> Engineers can end up in the weeds because they chase tough problems to solve (they're fun!) rather than employing critical thinking to keep focused on the important business problems.
Just a wild guess, but I don't think Google is interested in engineers that can "remain focused on the important business problems" anymore. Maybe it's just because of their size, or maybe just because they're more corporate now and procedures have gotten more important than the end-results, I cannot tell, either way, they're not a start-up anymore, where as an engineer you do have to look at the bottom line.
Just a wild guess, but I don't think Google is interested in engineers that can "remain focused on the important business problems" anymore. Maybe it's just because of their size, or maybe just because they're more corporate now and procedures have gotten more important than the end-results, I cannot tell, either way, they're not a start-up anymore, where as an engineer you do have to look at the bottom line.