“I work for Google”.

That’s pretty damn ridiculous.

Working at Google feels very much like being back at college — admittedly, a college populated primarily by computer people; it’s like an IT version of Planet of the Apes.

Google takes extraordinary steps to integrate new hires into the corporate culture as fast and as comprehensively as possible. Nooglers spend the first two weeks in classes about the company’s core systems, a time when you’re expected to be absolutely unproductive and just learn. Every Noogler is assigned a mentor who serves as your go-to person all the stupid questions you have: why won’t my computer boot? (My first day) How do I run a test suite? (My fifth day) What’s the command to request a code review? (Yesterday)

I’ve been assigned to the Build Tools group where I’ll be working on Mondrian, Google’s new change-review tool created by Guido van Rossum. I also want to get involved with the various testing-focused groups, something Neal Norwitz is urging on.

This place is awesome.