but... I know a few guys who are absolutely awesome programmers; way smarter and way better than I hope to be ever... but some of them are working on things like the google IE toolbar.
I mean, I only have an outsiders view of google, but certainly, there are many very bright people working on what look to me like not very interesting problems.
(Obviously, there are also people at google working on very interesting problems; Living near Mountain View, I know quite a few people who work at google, and most of them seem to like it quite a lot. I'm just saying, it's possible to be at google and get stuck working on things many of us would, ah, rather not work on. Google also has a very strong, ah, company culture. it's not a place, I think, that I would fit in or do well, even though many of my friends work there.)
Although you might not want to get stuck working on certain projects, that does not imply that the people on these projects are unhappy with their assignments.
Your IE Toolbar example is a good one. The team working on the IE toolbar is probably very small (how many devs are needed, one or two?), but it's used by a very large number of people. I think it might be interesting to work on a project with this very large user/developer ratio.
Google engineers to have some degree of mobility. If they get stuck on a project that they don't like, then they can eventually move on to something of their choosing.
Yeah, Google strikes me as first and foremost an advertising agency. They make their revenue from ads, and ads are not really the sexiest thing out there IMO. They do a lot of interesting research and large-scale implementations in the pursuit of advertising revenue but the bottom line is still going to be the bottom line, and other types of work are going to be better for a lot of people.
the largest reason why I don't think I'd fit is that everyone there seems to think that google always does the right things, or at least, acts for the right reasons. The degree to which everyone who works there seems to say that it's perfect implies that there is little tolerance for recognising the bad parts of the company, which I think is quite dangerous to the company (and it would be stressful for me as an employee.) Hell, I say bad things about the company I own. I think examining the downside of the choices you've made in the past and the choices you are making now is extremely important; and I think if you believe that you always do the right thing, you are deceiving yourself.
