I worked as a contractor for Google from 2008 through 2013 (along with other clients), building election results and voter information maps for their Maps and News teams. My maps ran on google.com and were syndicated out to a number of news sites.
How I got in was an odd fluke: I'd been active on the Maps API mailing list answering people's questions, and a couple of weeks before the 2008 Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, Google realized that the company they'd hired to build those maps wasn't going to deliver, so they asked if I could jump in and build something in a hurry that worked.
The first year I did the whole thing myself: GIS processing to turn geographic boundary files into usable form, back-end processing to gather vote data from AP and other sources, and the front-end UI design and map development. Among other things, I developed a way to display polygons on a map many times faster than the Maps API itself.
A couple of the maps blew up in a spectacular way (I managed to DDOS Google Code on Super Tuesday 2008!), but mostly they were pretty successful with millions of viewers.
After that a couple of Google developers handled the back-end vote processing and I took care of the GIS and front-end work, both for the US and a number of international election maps. For some of the international maps, local teams worked with my front-end code to enhance it for their needs.
It was a pretty good run and Google seemed very pleased with my work. Eventually a great team in their DC office took over the map development, and I started to think about what to do next.
One obvious idea, of course, was to apply for a job at Google! After all, I'd already worked for them rather successfully for five years.
But I didn't even apply. Perhaps this was a mistake on my part. I just had a feeling that my history of developing successful products for Google wouldn't count for much - that instead I'd get logic puzzles, quizzes about algorithmic minutiae and have to code a red-black tree on the spot on a whiteboard - all things that favor recent CS grads. Plus, I'd just turned 61!
I wonder how many other people there are like me, experienced developers with demonstrated ability, who never applied because of Google's interview practices (or the rumors about them)?
FWIW, I'm still actively programming, getting into something new every year or two - right now it's an odd mix of VR and Microsoft Office development - and definitely looking for the next great opportunity. Anyone who wants a multitalented developer and doesn't care how old I am, email is in my profile. :-)