Google Interview

I got back to my hotel -just- in time for the interview. The phone literally started ringing as I had the key in the door.

What a way to begin the interview:

Me: Would you say you have a sense of humor?
Him: I'd hope so.
Me: Well, i'm about 70km from the Pakistan border right now. With everything that i've been reading in the last few weeks, especially once I say the words "Bomb", "Jihad" and "Osama", it's almost dead certain that the NSA is monitoring this call. Is there anything you'd like to say to them?
Him: We're Hiring.

I'd read about Google's interviews.. they're supposed to be god-awful brain-draining interviews, where they have you essentially program things, verbally, over the phone. I was never very good at this kind of thing (sorting algorithms, etc), even when in front of a computer, and so I had already prepared a speech "If you're not going to ask me security-related questions, I think we're both wasting our time". However, given that I had just spent an hour and a half in a windy, cold taxi to interview with them.. I wanted this to work out well.

And I was in luck. Not one question that was un-related to security. In most cases, I gave stellar answers, even-moreso when you consider the fact that I've been out of school since the spring, and haven't done any proper computer work since August. Even moreso, after the interview was over, I realized how well my classes at Johns Hopkins had prepared me for this stuff. An hour flew by, and eventually, we wrapped it up.

I have to wait a couple weeks, but my initial gut feeling is that it went very well. Perhaps the night spent relaxing at the monestary paid off.

Even better, there exists a high chance that if they offer the job, I can choose which site (i.e. if I want to work in Dublin or Zurich, instead of Silicon Valley, California, it's ok).

Fingers crossed....