Arthur Zwiegincew, a graduate of both Emporia High and Emporia State, is surrounded by computers in his work space at Google.
By Chris Walker
walker@emporiagazette.com
The January issue of Fortune magazine listed the 100 Best Places to Work. With free gourmet food, gyms, swimming pools, doctors on staff, free laundry, carwashes and more, Google jumped to the No. 1 spot.
For an inside look at what it’s like to work for Google, The Gazette talked with Arthur Zwiegincew, who moved to Emporia from Szczecin, Poland, in 1992 to attend Emporia High for his senior year. Zwiegincew went on to attend Emporia State University where he earned a double degree in computer science and math in just two years.
After college, Zwiegincew went back to Poland and started a successful computer company that is now based in Switzerland. He then moved to the United States to work for Microsoft.
Today, Zwiegincew is a senior software engineer for Google at its home office in Mountain View, Calif. Zwiegincew talks about what is like to work for Google and how it compares to working at Microsoft. He also gives insight to what people need to do if they want to work for Google.
Q Microsoft was the company to work for and now they aren’t. What do you think changed?
A The direct reason was just too much growth and bureaucracy. I think it was inevitable when you get to be the size of Microsoft. They had to hire so many people that they didn’t have the right caliber of people anymore. Once you don’t have the caliber of people the work declines and you are forced to have some bureaucracy and bigger teams.
Generally in software projects don’t scale. Let’s say you have ten people and you double the amount of people of the team — they don’t do double the work, they will really only do about 20 percent more. When the people aren’t that good you do need more scale.
The better people really don’t like to work in those type of environments. During the dot com boom the MSN division was really desperate to hire a lot of people and they really lowered their standards. As time went on people started changing jobs in Microsoft and it brought the level down.
Q Google is growing. Do you see the same problem?
A We have grown a lot but the standards are super high. I hire a lot and do 2 to 3 interviews a week and very few people fit in. So far, there is probably one person that I didn’t think should be hired. I think management understands this and keeps strict standards. They are very hands-on in this department, but in 20 years it is impossible to say.
Q What is the work environment like at Google, and what are your hours like?
A It is very relaxed, informal and we have small teams. It’s different between here and Microsoft. For example, I am working on a project all by myself and at Microsoft we would have had three people.
I usually get in at 8 a.m., go to the gym for an hour, take an hour for lunch and go home around 10 p.m. Sometimes I will leave around 8 or 9 p.m.
Q What were your hours like at Microsoft? And now that you are getting older, do you find yourself scaling back?
A I have scaled back a little bit. When I got to Microsoft, I would work 14-hour days. But Microsoft really changed. At the beginning, everybody worked really long hours and people worked weekends. And now, most people leave earlier and the weekends are pretty empty. It really changed.
Q Google has lots of perks, but what do you enjoy most?
A The number one thing for me is the food. It is truly incredible. Most restaurants don’t do anything for me anymore after eating the food here. They feed us breakfast, lunch and dinner and every snack in between. There are 11 cafeterias and they have different themes. They hire incredible chefs and everything is made from scratch every day.
Q Google lets you have 20 percent time. What is that and do you like it?
A It is the 20 percent of your time that you can spend on your own projects. It was one of the key perks that brought me here. I think it is one of the best ideas of this company. I have been working on one 20 percent project for a long time and now it has become my full-time project. At Microsoft really the only perk was really just pop. But you did have your own office and I had a really nice view of the mountains. It was fantastic.
Q When you were at Microsoft did you have any encounters with Bill Gates? And how was it different then the founders of Google?
A I have had (encounters) with both and they are very similar. Both are very driven, very smart, strongly opinionated. Of course Bill Gates was older when I met him as compared to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But I would say they are similar more than anything else.
Q Are the Google founders hands-on?
A Yes, I see them several times a day. Now I am in a different place so I don’t see them quite as much, but they are around all the time. They are hands-on and our projects get regular reviews with them so they really know what is going on.
Q Do you like the mission of Google, which is to index the world’s information?
A This really where all the action is these days.
Q When you were at Microsoft did you work on projects that we might know?
A I worked on Office, Windows, the Media Player — the audio component — and then I worked on a project that got canceled so no one knows about that. I also worked on Live communications server and client.
Q How long do projects take?
A A project usually takes between a few months and a year and I have various check points. The overall vision of what I am trying to do is many years.
Q Can you say what you are working on?
A No. It is an infrastructure piece.
Q You got stock with Microsoft when you worked for them. Do you get Google stock and has that been good for you?
A Yes, and it has worked out way better than I could have ever expected. It beats Microsoft by far.
Q If someone is graduating from Emporia State, what do they need to get a job at Google?
A I would first recommend someone working on personal projects they are passionate about. If you just follow the curriculum at any school it’s not going to be enough. When I interview someone, I am looking for someone that is not just in it for the money, but they are passionate about what they are doing.
During an interview, all I care about is how they answer my questions. It doesn’t matter what education they have or what school they come from. It’s how they answer my questions and if they seem smart. The thing is, it is very hard to answer my questions if they don’t have a lot of good experience. The experience does not come from school or work. But it comes if you have worked on things in your spare time, then you will likely know the answers well.
Q What languages or computer programs do people need to know to work for tech companies?
A They need to be at a level where the computer program language doesn’t matter. They should be able to pick up any language in a matter of weeks. They are essentially all the same but they just look different. The languages we use are pretty standard — Java, C, C++.
Q Are you amazed at how quick or slow technology is moving?
A Actually, I am amazed at how slow it is. I think about things that have been possible for years and they just haven’t happened yet. For instance the simplest thing — why do you have to log onto every single Web site in existence with separate credentials and different policies? For instance, you go to a Web site and it asks you for your address. The computer knows my address. There is no standard for anything. So actually I am amazed at how slow things are.
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