[m0zg]

> Distributed system & big data knowledge is table stakes for Google engineers

True, but observe that knowledge is very different from _experience_. In anything sufficiently complicated there's tons of stuff you won't find in books, and even if you do, you won't pay sufficient attention to. E.g. you could sorta know how a database works (from a university course or something), but if you haven't implemented e.g. a state of the art query engine or a storage manager, you'll still be SOL in practice until you write one or more of those things and actually gain experience.

Knowledge by itself is darn near worthless, it only becomes valuable with experience, particularly if it's in 2 or more related fields.