[lawnchair_larry]

I feel like those statements against Google are also most likely a manifestation of insecurity.

A lot of people want to work at Google, and there are always some who have to point out that it's not the ultimate prize, reserved for the best. After all, if it were a universal goal, and you haven't attained it, you must not be the best. The insecure person's solution? You don't work there, because although you could if you wanted to, you have reasons why it isn't worth aspiring to.

Although I agree with your statement, being compelled to call it out demonstrates insecurity. To be frank, some days I wonder if my own insecurity is the reason I tell myself that I don't want to work at Google ;) I'd be curious how many detractors could get an offer from Google and reject it.

[jamesaguilar]

It's not that hard to get a job at Google. Rather, it's hard, but there's not much you can do about the difficulty -- the company's low tolerance for false positives leads to a high rate of false negatives.

I am under no illusion that we are the best of the best. We're probably better than average, but only a handful of us are gods (I'm not one of them) and plenty of engineers elsewhere are just as good as those guys. The real upside of working here is the low rate of genuine incompetence.

I just react negatively when ever someone calls out someone else's dream as unworthy. That is true whether the dream is to work at big G or start web startup #102341. IMO, they can both be fulfilling pursuits.

[gems]

It's true. I could just be bitter about not having a spot. But actually, I don't work in tech and I probably won't anytime in the future unless I'm forced. You can't verify that any of this is true, and that's fine.