I applied, and was rejected. However, I had already taken another job before they rejected me. The application process made me not want to work there. More recently I have toured their offices, and I really really don't want to work there.
I remember going to their campus, and getting a ewww... this place has a too corporate vibe.
Three of the people that interviewed me seemed burned-out, no enthusiasm whatsoever. Also from my conversations it seemed that Google is a pretty political place (even though it tries hard not to be one).
Only two of the guys, I clicked with. One had done mobile dev since early 2000, and we had worked a lot on similar problems.
The other guy I thought was cool had come from an acquisition.
I didn't even get to meet the recruiter who was supposed to handle my case, and I was greeted by somebody else.
The whole interview experience felt like cattle processing.
For some reason I came out with the opinion that Google is a very unhappy place, and competitive (cut-throat perhaps), as it attracts people that are smart, and have tough time being average.
Perhaps it is subconscious sour grapes, or not, but my thinking is that while Google it is chock full of smart people, it seems not to be a fun place.
Ps. I know two googlers in person, and I think they are really smart people, and I respect them as engineers, but I just don't think them as entrepreneurial types though.
So as individual place, it has a lot of smart people, but as a collective and as environment google is not a fun or attractive place to be at least when viewed on a superficial level from the outside. Maybe that's why they have to pay really well to retain their engineers.
