[quantum_nerd]

I've actually interviewed with them, before when I was in college. In all honesty, I used to be on the defensive side of things against technical interviews only because I got really nervous and my mind would go completely blank, especially this one time when a BigTechCo hiring manager asked me to sort a LinkedList without using additional space.

So after many rejections and rushed algorithms textbooks regurgitations, I decided to start somewhere my well-roundedness counted more than my algorithm implementation skills( a big awesome Fortune 20 company too) , and actually REALLY take my time to study the ins and outs of being a real World software engineer and ENJOY IT.

A year and a half later after graduation, I don't regret my decision at all. My problem-solving and implementation skills have improved tremendously, especially after I discovered Firecode.io, which takes a more pedagogical approach to interview prep than TopCoder or google CodeJam.

I live in Seattle and have a few acquaintances who are in tech at various companies(Google, FB, Amazon, MSFT..) . My interactions with Googlers have been very pleasant; they just seem to be very down to earth compared to other engineers I have encountered, in general. I am not in a rush, though. I am gainfully employed and like my job, so that also drive my job search to be largely serendipitous.