Where to begin

So how does one interview for a job at a startup in Silicon Valley? I'd had lots of practice by the time I pulled into the Google parking lot. It was another warm Bay Area November and I wasn't terribly surprised to see one section of the parking area roped off with police tape and a roller hockey net at each end. The squat beige building and dozens just like it grazed on verdant fields of rolling landscaped lawns interspersed with tasteful fountains and ambiguous sculptures. When I entered the first floor of the building, there were arrows printed on copy paper pointing the way to the stairs, which I followed to the second floor.

A young, curly-haired receptionist walked me to a small conference room decorated with a nine-foot whiteboard, a standard issue circular table and several large inflatable rubber balls of various sizes. A squirrel ran along the ledge outside the window and I could see delivery men moving another dot com in across the way. As I sat idly patting a three-foot ball, I was introduced to a number of folks who seemed to have some connection with marketing.

Susan Wojcicki and Cindy McCaffrey walked me through a general introduction to the company with the sort of positive energy and optimistic outlook that was everywhere in those days. They had recently won recognition from Time magazine, traffic to the website was growing by leaps and bounds and they had strong financial backing, though no immediate source of revenue. That would come in time they assured me. They asked about my experience, especially with viral marketing. Cindy indicated that was important to the company's founders. I gave the usual interview song and dance, flashed some samples from my portfolio, and assured them that it sounded like a great opportunity. We shook hands and I headed back to my car.

It’s tempting at this point to claim that as I crept back along Highway 101, I analyzed what I had heard, cross-referenced it with my mental map of the Internet's future and realized that this was the real deal; that this would be the one startup in all of Silicon Valley that didn’t flop on its side, thrash its tail, and float belly side up when the great dot com wave rolled back from the crest of NASDAQ to the dusty shores of Lake Lagunita. I didn't realize that at all. Mostly I realized that large rubber balls were a strange way to decorate an office.

My next visit would reveal some of Google's even stranger ways.