8 ms·

Google Has a Secret Interview Process and It Landed Me a Job

148 points by andygambles 11y ago

makeitsuckless 11y ago
> "Google used it to identify me before I had even applied anywhere else" Add another item to the list of anti-trust charges Google is facing around the world. > "they respected my privacy" No they didn't. Not even close. But if Google is full of people with these notions I understand the major disconnect Google has with privacy regulators outside the US.
- sametmax 11y ago
  And just regular not-regulators people that are starting to get scared about this. Honestly, this video is supposed to be an ad for Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olFEpeMwgHk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olFEpeMwgHk But when I watch it, it feels more like a trailer for Terminator 16 to me.
  - jackmaney 11y ago
    http://bfy.tw/1c9R http://bfy.tw/1c9R
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > Add another item to the list of anti-trust charges Google is facing around the world. How, specifically, does that violate anti-trust law?
  - makeitsuckless 11y ago
    (Wow, even an attempt to engage by asking a question gets downvoted by HN's pro-Google brigade...) Anyway, assuming you believe Google effectively has a monopoly (as the EU commission does), this is yet another example where Google abuses that position to favour itself over everyone else trying to recruit. Very similar to the way Google manipulates shopping results (but sneakier). I'm not even saying I agree with that logic, but it will almost certainly be added to the things various regulatory bodies will investigate. Apparently it's already taboo to even mention that on HN.
henpa 11y ago
"Aaaaannnnnnnnnnd you're fired." Just kidding. But if none of his friends (including Google employees) knew about this, maybe they (Google) intended for this to be not known. I hope he didn't shoot his own foot by blogging about it. :-)
- DennisP 11y ago
  Seems like in that case they would tell him to keep it quiet, instead of leaving a trap that wastes their hiring effort and reveals their secret.
- Maxious 11y ago
  If you visit the URL google.com/foobar it won't do anything unless your google account has been offered the challenge. Presumably random searching wouldn't even activate it, you'd need to be in the right country etc. "To log in, you have to have logged in before. Confused? Search on...[google.com]"
- jerf 11y ago
  A lot of people are posting some variant on this, but, go back and read the post. The only things in the post are 1. this path exists 2. it uses Java and Python 3. it works in a fake shell. But that's it; no problems, no solutions, not even hints. Google probably rotates the problems anyhow. Overall, Google can hardly expect this sort of thing to not get out over time, and... honestly... do you think Google recruiting is upset that this got posted to HN?
onion2k 11y ago
Google used it to identify me before I had even applied anywhere else At a point where the author would be in a weak negotiating position because he wouldn't have other offers to take (besides staying in his current job, but applying for a new job indicates he wasn't entirely happy with that.) and they made me feel important while doing so. Doing a search that matches a regular expression is all that it takes to make you feel important? Really?
- cableshaft 11y ago
  Well, it evokes The Last Starfighter movie kind of feel, where a kid beats a video game and thus proves he's ready for something greater, so I can understand feeling special "for being chosen", no matter how automatic that criteria likely was (the human brain can deceive itself into thinking events are more deliberately chosen and less random than they actually are)
  - wyldfire 11y ago
    In the film it's referred to as "Excalibur".
qzw 11y ago
Are they only doing this if your IP belongs to a well known university? I'm sure lots of people here are googling programming topics everyday, and I'd assume it would've come up before this.
- hodwik 11y ago
  No, my buddy just got this while googling node.js stuff from a starbucks.
- bnycum 11y ago
  No, I got it a couple months ago and I live in Louisiana. I might have been searching stuff for Angular at the time. Didn't go through much of it though. I'm not fond of Python, and really didn't care for writing Java at the time. Also not looking to move across country.
- BWStearns 11y ago
  I saw it mentioned here a while back, it wasn't documented like this one but I figured it's a reasonable enough way for google to be a bit unique in recruiting.
drewg123 11y ago
I could have sworn I saw a few mysterious ads on corkboards around MTV internally recruiting people to work on a project like this last spring, just before I left Google. I never followed up to try to figure out what it was, so I can't be sure, but it could definitely have been this.
x00gler123 11y ago
So first of all this is not "a secret" at all and you don't need to be "special" to do it. And of course you don't get targeted personally but they do an automated/anonymous match on your search history. It's just one of many inbound HR/recruiting funnels and it was featured in an internal newsletter that went out to all of Eng some time ago. Second, they tell every applicant that openly discussing the interview process (esp blogging about it) will get you disqualified/blacklisted from any future positions at google. So if you have posted this before your first day and didn't discuss it with your recruiter/hr person at the G, it was probably not a very smart move. PS: It really isn't too hard to get into their interview process. If you create a github account and push some code one of their recruiters will probably approach you after a while. You can also just send them your CV and I am pretty sure you get the same process/treatment as anybody else.
- technofiend 11y ago
  LOL. I was wondering how long before a response like this showed up. "Formerly" secret-ish process, and who told you you could tell? That didn't take long. :-)
- throwaway9009 11y ago
  Although this may not be a secret anymore and it is a recruiting funnel - this gives many lacking a STEM or mid/top/elite CS background an opportunity to prove themselves. This seems like a great way to get noticed and bypass many of the unconscious biases instilled into engineering recruitment through training and experience.
  - GVIrish 11y ago
    Wouldn't Google still filter people based on their education and experience? This programming test could get someone a call but doesn't Google still only hire college graduates with a STEM or CS background (for technical roles)?
    - throwaway9009 11y ago
      Not necessarily. There are engineers without the prerequisite STEM or CS background, as well as folks without any degree. Even coding bootcamps. Talent is talent.
TurboHaskal 11y ago
If they truly care about your search history I think I'm blacklisted from working in Google for life :-)
harryf 11y ago
At one place I worked, in the days when Firebug was still new, we used show a discrete a web developer job ad if we detected window.console.firebug ... didn't actually lead to any hires but it made us feel clever ;)
miyuru 11y ago
this was posted on HN 9 months ago. looks like he didn't get the job https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8588080 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8588080
- kylebrown 11y ago
  The screenshot in the article is one I posted 9 months ago, and is being used without attribution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8593050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8593050
hias 11y ago
While this is a great idea from Google I would be concerned that the Google recruiter would also receive a list of my search history queries which do not always include programming topics at all ;-) Interesting thought though, will Google check my search history if I apply with a known Gmail adress?
- nappy-doo 11y ago
  No. Editing to add: One of the quickest ways to get fired at Google is to violate someone's privacy.
  - subliminalzen 11y ago
    Ironic, as it could be argued that Google violates everyone's privacy.
  - Terr_ 11y ago
    > One of the quickest ways to get fired at Google is to violate someone's privacy. I expect it's more about violating a corporate-policy than violating customer-privacy.
- x00gler123 11y ago
  Even the engineers that actually work on googles production systems can't access other peoples gmail/whatever accounts (that is technically _and_ policy-wise). Certainly not any random recruiter. How do you imagine this would work? Thousands of google employees that can just look into their boyfriends email? They make it pretty clear that event the higher ups/etc will never ever look into specific private accounts and anybody attempting to do so will be fired on the spot.
- dec0dedab0de 11y ago
  Assuming it is limited to programming topics, what if you accidentally pasted something very private while searching something programming related.
  - gpcz 11y ago
troebr 11y ago
I've done like the first 3 levels in the past. This stuff takes a lot of time, if I wanted to get a job at Google I'd probably go with the phone screen instead...
akshat_h 11y ago
How long till someone builds a bot to try to game this?
dframe 11y ago
I have a serious question : If google uses a person's search results internally to determine that they are a person of interest for hiring, whose to say they aren't using a similar process to strip Intellectual property from searches as it relates to projects they are working on? i.e : They are internally working on self driving cars and, in particular, are looking for ways to integrate algorithm 'X' in their solution. So, google decides to setup a special filter for searches related to certain profiles that search for 'X and self driving ....Results get fed to the group conducting the work. In effect, allowing them to internally see what 'profiles of interest' are up to as it relates to Google's flagged area of interest. It would appear that this could easily be made 'legal' under the premise that the individuals are anonymized. However, it does give google a unique advantage in being able to see 'what everyone is up to'. The fact that they are already using people's specialized searches for flagging them for interviewing makes me strongly believe they are already internally snagging people's searches/clicked links to give them advantage on projects. I think everyone should take a pause and consider the implications of this as they are quite damning.
- compactmani 11y ago
  I agree. These kind of posts make me a little nauseated to be honest. The only reason this person is bragging about being tracked and monitored online is because it resulted in a job at a prestigious marketing company. The vast majority are just being tracked and monitored, no job offered.
  - jordanpg 11y ago
    It is nauseating because it's a 1000 word humblebrag. Look at this guy's bio: > Max has a degree in mathematics from Yale University where he received multiple awards from the math department including the Barge Prize and the Runk Prize. He previously worked at The Boston Consulting Group where he worked on projects in computer hardware and biopharmaceuticals. His interests include data analysis, hiking, pad thai, and skiing. This essay reads like he is just discovering the magic of the internet for the first time, and is swept away by the user experience that Google has provided just for him! No, somehow I suspect that he would have gotten a job wherever he decided to apply. But apropos of the first comment, I wonder how much Google already knew about him before the challenge was displayed. In other words, is it just triggered by keywords? Or does the algorithm also take into account what else is known about the user doing the searching?
dblacc 11y ago
All that work just to skip a telephone interview ey. I suppose it was for fun initially anyway.
joesmo 11y ago
It's too bad they don't allow regular candidates this path of bypassing their atrocious phone interviews that ask you to write code in Word (lately) while someone sits huffing and puffing on the other wait impatiently. That's of course, if they even manage to call at the right time. Sorry, but the only impressive thing here is Google's continuing stupidity in this area (not that they're alone). EDIT: Word == Google doc
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
n0us 11y ago
I've googled all of those things numerous times and never seen a prompt for a challenge.
- Terr_ 11y ago
  They only accept people who aren't security- and privacy-conscious... Because it relies on you being logged-in and letting them build a profile of your search activities and trends.
  - n0us 11y ago
    I don't even know if Google would really be my bag, I would prefer to work at a smaller company but I am interested in coding challenges.
anjc 11y ago
This creeps me out for several reasons. One, we don't know why they're targeting certain people. It could be based on their search term, it could be based on their search history. It's a little coincidental that this guy happened to need a job at the appropriate level. Secondly, it's trying to make this horrible recruitment-hoop-jumping bullshit fun. Imagine asking a worker from...basically any other industry to do exercises for 2 weeks before you'll consider them for an interview. You'll be quickly told where to go.
- Smushman 11y ago
  > Secondly, it's trying to make this horrible recruitment-hoop-jumping bullshit fun. Imagine asking a worker from...basically any other industry to do exercises for 2 weeks before you'll consider them for an interview. So true. I was not sure if I was missing something or plain cynical when when I read he had worked for 2 weeks to get an interview.
time_is_scary 11y ago
> Google’s recruiting process is well documented online, and from this point my experience was pretty typical.The only difference is that I didn’t need to go through a technical phone screen since I had already demonstrated some proficiency with coding through the foo.bar exercises. > For my interview, I spent a day at Google headquarters in Mountain View solving problems on a white board. So what's the point? A phone screen takes what, 30 minutes? This is a lot of time to put in only to have to do it all again on a whiteboard. I guess it would be better than a phone screen for Google, but this seems like just another hoop for candidates to jump through. One of my gripes with the tech industry is that companies keep adding more onto the funnel part of the hiring process, but once you get the interview none of it matters. You can contribute to open source, have substantial github projects, complete coding challenges, have years of experience: all of this just helps you get the interview. Once you are in the companies hiring pipeline everyone is put through the same process, none of the other stuff really matters after that point. Maybe I'm just bitter that my team just hired one candidate over another because they did better in the whiteboard interviews (but had no side projects or real code to show us) while the other person had a lot of (good) code and pretty creative projects to look at.
- stephancoral 11y ago
  What is absolutely baffling to me is that companies assign coding tests as a pre-qualifier for the usual whiteboard interview despite the coding test being a far more adequate measure of the abilities of an engineer. I've had interviewers tell me that my coding samples went above and beyond what they usually receive (exhaustive docstrings, tests that make sense) and yet rather than discuss, say, how my code worked or why I chose one algorithm over another, they insist on making me solve puzzles on the whiteboard as the ultimate decider. The ideal hiring process for me would be introductory culture fit phone call, in which working hours, benefits, vacation policy etc are discussed to see if there is a lifestyle fit between prospective hire and employee (not 'Do you rock climb and crush brews?' culture BS), then a coding challenge, and then an in-person discussion of your code. The in-person discussion could involve throwing new requirements and hypotheticals at the problem to see how the candidate thinks on their feet, but it would still be relevant to the work they did at hand rather than some arbitrary puzzle pulled from Cracking the Coding Interview. I would be interested to know how the hoop-jumping-to-whiteboard process came to be standard. To me it does not make any sense why the determining factor for receiving an offer for a software engineering job should be dependent on one's improvisational problem solving abilities over actually writing code that runs and satisfies requirements. Is it because a whiteboard interview is much more cut and dry than code evaluation? Because every software company wants to think that they are Google?
Rexxar 11y ago
I'm disappointed, going to https://www.google.com/foobar/ https://www.google.com/foobar/ is not enough.
- pronoiac 11y ago
  Are you logged into Gmail? Just click "log in."
CephalopodMD 11y ago
So, does this only happen on chrome or something?
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
bolomennon 11y ago
ITT: people complaining about google's interview process that never made it all the way through IMHO if you think google is wasting your time with their interviews just don't apply with them, nobodies forcing you. complaining about how bad and broken it was after you got rejected makes you look like a sore looser
pronoiac 11y ago
Secret? It was talked about a lot here for a while. It started with a secret IP address in a trailer for The Imitation Game. Here's a later discussion. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8589835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8589835
tzs 11y ago
I'm pretty sure my Google search history would give a completely misleading idea of my technical abilities. Anyone else here feel the same? (I mean for your own abilities, not mine). At work, I'm using Perl 95+% of the time, with infrequent spurts of PHP and JavaScript. Occasionally some Python might be thrown in, and very rarely some Java. Because I'm only in those languages infrequently I sometimes forget some basic syntax, or mix it up with syntax from one of the other languages from that list. I end up Googling newbie things like "write array literal in php" or "concatenate strings in javascript".
- tptacek 11y ago
  Newbies don't search for things like "array literal", for whatever it's worth.

148 points by andygambles 11y ago

> "Google used it to identify me before I had even applied anywhere else" Add another item to the list of anti-trust charges Google is facing around the world. > "they respected my privacy" No they didn't. Not even close. But if Google is full of people with these notions I understand the major disconnect Google has with privacy regulators outside the US.

sametmax 11y ago
And just regular not-regulators people that are starting to get scared about this. Honestly, this video is supposed to be an ad for Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olFEpeMwgHk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olFEpeMwgHk But when I watch it, it feels more like a trailer for Terminator 16 to me.
- jackmaney 11y ago
  http://bfy.tw/1c9R http://bfy.tw/1c9R
dragonwriter 11y ago
> Add another item to the list of anti-trust charges Google is facing around the world. How, specifically, does that violate anti-trust law?
- makeitsuckless 11y ago
  (Wow, even an attempt to engage by asking a question gets downvoted by HN's pro-Google brigade...) Anyway, assuming you believe Google effectively has a monopoly (as the EU commission does), this is yet another example where Google abuses that position to favour itself over everyone else trying to recruit. Very similar to the way Google manipulates shopping results (but sneakier). I'm not even saying I agree with that logic, but it will almost certainly be added to the things various regulatory bodies will investigate. Apparently it's already taboo to even mention that on HN.

henpa 11y ago

"Aaaaannnnnnnnnnd you're fired." Just kidding. But if none of his friends (including Google employees) knew about this, maybe they (Google) intended for this to be not known. I hope he didn't shoot his own foot by blogging about it. :-)

DennisP 11y ago
Seems like in that case they would tell him to keep it quiet, instead of leaving a trap that wastes their hiring effort and reveals their secret.
Maxious 11y ago
If you visit the URL google.com/foobar it won't do anything unless your google account has been offered the challenge. Presumably random searching wouldn't even activate it, you'd need to be in the right country etc. "To log in, you have to have logged in before. Confused? Search on...[google.com]"
jerf 11y ago
A lot of people are posting some variant on this, but, go back and read the post. The only things in the post are 1. this path exists 2. it uses Java and Python 3. it works in a fake shell. But that's it; no problems, no solutions, not even hints. Google probably rotates the problems anyhow. Overall, Google can hardly expect this sort of thing to not get out over time, and... honestly... do you think Google recruiting is upset that this got posted to HN?

onion2k 11y ago

Google used it to identify me before I had even applied anywhere else At a point where the author would be in a weak negotiating position because he wouldn't have other offers to take (besides staying in his current job, but applying for a new job indicates he wasn't entirely happy with that.) and they made me feel important while doing so. Doing a search that matches a regular expression is all that it takes to make you feel important? Really?

cableshaft 11y ago
Well, it evokes The Last Starfighter movie kind of feel, where a kid beats a video game and thus proves he's ready for something greater, so I can understand feeling special "for being chosen", no matter how automatic that criteria likely was (the human brain can deceive itself into thinking events are more deliberately chosen and less random than they actually are)
- wyldfire 11y ago
  In the film it's referred to as "Excalibur".

qzw 11y ago

Are they only doing this if your IP belongs to a well known university? I'm sure lots of people here are googling programming topics everyday, and I'd assume it would've come up before this.

hodwik 11y ago
No, my buddy just got this while googling node.js stuff from a starbucks.
bnycum 11y ago
No, I got it a couple months ago and I live in Louisiana. I might have been searching stuff for Angular at the time. Didn't go through much of it though. I'm not fond of Python, and really didn't care for writing Java at the time. Also not looking to move across country.
BWStearns 11y ago
I saw it mentioned here a while back, it wasn't documented like this one but I figured it's a reasonable enough way for google to be a bit unique in recruiting.

drewg123 11y ago

I could have sworn I saw a few mysterious ads on corkboards around MTV internally recruiting people to work on a project like this last spring, just before I left Google. I never followed up to try to figure out what it was, so I can't be sure, but it could definitely have been this.

x00gler123 11y ago

So first of all this is not "a secret" at all and you don't need to be "special" to do it. And of course you don't get targeted personally but they do an automated/anonymous match on your search history. It's just one of many inbound HR/recruiting funnels and it was featured in an internal newsletter that went out to all of Eng some time ago. Second, they tell every applicant that openly discussing the interview process (esp blogging about it) will get you disqualified/blacklisted from any future positions at google. So if you have posted this before your first day and didn't discuss it with your recruiter/hr person at the G, it was probably not a very smart move. PS: It really isn't too hard to get into their interview process. If you create a github account and push some code one of their recruiters will probably approach you after a while. You can also just send them your CV and I am pretty sure you get the same process/treatment as anybody else.

technofiend 11y ago
LOL. I was wondering how long before a response like this showed up. "Formerly" secret-ish process, and who told you you could tell? That didn't take long. :-)
throwaway9009 11y ago
Although this may not be a secret anymore and it is a recruiting funnel - this gives many lacking a STEM or mid/top/elite CS background an opportunity to prove themselves. This seems like a great way to get noticed and bypass many of the unconscious biases instilled into engineering recruitment through training and experience.
- GVIrish 11y ago
  Wouldn't Google still filter people based on their education and experience? This programming test could get someone a call but doesn't Google still only hire college graduates with a STEM or CS background (for technical roles)?
  - throwaway9009 11y ago
    Not necessarily. There are engineers without the prerequisite STEM or CS background, as well as folks without any degree. Even coding bootcamps. Talent is talent.

TurboHaskal 11y ago

If they truly care about your search history I think I'm blacklisted from working in Google for life :-)

harryf 11y ago

At one place I worked, in the days when Firebug was still new, we used show a discrete a web developer job ad if we detected window.console.firebug ... didn't actually lead to any hires but it made us feel clever ;)

miyuru 11y ago

this was posted on HN 9 months ago. looks like he didn't get the job https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8588080 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8588080

kylebrown 11y ago
The screenshot in the article is one I posted 9 months ago, and is being used without attribution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8593050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8593050

hias 11y ago

While this is a great idea from Google I would be concerned that the Google recruiter would also receive a list of my search history queries which do not always include programming topics at all ;-) Interesting thought though, will Google check my search history if I apply with a known Gmail adress?

nappy-doo 11y ago
No. Editing to add: One of the quickest ways to get fired at Google is to violate someone's privacy.
- subliminalzen 11y ago
  Ironic, as it could be argued that Google violates everyone's privacy.
- Terr_ 11y ago
  > One of the quickest ways to get fired at Google is to violate someone's privacy. I expect it's more about violating a corporate-policy than violating customer-privacy.
x00gler123 11y ago
Even the engineers that actually work on googles production systems can't access other peoples gmail/whatever accounts (that is technically _and_ policy-wise). Certainly not any random recruiter. How do you imagine this would work? Thousands of google employees that can just look into their boyfriends email? They make it pretty clear that event the higher ups/etc will never ever look into specific private accounts and anybody attempting to do so will be fired on the spot.
dec0dedab0de 11y ago
Assuming it is limited to programming topics, what if you accidentally pasted something very private while searching something programming related.
- gpcz 11y ago

troebr 11y ago

I've done like the first 3 levels in the past. This stuff takes a lot of time, if I wanted to get a job at Google I'd probably go with the phone screen instead...

akshat_h 11y ago

How long till someone builds a bot to try to game this?

dframe 11y ago

I have a serious question : If google uses a person's search results internally to determine that they are a person of interest for hiring, whose to say they aren't using a similar process to strip Intellectual property from searches as it relates to projects they are working on? i.e : They are internally working on self driving cars and, in particular, are looking for ways to integrate algorithm 'X' in their solution. So, google decides to setup a special filter for searches related to certain profiles that search for 'X and self driving ....Results get fed to the group conducting the work. In effect, allowing them to internally see what 'profiles of interest' are up to as it relates to Google's flagged area of interest. It would appear that this could easily be made 'legal' under the premise that the individuals are anonymized. However, it does give google a unique advantage in being able to see 'what everyone is up to'. The fact that they are already using people's specialized searches for flagging them for interviewing makes me strongly believe they are already internally snagging people's searches/clicked links to give them advantage on projects. I think everyone should take a pause and consider the implications of this as they are quite damning.

compactmani 11y ago
I agree. These kind of posts make me a little nauseated to be honest. The only reason this person is bragging about being tracked and monitored online is because it resulted in a job at a prestigious marketing company. The vast majority are just being tracked and monitored, no job offered.
- jordanpg 11y ago
  It is nauseating because it's a 1000 word humblebrag. Look at this guy's bio: > Max has a degree in mathematics from Yale University where he received multiple awards from the math department including the Barge Prize and the Runk Prize. He previously worked at The Boston Consulting Group where he worked on projects in computer hardware and biopharmaceuticals. His interests include data analysis, hiking, pad thai, and skiing. This essay reads like he is just discovering the magic of the internet for the first time, and is swept away by the user experience that Google has provided just for him! No, somehow I suspect that he would have gotten a job wherever he decided to apply. But apropos of the first comment, I wonder how much Google already knew about him before the challenge was displayed. In other words, is it just triggered by keywords? Or does the algorithm also take into account what else is known about the user doing the searching?

dblacc 11y ago

All that work just to skip a telephone interview ey. I suppose it was for fun initially anyway.

joesmo 11y ago

It's too bad they don't allow regular candidates this path of bypassing their atrocious phone interviews that ask you to write code in Word (lately) while someone sits huffing and puffing on the other wait impatiently. That's of course, if they even manage to call at the right time. Sorry, but the only impressive thing here is Google's continuing stupidity in this area (not that they're alone). EDIT: Word == Google doc

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

n0us 11y ago

I've googled all of those things numerous times and never seen a prompt for a challenge.

Terr_ 11y ago
They only accept people who aren't security- and privacy-conscious... Because it relies on you being logged-in and letting them build a profile of your search activities and trends.
- n0us 11y ago
  I don't even know if Google would really be my bag, I would prefer to work at a smaller company but I am interested in coding challenges.

anjc 11y ago

This creeps me out for several reasons. One, we don't know why they're targeting certain people. It could be based on their search term, it could be based on their search history. It's a little coincidental that this guy happened to need a job at the appropriate level. Secondly, it's trying to make this horrible recruitment-hoop-jumping bullshit fun. Imagine asking a worker from...basically any other industry to do exercises for 2 weeks before you'll consider them for an interview. You'll be quickly told where to go.

Smushman 11y ago
> Secondly, it's trying to make this horrible recruitment-hoop-jumping bullshit fun. Imagine asking a worker from...basically any other industry to do exercises for 2 weeks before you'll consider them for an interview. So true. I was not sure if I was missing something or plain cynical when when I read he had worked for 2 weeks to get an interview.

time_is_scary 11y ago

> Google’s recruiting process is well documented online, and from this point my experience was pretty typical.The only difference is that I didn’t need to go through a technical phone screen since I had already demonstrated some proficiency with coding through the foo.bar exercises. > For my interview, I spent a day at Google headquarters in Mountain View solving problems on a white board. So what's the point? A phone screen takes what, 30 minutes? This is a lot of time to put in only to have to do it all again on a whiteboard. I guess it would be better than a phone screen for Google, but this seems like just another hoop for candidates to jump through. One of my gripes with the tech industry is that companies keep adding more onto the funnel part of the hiring process, but once you get the interview none of it matters. You can contribute to open source, have substantial github projects, complete coding challenges, have years of experience: all of this just helps you get the interview. Once you are in the companies hiring pipeline everyone is put through the same process, none of the other stuff really matters after that point. Maybe I'm just bitter that my team just hired one candidate over another because they did better in the whiteboard interviews (but had no side projects or real code to show us) while the other person had a lot of (good) code and pretty creative projects to look at.

stephancoral 11y ago
What is absolutely baffling to me is that companies assign coding tests as a pre-qualifier for the usual whiteboard interview despite the coding test being a far more adequate measure of the abilities of an engineer. I've had interviewers tell me that my coding samples went above and beyond what they usually receive (exhaustive docstrings, tests that make sense) and yet rather than discuss, say, how my code worked or why I chose one algorithm over another, they insist on making me solve puzzles on the whiteboard as the ultimate decider. The ideal hiring process for me would be introductory culture fit phone call, in which working hours, benefits, vacation policy etc are discussed to see if there is a lifestyle fit between prospective hire and employee (not 'Do you rock climb and crush brews?' culture BS), then a coding challenge, and then an in-person discussion of your code. The in-person discussion could involve throwing new requirements and hypotheticals at the problem to see how the candidate thinks on their feet, but it would still be relevant to the work they did at hand rather than some arbitrary puzzle pulled from Cracking the Coding Interview. I would be interested to know how the hoop-jumping-to-whiteboard process came to be standard. To me it does not make any sense why the determining factor for receiving an offer for a software engineering job should be dependent on one's improvisational problem solving abilities over actually writing code that runs and satisfies requirements. Is it because a whiteboard interview is much more cut and dry than code evaluation? Because every software company wants to think that they are Google?

Rexxar 11y ago

I'm disappointed, going to https://www.google.com/foobar/ https://www.google.com/foobar/ is not enough.

pronoiac 11y ago
Are you logged into Gmail? Just click "log in."

CephalopodMD 11y ago

So, does this only happen on chrome or something?

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

bolomennon 11y ago

ITT: people complaining about google's interview process that never made it all the way through IMHO if you think google is wasting your time with their interviews just don't apply with them, nobodies forcing you. complaining about how bad and broken it was after you got rejected makes you look like a sore looser

pronoiac 11y ago

Secret? It was talked about a lot here for a while. It started with a secret IP address in a trailer for The Imitation Game. Here's a later discussion. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8589835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8589835

tzs 11y ago

I'm pretty sure my Google search history would give a completely misleading idea of my technical abilities. Anyone else here feel the same? (I mean for your own abilities, not mine). At work, I'm using Perl 95+% of the time, with infrequent spurts of PHP and JavaScript. Occasionally some Python might be thrown in, and very rarely some Java. Because I'm only in those languages infrequently I sometimes forget some basic syntax, or mix it up with syntax from one of the other languages from that list. I end up Googling newbie things like "write array literal in php" or "concatenate strings in javascript".

tptacek 11y ago
Newbies don't search for things like "array literal", for whatever it's worth.