I joined Google in 2020 and led the organization responsible for all technical platforms supporting operations, customer engagement and partnerships for Google consumer products. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I feel very good about what the team has accomplished and the collective learning and impact.
As that cycle closes in 2023, I look forward to a new beginning in 2024.
Though many interesting challenges remain at Google, its biggest existential challenge is an organizational and cultural re-invention in the next couple of years. Still exploring how I can contribute, but I am also contemplating a post-Google future for me.
What I do next is as much result of the opportunities that emerge as it is what I deliberate introspectively. Life is not what we do, but the people we touch along the way.
What am I looking for?
I would like to leverage my understanding of the technology adoption and value expression cycle and experience developing culture, products, business. Besides direct value creation, a main source of motivation for me these days is enabling and inspiring a new generation of leaders, thinkers, innovators.
Wherever I land, I want to be in a place where I can interact with smart people in a collaborative and transparent environment, doing something that makes the world better for all.
If I end up leaving Google, a likely goal is to find a niche in the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Silicon Valley. I’ve been a coach, thought-leader, investor, entrepreneur.
I am open to any opportunity that allows me to explore my abilities productively. Networking, Telecom, Social Media, Data Center, Customer Engagement, Data Operations, Operating Systems, Web Applications, Hardware are some of my previous areas of expertise.
You can check my LinkedIn Profile for more structured detail of my experience.
What can you do for me?
You have already done it. Thank you. After reading this, I am sure you are going to think of something or connect someone or simply send me good thoughts.
I became a Googler in July of 2020 and since then I get questions from friends, ex-colleagues, recruiters and acquaintances on how to get a job at Google. You won’t find “secret tips” here, this page is just an effort to normalize my response to those requests with publicly available helpful information.
Internships
Internships at Google are quite decentralized and competitive. All information for students looking for Internship opportunities at Google is available here.
One of the MBA internship program for my org (gTech) is managed within my team. My org typically hosts around 20 MBA interns per year and hire most of them after they graduate. We typically do not host undergrad interns (but other orgs do).
For internships across Google, the calls for application typically appear in Google’s job site in Sep-Oct and decisions are made in November. So, the recommendation is to visit Google’s job portal starting in September and watch for the call for applications or set up job posting alerts with “internship” so that you know when internships get posted.
Understanding Google jobs
Job titles and descriptions at Google are often cryptic and vague. That is because we avoid providing too much detail about projects and organizations and because Google focus on the person-company match before the specific role match.
Common seniority titles are: VP, Sr. Director (“Sr.” often omitted), Director, Sr. Manager (or “Head of…”), Manager, etc. Those titles roughly map to an internal system of seniority levels (Director is L8) that you see in crowdsourced comparison sites.
Generally, Google titles map one level above titles in other similar large tech companies and two levels above “normal” companies. A Google Director role will typically be filled by a C-level in a small company, a VP in an established technology company, a Sr. Director in a large Tech.
Common functional titles in product development and operations organizations are: Software Engineer, Web Solutions Engineer, Data Engineer, Data Analyst, Product Manager, Program Manager, Technical Program Manager, Solution Consultant, Technical Solution Consultant.
For any engineering or technical position (including Product Manager, Technical Program Manager), there will be technical skills testing (i.e. coding, computer science concepts) during the interview process.
For certain roles, Google might use pool hiring (i.e. you are interviewing to be an approved generic candidate for a type of role that will later be matched to a specific role).
Referrals
Yes, there is an internal referral process and I will gladly refer you if I know you well and believe Google is a good match for you.
We worked together in the same company for a significant amount of time and I have first-hand and specific knowledge of your work and had a positive outlook
We have known each other as business stakeholders for a long time, we have checked on each other frequently over the years and I have closely followed your professional trajectory
We are close family or friends and I know you as a person very well.
If none of the above is true, I will decline to refer. I will also not refer someone I have already referred within the past couple of years. Google has a high bar of requirements for certain dimensions of knowledge, Google has a very specific bottoms-up culture. So, not everyone belongs in Google. Not even everyone good belongs in Google.
My understanding is that my referral will accelerate the process of getting your application to a recruiter, but won’t influence the interview process and the evaluation of the match between the role and the candidate. So, while I might have multiple positions open in my team at any time, I do not control or influence who can apply and who Google selects for those positions and what is the compensation package.
If I do refer you, my referral will generate a personal link, which will be sent to you by email and can be used for 30 days for you to submit to up to 3 open positions at Google.
Preparing for a Google Interview Process
Google hiring is by committee. The hiring manager has little influence on the selection process after the job description is defined. Google uses in-house recruiters who understand well how Google works and who Google looks for and that will be your main point of contact during the process. A hiring process typically takes a few weeks to a couple of months, with a few initial informal chats with recruiter, hiring manager, followed by a formal “on-site” interview panel (3-5 interviews of 45 min each).
Google interview panels are designed to make objective decisions. If you are going to be a Googler, you might as well embrace the concept. Trust the method, be yourself, and believe the process is good identifying whether Google and you are a good match. If you take that attitude, preparing for an interview becomes a lot easier and more natural. If you are not selected, while that might hurt your ego, it is probably a good thing in the long term.
So, while one can specifically prepare for a Google interview (and there is a market for coaches, books, classes selling that specificity), my recommendations below are for preparing for any interview process.
Google will be looking for cultural fit (a.k.a. “Googleyness”) and leadership. Are you honest, transparent, humble, curious, positive, challenger to status quo? Can you influence without power? are you inclusive and appreciative of different perspectives? Can you adapt to changes in conditions?
Google will be looking for problem understanding/solving (a.k.a. “cognitive ability”) and technical skills. Interviews for any technical position will test for computer science knowledge (including coding for most technical positions).
The best approach is to be open, vulnerable, transparent. You might not have the “right” answer to a question, but you can show how you are thinking by asking clarifying questions and verbalizing your thought process as you navigate the questions asked by the interviewer.
So, other than clearing your mind and refocusing on core values and skills, the only preparation measure I recommend is to have a small collection (4-5) of real anecdotes from your career you can leverage to answer “STAR” (situation-task-action-results) question. Those are questions like “Describe an occasion in your career where you were trying to accomplish <task> and faced a <situation>, how did you handle, which <action> did you take and what were the <results>?”.
Before my interviews in 2020, I also spend a few hours during the weekend watching videos from one of the many Youtube channels devoted to the subject of interviewing at Google. That was useful for me to feel more confident knowing what to expect.
It was 1999 when this loop started. Cyclades had helped the first generation of Internet companies (notably, Yahoo!) to figure out how to manage large Internet data centers and Google called us as they prepared to build some very large ones. It quickly became our largest customer (Cyclades was acquired by Avocent in 2006).
As I left Avocent in 2009, I took some time to reflect on what I had learned with the Open Source Software Community and working in a 3000-employee organization with 7-8 layers of management. I was convinced that a new generation of collaboration-oriented enterprises would redefine the concept of large company in the 21st century.
At the time, I collaborated with John Lima and we wrote about the concept of “Click-Company“, a customer-focused enterprise that had fully embraced digital media that was less hierarchical and more collaborative. Our thoughts derived substantially from the ideas of Marshall McLuhan who, as early as the 1970’s, had anticipated the emergence of digital media and predicted its effects in society and the economy.
Google had grown and was the real-world example of a Click-Company. I applied for a job in product management there in 2012. Joining Google did not materialize, so I spent the next few years involved with a diverse range of projects and roles in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In 2016, was back in a corporate project at Opengear and helped to develop a technology and product roadmap centered on NetOps automation. Opengear was acquired in Dec. 2019 by Digi International.
Earlier this year, Google contacted me and we started a conversation that culminated with an opportunity for me to join the gTech technical platform group. gTech mediates the interaction of Google products with consumers, customers, and partners. My start date is set for Jul 20th, 2020. I feel honored for joining a company I have admired and been following since its inception.
Joining Google closes a loop in my career and opens new ones. I hope to bring people and ideas together, because that is what moves us forward. I will apply all I have learned in the past and want to contribute to a better Google and a better world.
Three years ago, I joined Opengear as CTO, with a mission of setting strategies for company growth. For me, it was like jumping into a time machine and having a second take in the market space I helped to create 20 years earlier with Cyclades. Over this period, Opengear multiplied investments in product and technology, doubled revenues and profits, captured new opportunities, and projected a vision that turned a cash-cow business into a vibrant growth story and reality. Today, we are announcing Opengear will become part of Digi International, in a cash transaction of $140M + $15M, expressing the value of work by founders and contributors over the last 15 years. This marks the end of a cycle and sets a path forward as part of a larger publicly-traded company. Digi and my career have been intertwined for the past 30 years. I have seen Digi as an aspirational reference, collaborator, partner, customer, and competitor over the last three decades. Once the transaction closes, I hope to contribute to the company efforts to deliver solutions, project vision and capture market value in the industrial IoT and Network Management markets. I am grateful for the opportunity and outcome at Opengear, and remain curious on what the future will bring.
If you contact me through any channel, make sure to provide context so I can decide and prepare. Include artifacts, tell me what exactly do you want from me, and why you think I can help.
This week is the time of the year when we in the US take a break from our busy lives to express Gratitude. I have plenty to be thankful for this year.
Gratitude is a positive emotion we feel in acknowledgment of a benefit we have received. Saying “Thank You” is the way to express that emotion which is the basis of life in community. It recognizes that we depend on one another to live, to be ourselves.
We get used to say “Thank You” as a matter of social protocol. This is the time to bring its meaning back to consciousness.
In my native Portuguese, we say “Obrigado“, which is not my favorite expression because it equals gratitude with indebtedness. Literally, it says “I owe you something”.
In my travels around the world I have always taken interest not only on the local word to express gratitude, but also on its literal meaning and the social attitude behind it.
My favorite form of “Thank You” is the one used in Malaysia. “Terima Kasih” sounds very friendly and it literally translates to “Receive Love”.
I am no historian or linguist, but I theorize that words equating gratitude and indebtedness have roots in a period in history where gratitude was used as social currency between levels of hierarchy, where favors were exchanged for political loyalty. Words that equals gratitude with love reflect a more equal exchange between peers.
As we evolve towards a world where stronger relationships are people-to-people rather than people-to-organization, gratitude has to be more like love and less like indebtedness.
With that in mind, I would like to say Thank You for reading, agreeing or disagreeing, providing feedback and teaching me through interaction this year.
In 2015-2016, I joined Graava, a startup project designing a consumer camera.
On Aug 5th, 2015 we run what was arguably the most successful (from a media exposure perspective) marketing launch for a crowdfunding HW project to date. We were hoping for significant coverage, but what we got surpassed all expectations. Graava was featured in every major mainstream and technology media outlet, including TechCrunch, Wired, Forbes, The New York Times. We were also on broadcast TV a few times. A partial (but impressive) list of links to coverage is below.
So, why did the Graava project eventually fail? (of course, this is just my personal analysis).
Graava was ahead of a wave and identified and proposed a solution for a real problem: automate the edition of video footage using data and AI. GoPro, Google, Apple among other have later introduced similar capabilities in their platforms. We selected to launch a hardware product because of the appeal of a physical device.
Graava was part of a broader market experiment with using crowdfunding to validate the demand for a hardware consumer product, and then using that validation to raise venture capital to produce and deliver the product. That model has failed.
Graava raised a couple million dollars in seed money from angel investors and built a camera (I have pre-production units), but failed to raise the additional funding necessary to bring the product to market. It returned all the funds from the crowdfunding campaign to the users, switched to focus in software and launched an IOS/Android App in 2016 that delivered the same functionality using smartphones. The App was featured in the Apple store, but failed to gain the traction needed to create a viable business model. The project was discontinued later in 2016.
Pebble was probably the earliest and arguably the most successful example in the consumer HW/crowdfunding model. They were early in the smartwatch wave and actually delivered a couple of generations of products before going under. Post-Graava, late in the cycle, Lily is said to have sold 60,000 drones (at $500-$1000 each) and raised $15M from major VC firms before failing without delivering a product. Between those two, a long list of projects also failed. Coin and Navdy are two high-profile examples.
I often get this question from early stage entrepreneurs: “How do I calculate the valuation of my startup?”
The valuation of a startup is the value of the company at the moment when the first round of venture capital is raised. Valuation should not be the focus of the early stage entrepreneur. For more on that, please read on.
Am I ready to talk to a VC?
If VC’s are willing to talk to you, go ahead and talk to them. But the conversation will have tangible consequences only if your startup is at the stage of development for a VC capital investment.
You are ready to raise VC funding when at least one of the following conditions are satisfied:
Users – Your B2C service has millions of users and that number is growing exponentially through social propagation. The target audience is everyone in the world. There is no business model, but who cares? You are the next Instagram.
Traction – Your project has a significant number of users (hundreds of thousand for B2C, several customers for B2B) and at least one business model for monetization has been validated (advertisement, commission, subscription, sales, etc.). Your startup is not a website, it is a business.
Innovation – Your project includes Innovation with uppercase “I”, that is applicable to the solution of a high-value concrete problem. The innovation is either protected by patent or is very difficult to replicate. You’ve invented teleporting.
Resume – You have a well-formed project and a team that has previously created other companies that were successful and generated return to investors. Those investors are willing to offer capital even before the previous criteria are satisfied.
The details of the criteria above might vary slightly from a VC to another, but there is no magic. Note that VCs are professional investors investing capital from a fund that received money from other investors. The VC investor does not own the money and can only invest if they can model it based on the goals of the fund.
Seed Money
If none of the criteria above is satisfied, the valuation of your startup has no valuation.
But that should not be cause for alarm. It is the case of the vast majority of the startups. It doesn’t mean the project is wrong or has no future. It only means you need to execute further before its value creates a valuation.
If you need capital to execute before there is a valuation, you will need seed money, normally a smaller amount enough to run the company for a few months, provided by an Angel Investor.
While it is fun to guess numbers, there is usually no need to define a valuation to raise seed money. The angel investor usually receives convertible notes in exchange for the investment. Simply put, a convertible note is a loan denominated in dollars (often including interest and discount clauses) that is converted in equity participation if and when there is a first round of venture capital investment (when a more concrete valuation is defined by a professional investor).
Ok, got it. But what if I still want to guess what valuation I can get for my company?
The definition of a valuation at the raising of venture capital will take in account the structure of ownership (how many founders, how many key people) and the amount to be raised (which is a function of the money needed to execute as well as the preferences of the fund).
The investor must believe in the project and the team, so it has vested interest in keeping the team committed and motivated. There is no incentive to squeeze the entrepreneurs by defining valuation that is too low. So the actual valuation is based on real market perceptions, but ends up being a number that makes the round viable and a win for all parties involved.
Now, if after all this discussion, you really want to estimate a possible valuation, you can try at least three different approaches:
Financial – If you have a solid business plan, valuation can be calculated based on the execution risk and the projections of revenue and profit and a possible sale or IPO. Because execution risks in early stage are very high, it is virtually impossible to achieve much confidence in a number. Normally, the investors try to model this, not the entrepreneur.
Market – VC investments usually become public information. You can estimate your valuation based on the valuation of similar companies in similar stages of execution that are receiving professional investment.
Opportunity Cost – Calculate the amount of the time and effort applied to the project and estimate what would be its value if that effort was applied in a well established business. This is the cost of opportunity of your project. This number is irrelevant to the investor, but can be useful for the entrepreneur to continuously monitor the viability of the project (the cost of opportunity must be always below the valuation one hopes to achieve in the future).
This trip on the first half of Aug/2014 was my first time in Cambodia. If you are reading this and considering whether or not it should be in your bucket list, I say: go for it!
The impressions you find below are from the perspective of a relatively seasoned traveler who is used to explore unknown places wearing a backpack and who had been to SE Asia multiple times before.
We were four travelers (my friend Isa from California, and Cameron and Lester from New Zealand – I did not know them prior to this trip – Isa did) with coordinated itineraries for transportation, but not committed to doing the exact same things.
Royal Palace Complex
We stayed in nice hotels (so it was not a backpacking trip), but most of my activities were local and close to the ground.
Our itinerary: 2 days in Phnom Penh (the capital, a typical SE Asia bustling city), travel by taxi and 2 days in Kampot (a coastal city famous for, among other things, “Kampot Pepper”), travel by taxi and 2 days in Sihanoukville (a party beach resort town), fly and 2 days in Seam Reap (where the famous temples are). In retrospect, this was a perfect first overview 8-day trip itinerary (thanks to Cameron, who had been there before and designed it), with a good balance of tourist crowds, off-the-beaten-path time, exploration and relaxation.
I will take the risk of generalizing my superficial perception of a short-time visitor and say that the stronger impression on me from this trip was the fact that Cambodians are nice. But not in a casual way, like when we use “nice” as a placeholder to nothing remarkable to say. I mean really nice. A combination of grace, politeness, sweetness, sincerity, lack of judgment, openness. Perhaps gentle is a better way to express the attitude I experienced there. There, I said it, Cambodians are gentle people.
Cambodians have been subject to oppression and tragedies in recent history and a significant portion of the population lives under poverty lines. It is amazing that they can live on with grace and be optimistic in situations that others would consider unbearable.
Sunset in Kampot
When researching for a visit to Cambodia, you will read about corruption in government and police, mosquitoes, unsafe tap water, landmines, lack of infrastructure. Don’t let that deter you. Yes, going there requires some planning and precaution, but once you arrive, those things cease to be negative to your experience.
You will also read that the weather is hot. That doesn’t cease to be relevant once you get there. In August, it is 33-34C for most of the time. It is the rainy season, but we were very fortunate and rain did not interfere with our trip.
Perhaps surprisingly, crime or personal safety were not factors in my experience anywhere, at any time. Big city, small village, it didn’t matter. An illustrative example: we took a bicycle tour in Siem Reap. The local guide didn’t seem to understand why I was asking if it was safe to leave the nice mountain bikes parked without locks and unattended while we visited the temples.
Balloons on the beach – Sihanoukville
Not a reason to visit, but a nice plus if you do: your US dollar is accepted anywhere and goes very far getting what you need. A nice meal in a posh place is $6, seafood dinner served on the beach front is $3. A beer costs 50c to $1. You can hire a driver to take you around for the whole day for $15-$20 (a tuk-tuk carries up to 4 people). A nice (I mean nice) hotel room goes for $45-$50. A beach bungalow is $20. A backpacker bunk bed to spend the night will cost you $3.
Language is not a big issue. In the cities, people tourists interact with all speak English. Where English is not spoken, there is always goodwill and gestures.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Marcio Saito 