Ate lunch with Al Gore, ate lunch on 60 Minutes, worked hard, worked late, missed the ipo.
Pros
I was a contractor, and you must know that as a contractor your number one job is to make yourself invaluable to Google for an entire year. Be there early, stay late, do everything your're asked to and three or four times that. Go out with your coworkers, go out with your boss, become a Googler even though you aren't. Yes the pay sucks, but you have an opportunity to get your foot in the door. Introduce yourself to Larry and Sergei, make sure they know who you are. Do your job well, and don't be shy about telling others what you are excited about. It's a collaboration mecca. You can learn a lot while you're here, and you can pick a lot of brains that you may never get to rub elbows with again. Oh and lunch is free, live bands on Fridays, lots of parties, ski trips, etc. Just sneak in, on or into. No big deal.
Cons
Sneaking into company events. Explaining that you're not with adwords but you actually have a meaningful project. The general disdain most googlers have for the adwords crowd. No job security, low pay, low respect. For contractors. If you want to try to get a full time job here, don't have other plans for a year. AT ALL.
