The last month

Hopefully my employer doesn't have my blog in his RSS feed :)

Over the last month I have interviewed with a number of great companies. I have had a blast going and visiting with the brilliant people that inhabit the halls of Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, and Microsoft. I have, or am receiving, offers from three of the four. It is definitely an exciting time as I rush to look at places to live, schools for the children and compare things like benefits, stock prices, growth potential, and perks.

It will be sad to leave my family and friends; adjustments will be necessary all the way around. However, I am very excited about the opportunities that lay ahead.

I won't describe the interview process or questions. However, I will say that all of the questions were very intelligent and relevant. It helps to know core algorithms and data structures such as lists, queues, and trees. Graph algorithms and advanced data structures like heaps and splay trees are also good to know. More generally, you just need to be able to tear a problem apart and reduce it to its essence. They want to see that you can analyze a problem and coming up with the right solution immediately is not as valuable as coming up with many solutions and being able to weigh them.

All of the companies had extraordinary employees, a great culture, and innovative systems. They all operate at "web scale" which means their problems are MASSIVE. No matter which company I choose, it will be a great choice.

I'm looking forward to the journey and I'll keep you all updated.