Context: 2 YOE/L3 Interview Loop. Interviewed first week of February at Google NYC. Feedback next couple of days came back from recruiter saying that I had mixed feedback and he wanted to try to team match before going to HC. 2 weeks pass and not a single peep from a any team in Google NYC. My interests would be working in Google Docs backend but I'm assuming headcount is full. After the 2 weeks pass, recruiter tells me that there's no headcount for L3 in Google NYC and that I would need to try for Google MTV even though he said he would submit my packet to HC the week prior. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see the reason to team match before going to HC. Why would any team want to attempt to match with you if they know you haven't passed HC yet and could face rejection at any point? I told me recruiter to see if I could just send my application straight to HC this week but he says there's a huge backlog in NYC and I would only be able to do it for the HC in MTV. Not sure if recruiter is telling the truth about headcount in Google NYC or if this is just an indication that I didn't do as well on my interviews and need to try and branch out to match with a team before HC.
Recruiter: "Unfortunately, ...feedback was borderline..." Interviewer notes: "lmaoooo so bad, how tf did he get past the phone screen? strong no hire, blacklist from ever applying again."
I did team match before hc, then got an offer. Go for it and good luck op
Team match before HC is not unusual anymore.
I also am doing team match before hc despite getting pretty good onsite scores. I think it's just more or less the new process
How do you know you got pretty good onsite scores?
Recruiter told me
The HR is definitely trying to help you here. Otherwise he/she should just submit to HC and risk a failure
op, did your packet go through HC? What was the outcome? I am in the similar situation.
Can you all share the results of your HC review?
How is working in Google docs?
They do this when you have borderline / weak feedback. The recruiter tries to find a hiring manager that will back you up to make your packet stronger. If you can't find a team match, I would imagine they send your packet to HC without one but your chance of passing is probably low.
But what team would want to match with a borderline candidate?
Well, you could have a background that matches the team's needs.