Google!!! Again!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everybody! I'm posting from beautiful Squaw Valley, California where I've just completed a fabu day of spring skiing with my Dad, and watched capricious_k do an awesome job as she works on mastering the sport.

And speaking of capricious_k and "awesome" in the same sentence, last Wednesday she let me know that some new positions in her department at Google had opened up. Thursday morning she passed my resume on to her department's recruiter. On Friday she got an email telling her that Google was planning on giving me a phone screening soon. Huzah!!!!!!!

Those of you following my employment woes have already heard that I took a good shot at a Google position in their AdWords department, but unfortunately they didn't hire me. I've always thought that capricious_k had a better job there anyway, one I was more interested in. So lo and behold, now I get a shot at it! This is working for customer support; Google employees personally answer every single email that people out in Internet land send them, and this is the team that does it. The job requires communications skills and technical savvy, both of which I have in spades. Also I'm a great generalist, and since this job requires some understanding of absolutely everything Google does (which is a lot more than most of you probably think they do) I'm really, really interested in doing this.

But I need all of your input on an important issue surrounding my job application. The application process is that first they review my resume (which they've done), then they give me a phone screening, then if that goes well they bring me in for a face-to-face interview. Here's the big question: at what point in this process do I tell them that I'm dating someone in this department?

I'm already quite certain that I'm going to tell them. It's not like we could hide it for long. Neither of us expect it to be a problem between us, but we understand that the management could have justifiable concerns. And it would be bad for them to officially hire me, and then spring this surprise on them.

Our current thinking is that the most appropriate time to bring this up would be at the end of the face-to-face interview (should I get that far). That way they've already had a chance to see if they like me, and hopefully I've already wowed them with my charm and intelligence. After they fall in love with me, but before they hire me, feels like the best time. "Geez, we really like this guy and we want him to work for us, but we're worried that he's dating someone in the department," seems better than "Geez, this guy's dating someone in the department, let's not bother talking to him and just chuck his resume."

I'd really like to hear everyone else's opinions on this touchy matter. What do you all think of our plan? Can you think of abetter way to approach this?