Maybe for others working in the IT field is just an ordinary job, but for me, it's more than a job. I've started working with computers (actually a VT52 clone), since the age of 5 at my father's workplace and it became more of a passion or a hobby.
That's why, when I was in primary and high-school I've created all kind of programs in Q-Basic, and later in Pascal. One of my favourite programs is the worms game (similar with Q-Basic Nibbles), that I've developed in an OOP style, to get the hang of it. Also, I was writing directly to the video memory in order to speed-up things and reading from the keyboard using some assembler routines copied from some examples. Since, we're talking about Google here, I want to mention, also, my web based e-learning project that used ActiveX technologies, back then in 1998.
I'm very passionate about what I do, and that's why working for Google seems a good idea to me. Like the NetBSD team, I believe that "It doesn't work unless it's right". Let me give you some examples. Instead of using (just) paranoid firewall configurations, like other amateurs, I simply stop the unnecessarily network services or bind them to a LAN connected interface. I also believe in automating the administrative tasks as much as possible, especially when it comes to OS and program installation and configuration. You have a nice feeling inside of you, when you see a new Linux server deployed in just 5 minutes or when you active share some folders on 30 Windows workstations in a few seconds, using a Python script. Or when simple-scripting are not enough, I'm ready to develop a more complex program/system like when I've designed a load/balancing fail-over system based on DNS.
What would technology be without people? From what I've seen at a presentation of the company, Google seems to be a company where people work for fun or pleasure, not just to pay the bills. And because of the flat organizational structure and small teams, people work together more often, instead of wasting too much time with formalities.
Wouldn't be nice if you added a new member to your team? A member that would bring some value while learning from the best?
Best regards,
Cristian Ciupitu
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While the modern programmer tries to fit more than 2 Windows 2003 Server into the typical P4, they can easily emulate thousands of PDP11 instances.