As part of my pretty sweet relocation package from Google, I have the help of a "flat search consultant". If you've ever watched Location Location Location or A Place in the Sun, you'll more or less know what this is. If not: why not?
I have a couple of friends in the Kingston area (and several others in South London as a whole), and now work in Victoria, so my plan was quite scientific: throw darts at a map.
Not really. I basically drew a line between between these two areas and declared that I wanted to live somewhere along it. Furthermore, this place should neither be shit, not overlay expensive. In particular I thought Richmond looked like a very cool place to live, and seemed to be in reach of many of the places I wanted to go. That said, it has the potential to be a bit of a slog into the centre, and unfortunately it's quite expensive. Thus, my flat search consultant wanted me to look at a couple of other places.
We started in Richmond and straight away viewed a really nice flat, which set the bar a little high. It already had offers, and thus I would have make a decision fast if I was interested. This is generally the case with rentals in London at the moment, though this one had a particularly short fuse. I came very close to putting in an offer, but n the end came to the conclusion that it was too small.
Next we went and had a look at the outside of a flat the agent wasn't able to show us, to get an idea of the area. I'll come back to this one. We also viewed a flat in a quite cool art deco development, which was a bit crap on the inside. Single glazing and on a main road? I think not...
After this we checked out a slightly dingy flat which was essentially in the landlord's basement. I don't, quite frankly, want to feel quite that much like a tenant. This was the last spot in Richmond, so it was on to Clapham, via a fairly spectacular drive through Richmond Park.
The first flat in Clapham was amazing. Really big, nicely finished and in a decent area, if a little ways off the main drag. This was probably my favourite from the entire day. I'm not sure how I feel about the location. Transport wise it's very cool, and you can get just about anywhere from it, but... I don't know. You know?
Next we viewed a couple of really nice new builds in an utterly unspectacular area of Battersea. Nice price (for London!), nice size, nice big garden (in one case), nice finish (aside from the one wonky switch in one of the kitchens, so that flat was out). But... right on a busy main road, in part of Battersea which seems to mostly be a place people pass through when going to other places? No. Well... probably not.
Lastly was had a look at a mansion flat in a gorgeous building... but that's about all it had going for it. If you gutted it, it could become something spectacular, but work would be required.
On the whole, non of the flats I saw were utterly terrible, and all of them will get rented. This is definitely a seller's market. We're going to go back to the Richmond flat we couldn't see today, because the pictures look great, then it'll be a straight choice between it and the Clapham flat. Perhaps there'll also be a couple more viewings. We'll see. Tomorrow, a choice must be made, otherwise I have nowhere to live after I get back from Mountain View. No pressure!
In other news, I stopped by the office to finish of a last bit of admin, and then attend my first ever Google meeting, which also included participants from Mountain View and Dublin. I'm starting to understanding things more, which is good, because I have an absolute ton of stuff to learn. I also briefly petted a very cute West Island terrier, which either belongs to one of my colleagues, or IS one of my colleagues.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Day One
This is going to be short. Suffice to say: almost everything you've heard about working for Google is true. That being the case, there is no slide in my office. I'm told they have them in Mountain View and Zurich, however, and I'll apparently be visiting both this year (Mountain View next week!).
The food / restaurants / kitchens are awesome in a "we've thought of everything you need" kind of way. The people are really nice, but also intimidatingly smart. For a tech firm, a lot of them are girls as well, which makes for a more balanced working environment.
On the whole it was a good first day, though mostly consisting of administration. I'm itching to get into the code!
The food / restaurants / kitchens are awesome in a "we've thought of everything you need" kind of way. The people are really nice, but also intimidatingly smart. For a tech firm, a lot of them are girls as well, which makes for a more balanced working environment.
On the whole it was a good first day, though mostly consisting of administration. I'm itching to get into the code!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
s/@seebyte\.com/@google\.com/g
Yes. That's right. I did it. I used a sed expression as post title.
I've been very quiet as of late, though in my defence I've been very busy for a few months. In the middle of that I had a potentially life changing decision to make, and then I was dealing with the ramifications of the choice I made.
As you may have gathered from the post title (even if it mostly looks like crazy speak to you), the choice was whether I should accept a job at Google or not. Believe it or not, it was a choice, and a fairly hard one. There are various reasons for this. I'm not going to go into all of them, though I will go into some, but let's start with a little bit of background.
It started with the receipt of a LinkedIn message with the subject "Hello from Google." and ended with me standing in a car park being offered a very good job. Regarding what happened in between: the Google interview process is lengthy and pretty hardcore. Reputedly the most hardcore in the entire of the tech industry. But having a gruelling four and a half hour viva a little over a week before your main interview can make it seem like a walk in the park, albeit a mentally tiring one.
So then I was left with a choice. I could stay at my good job at a small but growing company with a lot of potential, at which I knew I had some prospects. I'd still be working in an industry which I know, and which to some extent knows me. I'd stay in a city I love (and have loved since the moment I set eyes upon it ten years ago), surrounded by a wonderful group of friends.
Alternatively I could accept an incredible opportunity to work at one of the most exciting companies in the world, which is famous for treating it's employees incredibly well, and has projects which excite me more than I can adequately express in words. But I'd be changing industries and I good portion of my existing knowledge might be useless (or more useless, as the case may be). I'd have to move to London, a city I like but don't know that well, and feel slightly intimidated by. As luck would have it, though, I do have a group of close friends living in London, who are also awesome.
It was a very hard choice, and it came down to a couple of things:
So. Here I am. In London. Staying in wicked temporary accommodation. Tomorrow is my first day at my shiny new Google job, and right now I should really go to bed!
PS More updates coming soon I swear, though it may be a month before I can get back to my Clockwork Aphid project, for logistical reasons.
I've been very quiet as of late, though in my defence I've been very busy for a few months. In the middle of that I had a potentially life changing decision to make, and then I was dealing with the ramifications of the choice I made.
As you may have gathered from the post title (even if it mostly looks like crazy speak to you), the choice was whether I should accept a job at Google or not. Believe it or not, it was a choice, and a fairly hard one. There are various reasons for this. I'm not going to go into all of them, though I will go into some, but let's start with a little bit of background.
It started with the receipt of a LinkedIn message with the subject "Hello from Google." and ended with me standing in a car park being offered a very good job. Regarding what happened in between: the Google interview process is lengthy and pretty hardcore. Reputedly the most hardcore in the entire of the tech industry. But having a gruelling four and a half hour viva a little over a week before your main interview can make it seem like a walk in the park, albeit a mentally tiring one.
So then I was left with a choice. I could stay at my good job at a small but growing company with a lot of potential, at which I knew I had some prospects. I'd still be working in an industry which I know, and which to some extent knows me. I'd stay in a city I love (and have loved since the moment I set eyes upon it ten years ago), surrounded by a wonderful group of friends.
Alternatively I could accept an incredible opportunity to work at one of the most exciting companies in the world, which is famous for treating it's employees incredibly well, and has projects which excite me more than I can adequately express in words. But I'd be changing industries and I good portion of my existing knowledge might be useless (or more useless, as the case may be). I'd have to move to London, a city I like but don't know that well, and feel slightly intimidated by. As luck would have it, though, I do have a group of close friends living in London, who are also awesome.
It was a very hard choice, and it came down to a couple of things:
- A former colleague put it to me that if I turned this offer down I'd hate myself for it every time I had a bad day (or spent a year putting my life on hold for a field trip which was consistently two weeks away from happening);
- Another colleague suggested that I would be swallowed up by Google. A tiny cog in a huge machine. Which is potentially true... and a little scary. But... the other analogy people use here is "small fish in a big pond." There's a distinction to be made: fish grow, cogs don't. Unless you put yourself in a bigger pond, you'll never find out if you have the potential to get any bigger.
- It would be nice to not work for the oil companies and the military. Not necessarily because either party is evil, but because of the shear amount of red tape involved.
- I'd been feeling as though I'd been stuck in a rut for a while, and really wanted to shake things up somehow.
- It's frickin' GOOGLE!
So. Here I am. In London. Staying in wicked temporary accommodation. Tomorrow is my first day at my shiny new Google job, and right now I should really go to bed!
PS More updates coming soon I swear, though it may be a month before I can get back to my Clockwork Aphid project, for logistical reasons.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Fast Five <= 15 Words
The Fast and the Furious + Ocean's Eleven + Predator (* The Rock!) = Fast Five
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sucker Punch <= 15 Words
Doesn't hide the seems so well... and it's very style over substance... but what style!
Friday, April 1, 2011
The Future
I'm not going to talk about this too much, really. Suffice to say: I think this is the future, in a very good way, and I'm very excited by the idea of it.
[ted id=1109]
PS I am addicted to the TED website. Addicted!
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