As I was sorting through some old bookmarks, I remembered a fun thing that happened over a decade ago now. I was doing some programming and searching some technical things online as I was debugging something, and suddenly the results page of Google tipped back and in the opening there was some text on a dark background that said "You're speaking our language. Up for a challenge?".
I clicked it and it took me to a terminal where I had to solve a series of leetcode-style puzzles. While I'm not a fan of those sorts of questions, I really enjoy Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and Capture the Flag (CTFs), so this was really up my alley. As you progressed through the levels, the puzzles got harder and harder, eventually having time limits in days rather than minutes or hours. I remember feeling quite proud by figuring out "ah, they want me to use dynamic programming here", etc.
After level 5 if I remember correctly, it asks you for your contact details. I put those in and carried on. Eventually, I got to maybe level 8, and the problem was quite long, and I had a life to get back to, so I let it lapse. I eventually found out that this was also a promotion for the new (at the time) movie called The Imitation Game.
Not long after, I was reached out to by a headhunter from Google. Anyone who knows me knows that I would never in a million years work at Google (or any big tech company for that matter). However, at the time (approx 2014), I didn't really know what I wanted to do. So I ended up interviewing for a SE role at Google.
I remember being surprised at how low-tech their process was -- the tech interview was me on the phone with the interviewer (actual phone, not Skype) and typing code into a Google Doc. I remember it took me a while to figure out the answer to another leetcode-like question about normalising strings and searching through them or something. I called a friend afterwards who actually studied CS (unlike me) and told him about it, and he got the answer instantly.
Eventually, I had a choice between either that or pursuing a PhD. I picked doing a PhD. Sometimes I wonder where my life would be had I started working in industry instead. I know now that I would not have enjoyed working at Google, but then again, I really did not enjoy my PhD! So that's the story how I was almost started a career in big tech.
The link (https://foobar.withgoogle.com/) is no longer active and redirects to Google's jobs page, however something similar seems to live at https://h4ck1ng.google/, though that looks very different to what I remember. It still has a similar vibe though!