work - Leonid Mamchenkov

Google job update

Some of you might be wondering what happened with that Google job thing. I’ll tell you.

A couple of days after I have received the letter, I managed to catch my breath and think clearly. It didn’t take me more than five minutes to figure out that I would be a complete idiot not to try it. Part of me still thought that the email wa a hoax or a practical joke. Part of me wanted to work for Google. Most of me believed that that is impossible. But one last tiny part of me said that I could do it.

So I refreshed my Curriculum Vitae, which ended up being a grand editing job. I’ve added descriptions to vague terms like ‘good’ and ‘satisfactory’, inserted some meaningful descriptions, removed and demoted stuff that just isn’t important anymore, and fixed the cosmetics of the look and feel. I emailed back. Said that I am interested in working at Google (yeah, like who isn’t?) and attached the shiny resume.

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1. Google. Check.

My jaw is officially on the floor and I don’t have even slightest idea when I will be Adrenalin-sober again to pick it up…

For the last five or so years, there were only three companies that everyone I knew wanted to work at.

Ok, maybe not everyone, but most of the IT people. And maybe not all of them wanted to join Microsoft. But you get the idea. These are not only the tree most successful computer companies, but three corporations that realize the Geek Power.

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in those parts that I communicated with, it was considered impossible to get a job at either one of these companies unless you lived in the USA and was exceptionally bright. Until very recently that is. Just a few years ago the new trend appeared, that suggested it was possible to get hired while living in another country. You still had to be exceptionally smart and you had to be willing to relocate.

On numerous occasions I was hearing the jokes, semi-jokes, and serious discussions on how cool it would be to work for one of these companies. All of these discussions though were ending with a deep sad sigh and words expressing the absolute impossibility of something like that happening in reality.

Now, the roll the drums, please…

I have received an email today from Google’s recruiter, asking if I am interested in working for Google. Me! For Google! Danz! That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor. Hard. I checked the message back and forward and I am 99% sure it is not SPAM, mass mailing, or a joke. Neither it is a job offer yet. But I am still stunned.

Needless to say I have a lot to think about, but I am not at all in a condition to do so. I’ll have to take some time. A day or two. I’ll let you know if I’m OK and back to the normal life.

Holiday

I was surprised to find out that I actually have a real holiday today. I wasn’t working the night before and I am not going to the office tonight. Neither I am needed there over the day. I even didn’t have to wake up early to go for a walk with Maxim as it was Olga’s turn.

I almost forgot how it feels, you know. With all this time at my hands I wasn’t sure how to properly spend it. And I spent most of the day thinking about it. It’s almost 9 o’clock in the evening and I haven’t done anything yet (except upgraded mysql and forgot to restart the service, bringing the site down for a few hours and not noticing it – thanks Sanjay).

Well, maybe that’s how one is supposed to spend a holiday – doing absolutely nothing. If that’s so, than I succeded to have a really good day.

P.S.: Unfortunately I finished my ice cream bowl yesterday. It would be so good to have some ice cream on a day off. Too lazy to go out and buy one today though…

I blew it with the revenge

I had a good opportunity to get a sweet revenge today, but I totally blew it. And now I don’t like myself very much.

As you might know I am working a lot of night shifts these days. That’s all good because I was the one to choose such a schedule. There is one downside though. There are only a couple of guys who are changing me in the morning. And one of these guys can’t ever wake up before 7:00am, when he is supposed to come. So for the last couple of years he was always late. He came anywhere from ten minutes to an hour later. Every time.

Today though there was a different scenario. It happened that he was doing a night shift and I was supposed to come in the morning and change him. I was very glad when I saw this in the schedule. In fact, I got so excited that I sent him an email describing how late I will come and how good that will feel to me and how misarable he feel to actually call me in the morning and beg me to wake up. You can imagine.

And what do I do? Yes, you are right. I totally forget that I am changing him and I set my alarm clock for 6:20. 6:59 I am in the office. When I saw that it was him in the office, I was SO pissed off with myself! How stupid can I be? DAMN IT!

Actually, I almost did The Grand Stupidity today and it was only by luck that I managed to avoid it.

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Partial solar eclipse

I’m not very much interested in astronomy and movement of spacial bodies, but when something major goes on I jump on the bandwagon and enjoy the show. Today I watched the partial show eclipse that happened around 13:00 and that I would have missed if it wasn’t for the guys in the office who went semi-insane about it.

In compliance with Murphy’s Law I didn’t have my camera with me and couldn’t make that authentic picture that you see above. But talking about solar eclipse without showing a picture is like eating French fries without ketchup, so I had to cheat. I draw the picture in Gimp and in my opinion it represents what I saw fairly good.

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