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I used to work at Google. When I interviewed I was rusty on algorithms, so I studied up on them, even delaying my on-site interview to have more time to get rea

I used to work at Google. When I interviewed I was rusty on algorithms, so I studied up on them, even delaying my on-site interview to have more time to get ready. Sure enough they asked algorithms questions and I did better on them thanks to my studying. So I think it's also testing whether, given strong evidence on what would be helpful preparation, you choose to do that preparation. (Obligatory Paul Graham essay reference - "If college applicants realized how quick and impersonal most selection processes are, they'd make more effort to sell themselves" [0]) [0] Two Kinds of Judgment http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html

vidarh 15y ago
A problem with that is that they assume they're the most attractive option. They might be to some, but I think that pool of people is dwindling. It took five attempts from different Google recruiters before one managed to "sell" Google sufficiently for me to be willing to do a phone interview. Then I was given interview questions of a type that nobody else would give for a position at the level I interviewed for, and I quickly lost interest again as to me the interview questions advertised a lack of understanding of the skills required for the position, or a fundamental disagreement about how technical management should be carried out. And pleading from the recruiter was not sufficient to get me to do another interview (after she got the result of the initial interview thrown out because she agreed with my assessment). The last recruiter I dealt with was good, but the impression I got of the interview process put me off for a long time. It took several months, and in that time they'd still not been able to find anyone else. I've never, ever spent that long on a recruitment process before, and the only reason I bothered was out of curiosity and because I wasn't really looking. If I had been looking, I'd have found and taken another job long before Google would've managed to get their act together. I make an effort to sell myself for positions I badly want, but Google doesn't seem to be interested in selling itself in the recruitment process whereas most other companies I've interviewed for are, and they certainly isn't even top 10 of list of places I want to work. But every time I've dealt with Google recruiters, I've had to waste time dragging information out of them that I'd normally expect the recruiter to be eager to present to me. I'm not going to make an effort if they've not gotten me to really want the job first. Recruiters I've spoken to all tells me the people they take out of Google are very often disillusioned and thought it would be very different to their actual experience, and that dislodging Google employees have gotten much easier as it's no longer so much the pinnacle of cool places to work in the eyes of a growing number of engineers, so I think that's going to become a bigger and bigger issue for them when hiring.
- andrewem 15y ago
  All fair points. I had one friend who interviewed with about 13 different people at Google before getting an offer, which was totally absurd, and a lot of their friends got a negative impression based on that (soon after they set a cap of about 8 total interviews per candidate). So I can imagine having their interview process do other bad things, like not being forthcoming with information or trying to sell the job.

vidarh 15y ago

A problem with that is that they assume they're the most attractive option. They might be to some, but I think that pool of people is dwindling. It took five attempts from different Google recruiters before one managed to "sell" Google sufficiently for me to be willing to do a phone interview. Then I was given interview questions of a type that nobody else would give for a position at the level I interviewed for, and I quickly lost interest again as to me the interview questions advertised a lack of understanding of the skills required for the position, or a fundamental disagreement about how technical management should be carried out. And pleading from the recruiter was not sufficient to get me to do another interview (after she got the result of the initial interview thrown out because she agreed with my assessment). The last recruiter I dealt with was good, but the impression I got of the interview process put me off for a long time. It took several months, and in that time they'd still not been able to find anyone else. I've never, ever spent that long on a recruitment process before, and the only reason I bothered was out of curiosity and because I wasn't really looking. If I had been looking, I'd have found and taken another job long before Google would've managed to get their act together. I make an effort to sell myself for positions I badly want, but Google doesn't seem to be interested in selling itself in the recruitment process whereas most other companies I've interviewed for are, and they certainly isn't even top 10 of list of places I want to work. But every time I've dealt with Google recruiters, I've had to waste time dragging information out of them that I'd normally expect the recruiter to be eager to present to me. I'm not going to make an effort if they've not gotten me to really want the job first. Recruiters I've spoken to all tells me the people they take out of Google are very often disillusioned and thought it would be very different to their actual experience, and that dislodging Google employees have gotten much easier as it's no longer so much the pinnacle of cool places to work in the eyes of a growing number of engineers, so I think that's going to become a bigger and bigger issue for them when hiring.

andrewem 15y ago
All fair points. I had one friend who interviewed with about 13 different people at Google before getting an offer, which was totally absurd, and a lot of their friends got a negative impression based on that (soon after they set a cap of about 8 total interviews per candidate). So I can imagine having their interview process do other bad things, like not being forthcoming with information or trying to sell the job.