How the team placement looked like? You weren't actually assigned to a team and were given a choice?
Each of the teams dealt with problems that my background could help with (two in finance where I worked for 8 years and the third was C# which was my stack of choice), so they weren't random placements. Also, they're really big on mobility, but they strongly prefer that you stay in a role for 18 months before you transfer. If it's "transfer or I'm leaving the company," they'll usually let you (barring special circumstances), but it's a bit of a pain.
I suspect there's a tendency to push new hires towards less glamorous positions, but I've seen newcomers in all departments. I suspect that more glamorous positions are usually filled quicker and with a more valuable asset via internal transfers.
Oh, please tell. How long had you been working there? Was it a small town? That's a very odd thing to say!
I had worked there for almost 2 years. I was originally hired at about 2/3 of my previous pay (it was a rough time to look for work), and they suspected I was looking around (it's stupid not to at least look once in a while). They tried to retain me by making me a lead over 2 other engineers (don't care) but not by modifying pay, though I made it clear that that would help.
When it was clear I was still looking around, boss called me in to try to get me to sign a "pledge" to stay at the company for 2 years. I refused.
A couple weeks later I got my offer and gave two weeks notice. There were a few meetings with management where they claimed they were going to make a counter offer, but they never actually offered me anything.
That meeting was the last one. Immediately afterward the lead counsel called me in for a meeting and apologized. He said that the other meeting was supposed to be a substantial cash offer (significantly more than Google was offering), but I declined pointing out that I wasn't ever going to be able to work in this town again; certainly not for him at least and the lead counsel said he didn't blame me.
I tried to help with transitions and stuff, but I was told that I'd be paid for my 2 weeks, but to not bother coming in. I hear it didn't go very well after I left.
Wow, in return for what? It's so ridiculous someone would do something like that.
That was also my impression after talking to several people from there. No much flexibility and very hard to get into a team you want. And lol at your old boss, what the hell? :)