I wouldn't hold Google up as a platonic ideal of hiring. It's a big company and who you draw as an interviewer matters. It's quite possible that random chance s

I wouldn't hold Google up as a platonic ideal of hiring. It's a big company and who you draw as an interviewer matters. It's quite possible that random chance sank the parent commenter and not anything he did. On average the quality of the Google hiring process may be high but it is far from consistent. They've hired some people I consider incompetent. My own interview process was horrible. A friend of mine (who is awesome) had a challenging interview process and they hired him anyway because they liked the way he thought (that's how it is supposed to work!). They seem to hire good people on average. But they are not infallible.