting process (hey, it was my first), I accepted an offer as Technology Associate (whatever that means) starting right after I graduated: January 2008.

It was all good (and indeed, it felt awesome to have a job already more than a year prior to graduating), until a year later, a fateful day in September of 2007. A friend of mine who was also "hired" by Appian called me and let me in some grave news: Appian was doing a company-wide layoff and, of course, we were included. Sure enough, shortly after I received an email (and then a call) from them, confirming my dread:

Dear Arturo,

I regret to inform you that a significant reorganization at Appian has resulted in a number of positions being eliminated. As a result of this, Appian must withdraw its offer of employment to you made on September 26, 2006.

When the VP called me to apologize, I remember asking for the reason of this "reorganization" and he simply replied "We misjudged the growth of the market". As crushed as I was, this tragic event led to two very positive results: The first, and immediate, was that I was being compensated for the trouble; the second, a year later, was that this would land me in Google.

My Appian recruiter, in an attempt (and quite successful) to help us out, starting distributing our resumes with all her contacts. At the same time, I became very active in our university's employment fair, which luckily enough started a week after I was laid off. And thus began the most intense job hunt I'll probably ever do. I interviewed with more than 15 companies, in Monterrey and the U.S., and was thrilled to get a lot of positive response.

In the midst of it all, a recruiter from Google contacted me, inviting me to interview for the position of Software Engineer in Test. My resume had landed on the hands of an ex-Appian employee, who was working at Google at the time. I thought to myself "well, I'm not really that into testing, I'm more of the developer type, but what the hell... it's Google!". So I had the preliminary phone screen, in which I did very well. They contacted me shortly afterward to invite me to some on-site interviews, and that was quite the experience. I happened to go in a Google College Day, so I was interviewed along with dozens of other students, which made the whole interviewing process feel quite industrialized. After some introductory activities, each of us was led to a small room, where we were about to be plummeted with the most challenging interview questions you've ever experienced. A small table, two chairs and a whiteboard. Every 45 minutes or so, a new interviewer would come in with a laptop to frantically take notes while you would try not to look too dumb and solve the given problem at the same time. Their laptops always had that privacy protector thingy, so their screens appeared to be turned off.

The interviews were over and I headed back home with quite an uneasy feeling. I kept thinking: "What have I learned all these years of studying if I could barely answer some of their questions?" And sure enough, a few days later I got a call from my recruiter saying that they didn't find a suitable match for me. Thanks for your time, here is a watch and some peanuts.

I really wanted to work at Google, and I wasn't about to give up, but the intense beating I took during the interviews made me decide to get prepared for at least 3 years before trying that again. So I took the job at PROS and locked my desire to work for Google in my "Do not open until 2011" box.

Now, I don't know (or care) if you believe in the Law of Attraction, but I'm going to tell the story as it developed, and you make your own conclusions.

After almost a year of happily working for PROS (I really was happy, enough to turn down a bunch of invitations from other companies), last Christmas, my brother and his wife gave each of us in the family a piggy bank, in the air of saving some money for a family trip. The relevance to this story is that they decorated each pig with something unique about the person they were giving it to. In my pig, my brother wrote "Güera" (his nickname for me), with the font and colors of the Google logo:

I tend to be over expressive of the things that I really like (as everyone who knows me for more than 5 minutes finds out), so it was easy for him to see Google as something I like so much as to draw it on my pig.

Suddenly, the box where I had locked my desire to work at Google sprung open and loaded my RAM with those feelings again (I warned you I see the mind as a computer).

To rub it in, my sister then gave us each a nice-yet-blank card, for us to write our goals for 2009 and not loose sight of them. The first thing I thought of writing (after my wedding, of course, but that's for another post) was "I want to work at Google". Still, I left it blank.

Like a textbook Law of Attraction story, two weeks later I received the following email:

Hi Arturo!

I am a recruiter at Google and I would like to speak with you about your candidacy with us.

You had interviewed with us in the past , at which time we may not have had a suitable position. I'd like to speak with you about some new developments and a possible career opportunity with us. Please let me know if you are interested in speaking with me.

It would also be great if you could send me an updated resume.

Please call or email me back at your earliest convenience.

Have a great day!

And indeed, a great day it was. I got as excited as the first time they contacted me and was thrilled to have a second chance. I got out the card my sister had given me and wrote with big letters "This year, I want to work at Google".

This time, I wanted to Ace the interviews, so I got into some hardcore studying/practicing the three weeks leading up to the interviews. Another big difference this time around was that I had "customized" interviews. Before, they just got 4 Googlers that were available that day; but now, my recruiter hand picked three people that matched my interests and skills, so I had a much better chance of shinning.

On February 3rd, I was to be interviewed by phone. I felt like I couldn't do better in the first interview, in the second I stumbled a bit but pulled it off, and in the third I did good. So overall, I was very satisfied.

After a grueling waiting period, on February 26, I got a call from my recruiter with the good news: I was being offered the position of Software Engineer in Test at the Googleplex. Remember I said I just recently found out it was my dream job? It turns out that after working for a year, I've realized that what I'm most passionate about is Testing. I most enjoy my job when doing Test Driven Development or adding Unit Test coverage to legacy code. So, I fit the profile for this position much better today than I did the first time I was interviewed. When I asked one of the interviewers "What would be my responsabilities as a Software Engineer in Test?", I was thrilled to find out that everything he said, I loved, and I actually already did on my own at my current job!

And so, all these events lead to me quitting PROS and having the time to start my own blog, while I wait for the Visa documents to arrive in the mail. All because of a small company in Washington D.C. that decided to fire me before I began working with them. It's funny how life makes the most out of crappy situations.