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by wdr1 4501 days ago
> Google hires generalists: jacks of all trades, masters of none.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Norvig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Abelson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bloch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Tveit_Alvestrand

1 comments

Yes, Google hires specialists for their moonshots. And in doing so they make it extra difficult for existing employees to escape the tedious work they're doing by transferring to them. As an example, when I worked there, I was told (by someone on Glass) that the only real way on to the Android team was to be hired into it from outside.

Using these black swans to disprove my point seems akin to "proving" that playing the stock market is easy because Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch got really rich doing so.

So are you actually unaware of the blind allocation process at Google for most incoming employees or are you just trolling me?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4713320

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4713077

I had no trouble transferring from Checkout to Fiber, and Fiber is a pretty cool project. I also know people on my team that transferred to Glass.

Anything is possible, you just have to do it. Nobody is going to come up to you and say, "hey, I read your mind and I think you want to transfer to Android. Follow me." Just do it!