Google Would Never Hire a Person Like Me.

"Google would never hire a person like me."
That's what I told myself as I walked away from the college campus recruitment booth in 2005. I was a huge fan of Google products like Search and Gmail, so the idea of graduating and getting a job there was a dream -- a fantasy akin to making it big in Hollywood or on Broadway. But getting hired is much like dating, and I didn't see myself as Google's type. I thought that the kind of software engineers that made it into Silicon Valley tech companies were all the same -- a bunch of brilliant White and Asian guys with Ivy League degrees. I figured they came from good homes with well-to-do parents, affluent enough to afford the luxury of tinkering with expensive gadgets in their parents garages.