15 hours agoGoogle Storytime: My First InterviewI joined Google in 2007. Although Google had a small office in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, my wife and I both decided that it’s best to work at headquarters in Mountain View, California. Wouldn’t you want to work at Redmond HQ for Microsoft, or Seattle HQ for Amazon? We…Google4 min read
May 16The 31,680,000-Foot Journey31,680,000 feet is 6,000 miles, the distance between Taipei, Taiwan, where I was born, and Seattle, WA, where I live now. Last week I took my younger son Alex to get pizza for dinner. In the car we talked about his choice of culinary arts for summer class. I told…Movies5 min read
Published in CodeX·May 10My Google Front End Interview QuestionsTraditionally, Google likes to hire for generalists. Everybody gets the same set of interviews for coding, algorithms, system design, and Googley behavior. Our expectation is that once an engineer joins Google, they can change teams, learn the programming language/domain, and fit in almost anywhere. Aside: according to Google code tools…Programming7 min read
Published in CodeX·May 3My Google Coding Interview QuestionAt Google I’ve done over 200 interviews and evaluated over 50 hiring packets. One thing is clear, and that interviewing is hard. Signals are all over the place. Both the interviewer and interviewee have less than one hour to do their best. Sometimes, for any number of reasons, we get…Programming11 min read
Published in CodeX·Apr 27My Reaction Article to Googler Blind Reactions to My ArticleWe must go deeper… — I was enjoying my morning coffee when an old Google teammate pinged me. “You’re popular!” They said, then shared this link with me. Apparently my article about Why I Left Google has gone slightly viral on Blind. https://www.teamblind.com/post/google-pm-leadership-rocks-and-credits-to-elon-for-this-xoogler-fire-jm8gjTDe I clicked the link and got an error. Blind is an anonymous…Google11 min read
Published in InsiderFinance Wire·Apr 18The Magical Power of MarginPart II of Buy, Borrow, Die — This article is the follow up to the first article about compound growth, aka the buy part of buy, borrow, die. The Frightening Power of Compound Growth The Buy part of Buy, Borrow, Diewilwen.medium.com I apologize for the long delay in part 2. As all of you are aware, macroeconomic issues have spun the entire financial market into a tizzy in the first…Personal Finance9 min read
Apr 17Not at all.2Oz ZerenBelieve it or not, I know Steve.Believe it or not, I know Steve. We played foosball together at the Kirkland office. He was an L7 Super Staff engineer when I was still working on my L5 promotion. I also worked with his ex-Grab CTO Theo. Theo was my tech lead in 2009. I get the pains…2 min read
Published in CodeX·Apr 7Why I Left GoogleI debated whether to write this article for a long time. How it would affect my relationships with past co-workers? How would it affect future employment opportunities? After I retired from Google, I started driving Lyft to pass the time. One time I had a Lyft passenger who was a…Google13 min read
Apr 1I need your help. Please Follow.I recently received this email from Medium. Apparently I have been demonetized due to insufficient number of followers. I started writing for Medium in July 2021. Mostly it’s about my own life experiences. Personal finance, Tesla, Google, etc. etc. I’m doing this just to share and entertain, rather than making…2 min read
Mar 22Why You Should Consider Buying A Used Tesla Model SDuring first few months of 2022, gas prices have been on the rise. In Seattle, prices have reached $5 a gallon. Filling up a SUV or truck can cost upwards of $100, and at one or two fill ups a week, the monthly gas bill can be $400 to $1000…Tesla9 min read
