Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

Post by diego » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 10:16 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #180

diego wrote: post #40

Google wants people who are desperate to work at Google. The plus (for them) of getting someone to invest so much effort into getting in means that they will be committed for a while because of the sunk costs / defeated ultimate boss effect. Luckily there is a large supply of those people for now. They won't change their interview process until this stops being the case. Edit: I guess someone at Google didn't like th…

I just don't think that's true. If people worked there because they were desperate to work there, they wouldn't pay industry-leading salaries.

Post by dijit » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 10:21 PM UTC

francisofascii wrote: post #55

falcolas wrote: post #44

The biggest WTF I got out of this was: Writing code and tests in a Google Doc. I can't think of a much less friendly environment to write code in, except perhaps Notepad. I did it once (for an intra-company interview), and it was nasty to deal with. The WTF in second place was a blind requirement to know the mechanics behind a somewhat niche game that was big two years ago.

A Google doc certainly beats coding on a whiteboard or a stack of printer paper.

Post by TurkishPoptart » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

justbees wrote: post #131

cmckn wrote: post #36

I interviewed with Google last spring. My experience was different, but about as disappointing. I applied for a job, and received an out-of-the-blue email from a recruiter about a different job a couple months later (my resume must have landed in some "recent" bucket). The position was in Google Cloud. I was frustrated by the "you'll talk to a team after you've passed 100 hurdles" nonsense. I had one phone screen wit…

Ok, completely different take! I also interviewed there last spring, but I thought it was super positive, even though I didn't get the job. I had to push myself really hard to get the onsite and I think that was beneficial to me. I have no computer science background at all and it forced me to prep intensively between interviews. So, I kind of went into it figuring I probably wouldn't get it but who knows and that it…

Post by gregory144 » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 10:32 PM UTC

Domenic_S wrote: post #162

JDiculous wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok let's say you make $300k/yr at a FAANG. Lose 40% to taxes and you're looking at $180k/yr. Living in SV your expenses will roughly be at least $45k/yr. So you save $135k/yr (180 - 45). That's great, but a far cry from being a millionaire in just a few years. Of course as you get promoted your comp increases, hitting $500k gross at L5, but that takes more than a couple years to achieve.

If you're losing 40% to taxes you're doing it wrong. Also, stock appreciation. A $500k grant last year is worth $640k this year.

Post by paulie_a » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #68

vanusa wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My "lunch interviewer" complained about the bureaucracy and said he was looking for another job after being there for ~18 months. Actually (with that) he wasn't being an asshole; he was doing you a favor. In revealing to you, quite candidly, just how disappointing the Google experience evidently is for a considerable portion of engineers.

Bias up front: I work at Google. > evidently is for a considerable portion of engineers. I only see evidence that the experience was disappointing for a single Googler, the lunch interviewer, not "a considerable portion" of them. The interviewer's data point is certainly valid, but it's not clear to me how much you can generalize it.