Google Existential crisis
I think I'm going to have a phone screen with a recruiter coming up for a business intelligence analyst role that seemed entry level for google. I considered myself to be intermediate bordering on advanced with sql before this but Ive been practicing sql leetcode questions and getting my butt kicked. Im kind of a generalist and don't necessarily work with SQL all day every day because I use several BI tools and I've never really come across these leetcode type problems at work. I usually work through problems in the ide and/or figure things out by researching/googling but that's probably not an option in a whiteboard interview. Am I overrating the technical competency requirements for an entry level role like this? Is there anything I can do to prepare and get up to speed within a few weeks or am I fucked? Should I just bow out gracefully and save myself and my friend that referred me from disgrace?
Memorizing is a recipe for disaster. The interviewers are smart enough to segregate
What should I do?
If you're doing Leetcode and not subconsciously learning how to spot patterns... then maybe it's time to find a different career?
No no. It just requires time. Some people learn faster than others. Make sure when you're studying you're not skipping to solutions too fast
What do you do when you've spent several hours trying to come up with something without skipping to solutions? Is it ok to google the problem?
BI roles differ greatly. It depends on the team's needs. Intelligence is more important than SQL skills.
How do you define and show intelligence in this context? Are there other things I should focus on to prepare instead of worrying so much about a whiteboard interview? There has to be at least some level of baseline skill though right? To me it seems that baseline is higher than normal and while I thought I was at least intermediate bordering on advanced, I'm finding that might not be the case, at least for a company like google.
Fwiw, teams vary, but I dont think BI analysts are new grad roles. The lowest level is writing SQL from raw partition data, and submitting your code to peers for code review. The higher level might be incorporating new data pipelines into the data warehouse, and managing your own CI/CDs. My recommendation would be to get some writing SQL with Bigquerys web UI on top of public data
That said, maybe your hiring manager is looking for something specific. I dunno.
You need SQL. Study from leetcode. There is nothing to be disgraced about. I am interviewing for past 2 years and here is a brief list of the companies I have been rejected (some even multiple times): Amazon-3 (all onsite) Facebook-2 Google-2 Uber-2 Apple-2 Visa-1 GAP-1 WD-1 EA-1 There were several other companies which I don’t even remember. I now have an onsite with Google next week. Keep trying. Never say die !!
Don’t memorize as if your interviewer finds out than it will end. No need to pay. Just google for that question and you will be able to see a link which you can check the question.
If you have problems in basic queries, better interview for a different position at Google.