Recalling his Google interview, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday said getting a job at the company wan’t as easy as one would have thought.
Pichai, who joined Google in 2004, says he was interviewed on April Fools’day. Google had just introduced its email service Gmail, and much like many people, he thought Gmail was a prank from the company.
At a fireside chat at his alma mater the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-K) where he visited after 23 years, Pichai recalled being asked about Gmail a couple of times.
“I hadn’t had a chance to use it (access to Gmail was invite-only at the time), I thought it was an April Fools’ joke,” he told the 3,500 students assembled
He remembers discarding the service as a spoof effort from the company for sometime, only to realise after watching grimy faces from interviewers that he may have been wrong.
“In the fourth interview, when somebody asked me, ‘have you seen Gmail?’ I said no, and then he showed it to me,” Pichai remembers. “So in the fifth interview, I told them about what I think of Gmail, how to improve Gmail.”
Pichai also recalls that he was among the first few people to have not being interviewed by Larry Page, the co-founder of Google. He says, “I still joke sometimes that I got a job because Larry didn’t interview me.”
Recalling a funny anecdote from his college days where he called someone Abey Saale. “As a freshman, couple of weeks into being here I came from Chennai. I had learnt Hindi in school but never spoke much. Just listening to other people, I thought that’s how you address people. One day there was someone in the mess, and I had to call him, and I called him Abey Saale. In my first couple of weeks I thought you call people that way. Next thing, I know folks in the mess were quite upset, and they closed down the mess temporarily.”
In a rapid fire round, Pichai was asked how he spends his free time. He replied that he likes to spend time with his children who are 13 and 9 years old, and that he loves watching cricket and football as well.
Another student asked what his GPA was at IIT. The Google CEO replied to this question on a lighter note saying he was too embarrassed to admit his first year’s GPA, but that he did much better in the last three years.
Pichai also revealed that Infosys founder Narayana Murthy was his ideal during his college days. “I admire people like that who put India on the map,” he said. He added that he loved watching Tendulkar play.
Next Pichai was asked about his favourite Bollowood actress, to which he replied it would be Deepika Padukone. A student asked Pichai what she’d have to do to replace him. “I’d tell her Be careful what you wish for, but happy to discuss over a cup of chaai,” he said. The function ended with a selfie with everyone.
