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

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

#31

Post by super_mario »

drcross wrote: post #29
drewg123 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy says he was able to skip the technical phone screen, which is pretty non-standard as far as I remember. So it seems there is something a bit special about this process.

If you can't pass a technical phone screen with a drone from HR reading a list of Q/A's you're going to have bigger trouble down the line.

Google phone screen isn't with a recruiter. It's 3 one hour long phone interviews with engineers where you program solutions to problems in a shared google document. Some of the questions you get asked are absolutely non-trivial and will take you an hour to solve.

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

#32

Post by x00gler123 »

super_mario wrote: post #31
drcross wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't pass a technical phone screen with a drone from HR reading a list of Q/A's you're going to have bigger trouble down the line.

Google phone screen isn't with a recruiter. It's 3 one hour long phone interviews with engineers where you program solutions to problems in a shared google document. Some of the questions you get asked are absolutely non-trivial and will take you an hour to solve.

What you are describing is one of the proper phone screens with engineers. Before that they will sometimes do another round of screening that is just a HR person reading standard questions and checking if you got the correct answers (most of these questions have numeric or very specific answers that are binary correct/wrong and can be checked by a layperson)

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

#33

Post by subliminalzen »

nappy-doo wrote: post #25
hias wrote: post #20

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?

No. Editing to add: One of the quickest ways to get fired at Google is to violate someone's privacy.

Ironic, as it could be argued that Google violates everyone's privacy.

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

#34

Post by dijit »

discardorama wrote: post #26
nxb wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Wow, it's like they're fully aware of how poor many of their interviewing procedures have been over the years, and instead of making them more employee-friendly to compete with the rest of the industry, they'd rather just punish the employe…

> Wow, it's like they're fully aware of how poor many of their interviewing procedures have been over the years, and instead of making them more employee-friendly to compete with the rest of the industry, they'd rather just punish the employees instead. I know, anecdote, but: I went through the Google interview process not too long ago. It was stellar. None of the other places I interviewed at could even come close t…

My experience was not so stellar.

Interviewer tagged me and I thought I'd go along with it for the fun. I'm a systems engineer not a developer so YMMV.

First stage interviewer put me through a basic aptitude test ("what is netstat?", "what's the expected output of dig?") which was fine and I answered them all with a fair degree of correctness but the questions quickly went on to different programming languages, and while I've done some small things and I definitely know my way around a bourne shell I didn't get spectacular marks honestly, mostly because he was asking programming questions and I haven't had as much exposure to code as I'd like.

the next week I receive what I thought was a follow up call, but it was another round of preliminary questions.. around 2 questions in, and I realise these are the same exact questions I answered the week before. I'm a bastion of honesty, and while I knew the answers to all his questions now (because curiousity made me look up the ones I had failed.) I felt I should tell him that he asked me these questions before. I did.. he fell silent.. "are you sure"

"Yeah, your next question is about netstat"

".. oh.. well I don't have your results"

"Do you have any other questions to ask, you can reask me questions but my success rate will be higher this time"

"no, we'll contact you in 6 months"

Well, he didn't, but that process shook me a bit.. I certainly wouldn't call it stellar, and I'm likely blacklisted from interviewing at google now as I don't think I've had recruiter spam from them in a long time.

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

#35

Post by dec0dedab0de »

hias wrote: post #20

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?

Assuming it is limited to programming topics, what if you accidentally pasted something very private while searching something programming related.

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

#36

Post by x00gler123 »

dijit wrote: post #34
discardorama wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wow, it's like they're fully aware of how poor many of their interviewing procedures have been over the years, and instead of making them more employee-friendly to compete with the rest of the industry, they'd rather just punish the employees instead. I know, anecdote, but: I went through the Google interview process not too long ago. It was stellar. None of the other places I interviewed at could even come close t…

My experience was not so stellar. Interviewer tagged me and I thought I'd go along with it for the fun. I'm a systems engineer not a developer so YMMV. First stage interviewer put me through a basic aptitude test ("what is netstat?", "what's the expected output of dig?") which was fine and I answered them all with a fair degree of correctness but the questions quickly went on to different programming languages, and w…

But how could this have been a more stellar experience for you? Should they have given you a consolidation price?

Job interviews are a business transaction (after all you are there because you want their money). Not hiring you is fair game and once they have decided/committed to pass on the opportunity it wouldn't be rational to waste money by continuing a pointless discussion.

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

#37

Post by jerf »

henpa wrote: post #4

"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. :-)

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?

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

#38

Post by throwaway9009 »

x00gler123 wrote: post #10

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 proc…

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.

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

#39

Post by mynameisvlad »

x00gler123 wrote: post #36
dijit wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience was not so stellar. Interviewer tagged me and I thought I'd go along with it for the fun. I'm a systems engineer not a developer so YMMV. First stage interviewer put me through a basic aptitude test ("what is netstat?", "what's the expected output of dig?") which was fine and I answered them all with a fair degree of correctness but the questions quickly went on to different programming languages, and w…

But how could this have been a more stellar experience for you? Should they have given you a consolidation price? Job interviews are a business transaction (after all you are there because you want their money). Not hiring you is fair game and once they have decided/committed to pass on the opportunity it wouldn't be rational to waste money by continuing a pointless discussion.

I mean, not parent commenter, but I'd expect, y'know, the recruiter to actually remember giving the exact same preliminary interview to the same candidate a week earlier.

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

#40

Post by GVIrish »

throwaway9009 wrote: post #38
x00gler123 wrote: post #10

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 proc…

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.

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)?
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