Google “underleveling”
I’ve been at Google for a few years now. Got hired as L4 even though I had Masters with ~7yoe. I got to L5 within 1.5 years but I always thought and believed that Google underleveled me and given how quickly I made it to L5, maybe I was right..... BUT I just interviewed someone with Masters + 4yoe. Candidate was being considered for L4/L5. During the interview, however, the candidate did not show me any signal for L5 and barely L4. Don’t get me wrong, the candidate answered most of my questions and I am sure in their mind, they did amazing and deserve L5. but in reality, the candidate needed a lot of hints, needed handholding for parts of the question, did not do good on the design portion of the question as well. My recommendation was strong hire for L3 and a weak hire for L4 and no hire for L5. My judgement is based on the 45 minutes of interview. The candidate might actually be an L5 but not based on this interview. Now say this candidate gets an offer for L4 or even L3. I am sure they will think “oh, fucking Google downlevelled me” and etc. but in reality, it was YOU who could not prove to your interviewers that you are an L5 candidate. Thinking back at my interview and I can see how poorly I answered my design question and hence got leveled at L4. TC: 380
Not sure that 45 min. is exactly enough. You can have an off day where you overthink a problem, and get down leveled by 1 level. But had you been more calm, you’d go thru the problem easily. If you really think 45 min. of on the spot interviewing makes you more or less qualified, remember that it’s the interviewing skill being measured. If you think the interview process is a signifier on how well the candidate will do if given the job, then I accept your disagreement.
You’ve come full circle, man. That’s one good self analysis.
That is just your experience. I was downleveled and it still took me a long time to get to the next level because I was told " our team just has this conventions that we can't give new hires more than CME...." Same with the level after that.
Google do it because they can. Most people are going to accept a down level
Same. I see people post about EE, SEE for their first 2 perfs, but my first perf was conventional Noogler CME because that’s just the standard in our org / office / something. I agree, I took a down level because it’s Google. They know their name value, and they use it.
@op: can you recommend some sources that can help with the preparation for the design questions?
Honestly, I don’t think you can really prepare for design questions. IMHO, it just comes from experience
😓
Wow, you drank the koolaid bro.
Not many people write and share this realization. More should.
I just know if I interview at Google again, good chance I'll fail
Great retrospection. Although I do believe google downlevels far too aggressively and leads to large pay disparity at the lower levels which I think is quite unfair since expectations are largely the same.
And, that's the circle of life. 😬
When I left you I was but a learner. Now I am the master.