5 ms·

After completing ~9 interviews (2 video interviews, 5 on-site interviews, and then was asked to complete 2 additional video interviews after mediocre on-site re

by nwsm 4y ago

After completing ~9 interviews (2 video interviews, 5 on-site interviews, and then was asked to complete 2 additional video interviews after mediocre on-site results), I passed Google's "hiring committee" and then was put in their team match process. Over the next 4 months I had ~4 calls with hiring managers, none of them fruitful (and not for lack of my own enthusiasm or willingness to leave my comfort zone). After this the recruiter basically said they'd be in touch if any other opportunities came up. The process is absolutely insane and an obvious symptom of Google knowing people really, really want to work there. They do not respect the candidate at all, and then will cold email you again a year later as if you've forgotten how painful it was the first time. I'll probably end up interviewing again.

knicholes 4y ago
I told Google and Facebook to please stop contacting me, as after three attempts, either you know I suck or you'd accept me. It takes way too much effort to brush up on my algorithms/data structures each time I interview.
- culi 4y ago
  Does it feel worth it to go through it at least once though? I'm a junior engineer and I remember studying really hard for this one "hiring platform" (once you're in they find you contracts, sorta. One of the few non-scammy ones out there). The interview was pretty intense but I got a TON of good study material and really in-depth feedback I guess a key difference though is that it's not very "data structures and algorithms"-y and much more "optimizing React performance"-y I ended up actually passing but, being the only junior there, no company was interested in a contract with me. However, I don't really consider it a waste of time because I really learned a lot from that interview and I think it played into how I interviewed later At the current company I work for they're really surprised at certain skills I have. Skills that I can trace back to having to study for that one interview
  - knicholes 4y ago
    I can remember some pretty intense plane trips home trying to figure out why my answers were insufficient or why they failed to understand that my answers did actually work. The problems made me think a lot more about architecture than I would have otherwise, but really the main experience is that I'm really not good at programming on a whiteboard and changing pace quickly. Yeah, I'd say definitely try it at LEAST once just to see what's out there. You might just get an offer of life-changing money. One time all of my interviews involved reinforcement learning. I didn't know much about it, so I tried to answer all of the questions the best I could using CS concepts and programming. Years later, when learning about Reinforcement Learning, I face-palmed pretty hard when it became extremely obvious that they were testing my knowledge of policies.
ajkjk 4y ago
Yeah, it's insane. When I turned down a Google offer because they did such a bad job of the post-interview process, my recruiter was _surprised_. All I could say was: why? what did you think would happen if you didn't find a team I actually could get excited about? (It was worse than that: I told the recruiter I was interested in roles in any location except the South Bay and Seattle's Eastside, and they came back and said those were the two places they found matches, so I took a different job. And they were surprised. As far as I can tell Google can't figure out how to not assume that they're everybody's dream job choice like I guess they might have been in the 2000s.)
- nwsm 4y ago
  I didn't want to go this far into detail because it's embarrassing how much I put up with, but I actually let Google alter the direction of my life. When I was interviewing, my significant other was looking to go to grad school in either NYC or Cambridge. NYC was her preference, so I told the recruiter I preferred NYC or Boston and I did my on-site in NYC. After all my interviews, the recruiter told me that the NYC office was doing "renovations", and so some teams were holding off hiring until they had the physical space (in retrospect this excuse makes no sense). He asked if I was still open to Boston and I said yes. But at this point, my SO had to accept one of her grad school offers, and based solely on the fact that I thought I would have a Google job lined up in Cambridge, she committed to the Cambridge school. At one point during the pointless team match process (after we were committed to Cambridge and after I had several unfruitful Cambridge team match calls), my recruiter actually asked me if I wanted to go back to looking for NYC teams. I couldn't believe it- what a slap in the face! (I had told him our priorities and timeline) We live in Boston right now, 4 years later, solely because I thought Google would have a role for me here after having passed 9 interviews. Thankfully, everything worked out. I found a different job, my SO got a great degree and is using it here in Boston, etc. Of course I'm the lone idiot in this story, but it's incredible how flexible I was just because I thought big G was making my dreams come true.
  - cowmoo728 4y ago
    Similar story here. My wife and I were living in NYC together and she was searching for PhD fellowships and I was searching for my next job. Our intersections were NYC, London, and Amsterdam, but between her fellowships and my offers we didn't find any great match. The google recruiter kept stringing me along and warning about a lack of space and offers with NYC based roles but I had tons of match offers in MTV. It was not reassuring at all to hear "well, you may find something in 6 months in NYC, but you may not, idk lol". I ended up taking an offer in MTV and my wife went to Amsterdam. 1 year down, 1 more year to go. We're again going through the process of trying to find something that works for both of us between NYC, London, and Amsterdam.
rexreed 4y ago
Serious question: why do people "really, really want to work at Google"? Google seems to be cranking out increasingly mediocre products, canning existing products, making engineers chase their own tails, and just being a bad player. Is it really about having a name brand on a resume so you can work somewhere else? Is it the free food? I guess high salary? What is it?

by nwsm 4y ago

knicholes 4y ago

I told Google and Facebook to please stop contacting me, as after three attempts, either you know I suck or you'd accept me. It takes way too much effort to brush up on my algorithms/data structures each time I interview.

culi 4y ago
Does it feel worth it to go through it at least once though? I'm a junior engineer and I remember studying really hard for this one "hiring platform" (once you're in they find you contracts, sorta. One of the few non-scammy ones out there). The interview was pretty intense but I got a TON of good study material and really in-depth feedback I guess a key difference though is that it's not very "data structures and algorithms"-y and much more "optimizing React performance"-y I ended up actually passing but, being the only junior there, no company was interested in a contract with me. However, I don't really consider it a waste of time because I really learned a lot from that interview and I think it played into how I interviewed later At the current company I work for they're really surprised at certain skills I have. Skills that I can trace back to having to study for that one interview
- knicholes 4y ago
  I can remember some pretty intense plane trips home trying to figure out why my answers were insufficient or why they failed to understand that my answers did actually work. The problems made me think a lot more about architecture than I would have otherwise, but really the main experience is that I'm really not good at programming on a whiteboard and changing pace quickly. Yeah, I'd say definitely try it at LEAST once just to see what's out there. You might just get an offer of life-changing money. One time all of my interviews involved reinforcement learning. I didn't know much about it, so I tried to answer all of the questions the best I could using CS concepts and programming. Years later, when learning about Reinforcement Learning, I face-palmed pretty hard when it became extremely obvious that they were testing my knowledge of policies.

ajkjk 4y ago

Yeah, it's insane. When I turned down a Google offer because they did such a bad job of the post-interview process, my recruiter was _surprised_. All I could say was: why? what did you think would happen if you didn't find a team I actually could get excited about? (It was worse than that: I told the recruiter I was interested in roles in any location except the South Bay and Seattle's Eastside, and they came back and said those were the two places they found matches, so I took a different job. And they were surprised. As far as I can tell Google can't figure out how to not assume that they're everybody's dream job choice like I guess they might have been in the 2000s.)

nwsm 4y ago
I didn't want to go this far into detail because it's embarrassing how much I put up with, but I actually let Google alter the direction of my life. When I was interviewing, my significant other was looking to go to grad school in either NYC or Cambridge. NYC was her preference, so I told the recruiter I preferred NYC or Boston and I did my on-site in NYC. After all my interviews, the recruiter told me that the NYC office was doing "renovations", and so some teams were holding off hiring until they had the physical space (in retrospect this excuse makes no sense). He asked if I was still open to Boston and I said yes. But at this point, my SO had to accept one of her grad school offers, and based solely on the fact that I thought I would have a Google job lined up in Cambridge, she committed to the Cambridge school. At one point during the pointless team match process (after we were committed to Cambridge and after I had several unfruitful Cambridge team match calls), my recruiter actually asked me if I wanted to go back to looking for NYC teams. I couldn't believe it- what a slap in the face! (I had told him our priorities and timeline) We live in Boston right now, 4 years later, solely because I thought Google would have a role for me here after having passed 9 interviews. Thankfully, everything worked out. I found a different job, my SO got a great degree and is using it here in Boston, etc. Of course I'm the lone idiot in this story, but it's incredible how flexible I was just because I thought big G was making my dreams come true.
- cowmoo728 4y ago
  Similar story here. My wife and I were living in NYC together and she was searching for PhD fellowships and I was searching for my next job. Our intersections were NYC, London, and Amsterdam, but between her fellowships and my offers we didn't find any great match. The google recruiter kept stringing me along and warning about a lack of space and offers with NYC based roles but I had tons of match offers in MTV. It was not reassuring at all to hear "well, you may find something in 6 months in NYC, but you may not, idk lol". I ended up taking an offer in MTV and my wife went to Amsterdam. 1 year down, 1 more year to go. We're again going through the process of trying to find something that works for both of us between NYC, London, and Amsterdam.

rexreed 4y ago

Serious question: why do people "really, really want to work at Google"? Google seems to be cranking out increasingly mediocre products, canning existing products, making engineers chase their own tails, and just being a bad player. Is it really about having a name brand on a resume so you can work somewhere else? Is it the free food? I guess high salary? What is it?