They've been sending recruiters to me regularly for about six months. I get regular pitches and emails about working for them about twice a month from various people.
I'd like to be able to consider it but I'm not in their candidate pool (around forty, no regular job for a few years, non-tech schooling, travel, no high tech work for years before that).
Must be hard to reach out to the kind of people Google does like to hire. My old friends from that group are always busy.
Politics is what happens when three or more people get together to make a decision. It doesn't matter who you are, that is still true. The only way to avoid it is to work exclusively for yourself, and also somehow avoid all contact with customers. Good luck with that, and may the ramen noodles be with you, always.
Given your situation, and the fact that going to a couple of interviews is enormously low-risk compared to the potential reward, maybe you should say yes to the Google recruiters? What is the worst case scenario here?
Also, maybe they heard (through the grapevine) that you do good work. Stranger things have happened. :D
I'd like to be able to consider it but I'm not in their candidate pool (around forty, no regular job for a few years, non-tech schooling, travel, no high tech work for years before that).
I am not in their candidate pool, either by your standards. Quickly approaching forty, dropped out of 'society' for 5+ years, non-high tech work during that period, no Ivy League degree. And, yet, despite the fact that I have made -exceptionally- clear that I have no interest in working at their company, they will not stop recruiting me.
I think you should go for it and put in that application. It's way more likely that they want you to work there than that you want to work for them.
This is terrible advice. Going through Google HR's meat grinder you have a small probability to get in. The process is quite random and it takes a lot of time and energies from you.
Don't gamble on 1/10. Most likely, you'll feel like crap for nothing. And don't listen to the 1/10ers, they often rationalize and are fooled by selection bias.
they often rationalize and are fooled by selection bias.
Assuming you are talking about me, that's crazy. I have asked, literally, a handful of times that they never contact me again.
It might be selection bias, but it's not rationalization and it's not fooling me. It's annoying the crap out me. I hope they go bother someone who is interested in working there.
I'd like to be able to consider it but I'm not in their candidate pool (around forty, no regular job for a few years, non-tech schooling, travel, no high tech work for years before that).
Must be hard to reach out to the kind of people Google does like to hire. My old friends from that group are always busy.