Google Interview as TVC

Today was my last day working in Google as a TVC. It's been a year and a half since I started working here as a Software Engineer. A couple of months ago I applied for a FTE position (L4); no "conversion", shortcuts or special process but the standard steps: phone screening and then 5 on-site interviews. I didn't receive an offer; I was told I need "more technical experience". I also applied to other companies and got a couple of offers, so I'm moving to one of those. During my journey at Google I've been working and delivering results at the same level of my fellow FTE colleagues. One manager even told me that I've delivered faster and better results than the average FTE engineer. Some of my Google friends also believe I have the knowledge and experience to be a FTE and they regret that the process has its "flaws" rejecting capable people. Now let's discuss the details about my preparation for the interviews: - Prepared around 2.5 months. 170 leetcode problems: 30/90/50 (hard/medium/easy). - Read some chapters of CTCI book and solved ~30 problems. - 8~10 face-to-face mock interviews and 15 Pramp mock interviews. Details of the interview process: - Phone screening: easy problem with medium/hard follow-up (sorting and hashmap). Solved and coded the easy optimally and explained the algorithm for the follow-up. - On-site interview 1, easy problem with hard follow-up (graph). Solved easy optimally, solved hard with brute-force. - On-site interview 2, hard problem (arrays and tweaked binary-search algorithm). No f*ing clue on how to solve it. - On-site interview 3, super hard problem, it seems it is not in leetcode (brute-force recursion, optimal dp and trie). Only got brute force. - On-site interview 4, hard problem (graph). Solved optimally. - On-site interview 5, behavioural. Maybe I'm really not that good at SW, maybe I was unlucky on having all hard problems... So many 'maybes'. There are many posts/blogs that discuss the flaws of the process, the trade-off of rejecting true-positives vs hiring false-positives and the many non-technical factors involved in the hiring decisions (luck, communication skills, non-native English speakers, etc). I'm not complaining or whining because I didn't get a G offer or whether the people who get an offer deserve to be there or not. I'm just pointing out my experience on that, hoping that somebody finds it helpful. Having experience as a TVC Engineer at Google does little to nothing for getting a FTE offer. TC: 125k YOE: 9 (7.5 outside the US, 1.5 in the US)