Hear a lot about how Google is the center of the tech universe; THE mothership. I decided to interview there. But I was really shocked by the quality of the interviewers there. I enjoyed just one interview out of the 5 scheduled. I must say though that one interview was really good. People doing technical interviews lacked quite a bit in communication skills. They liked to stare at their laptops typing away notes while monitoring my code on the whiteboard. Very little interaction; it was mostly me explaining myself and asking for clarifications. Might have as well sent them a video recording of me writing out a solution on the board. The Googleyness interview felt like an interrogation. Where was your Googleyness, interviewer? Nobody tried to sell the role to me. Are they assuming that just the Google brand name is good enough? I had boiled fish and chard for lunch. Blandest stuff ever. I can make better stuff in my Instant Pot. Hire the best and the brightest? Dream on. Felt like the place was run-over by drones. By the way this was in Mountain View, their HQ. It just felt like I met a bunch of coasters there. I interviewed at L5 though I wanted to interview at L6. Should I ask to re-interview at L6? FWIW: Google decided to proceed with my candidacy. TC: 320K YOE: 15
lol wtf, Google will be better off with out you.
Do you work at Google or ever have? What's your connection? Please clarify the source of your butthurt.
Are you the op, or have you ever been the op of this post? What's your connection. Please clarify the source of your butthurt.
Interview training is bad. L6 you're leading a team. L5 you could be a team lead or an IC, so level is up to you but highly likely they'll still not give it to you since they always like to low-ball and downlevel
Thank you!
Quality is down and it’s not a recent occurrence , it has happened 3 years ago with the race for cloud.
“it was mostly me explaining myself and asking for clarifications” Tbh, when I interview someone for L6, I expect them to drive the conversation. Ideal candidate would do all the talking and I would only steer them to the topics I’d like to cover: scale, perf optimizations, fault tolerance, etc. This is not to say that your interview loop was okay, just that this one issue is not necessarily a problem.
Are you L6 too? I am personally thinking for serting onsite for L5 or L6..
True on driving communication, but to me it feels like 2 way street, if person is not into communication at all feels weird even to drive. And doesn't matter what level you are at.
What did they offer you since they decided to proceed with your candidacy?
You're thinking of old Google from maybe the last decade. Company grew like 10x in the meantime and is not the same anymore. Lower your expectations
Can confirm that...
No shit!?
My exp. The questions were interesting. Lc e or m and an expansion on it when you got the solution. I had the same issue where I didn't really get to know the interviewer much. Part of it is that half of all software engineers are too autistic to make conversation and google makes them interviewers. Other half is that I only had 45 minutes per and sometimes didn't even have time for questions. Food was good but I interviewed in Irvine, apparantly top rated cafe.
I'm asian male as well. I meant that the problems started as a e or m but the expansion once you get the first problem turned it one level higher. Interview out of NorCal and you'll run into less Indians.
Felt absolutely the same. Good place for retirement though!
IMO interview style is not too different at Facebook, and most top tech companies.
At FB engineers are less socially awkward than Googlers per my observations, but yes.