> the expectation was that if i sucked up enough ("demonstrated my value") they MIGHT make me a real boy, like some bizarre Velveteen Rabbit fetish game.
Google goes out of its way to emphasize that TVC "conversion" does not exist. You can interview, but you'll go through the same process as anybody else, they'll make sure you don't interview with anybody you know, and your achievements as TVC are discounted completely.
Conversion of Temps (but not Vendors or Contractors) did exist when I started working at Wing (the Alphabet drone delivery company) in 2018. We talked about it when I interviewed there.
Well, "interview" is overstating it. They needed some airspace data importers urgently and knew I could do it based on my past work for Google and my experience as a pilot. So we met for lunch, talked about the project, and that was that.
I actually thought the "temp" thing was a brilliant hack: we agreed on a decent rate (paid through Adecco), and if they liked my work and I liked working with them, I could convert to FTE at some point (and this was true at the time).
Then in August 2019 a memo came out that Temps were no longer eligible for FTE conversion. Even those who were hired with promises of that possibility.
And yes, the memo was exactly as you said. The people you'd worked with closely for the last year, who hired you because you were just the person they needed and you already were doing a great job for them? They couldn't vouch for you or communicate with the hiring panel at all.
It would be a grind through the standard Google interview process, as if you had no history with the team you are already working with and delivering for.
What kind of a fucked-up system is that?
The thing that stung the most was that the memo also explained in detail that Interns were and remained eligible for FTE conversion, without any kind of full interview round like a Temp would have to endure. The rationale: Interns were already employees.
Google goes out of its way to emphasize that TVC "conversion" does not exist. You can interview, but you'll go through the same process as anybody else, they'll make sure you don't interview with anybody you know, and your achievements as TVC are discounted completely.