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Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

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Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#371

Post by rkagerer »

After several months of interviewing, I understood that Google is just another big enterprise company that has all these bureaucracy problems, opaque processes and weird rules.

I interviewed Google twice in the last 15 years. Flew out to Mountain View both occasions. Definitely sensed more of the above sentiment the second time around. Judging from (the admittedly small dataset of) this article and some of the comments here, I guess it's gotten worse.

Don't feel bad. It sounds like you'll have a lot more fun and runway for meaningful accomplishment along the route you've chosen to pursue.

I have no qualms with googlers - I interact with a lot of them at I/O every year and it's a blast. But at an institutional level the company was a lot more humble back in the day (and incidentally, more deserving of the high-caliber reputation they now take for granted).

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#372

Post by corporateslave5 »

spapin wrote: post #185
max_velikanski wrote: post #176

Indians occupy most of the management positions in FAANG, and even though developers from other races/groups do very well during the interview process(I participated in), they barely pass, because they are not from the chosen race. I would be highly surprised if Management in FAANG is not at least 80% of Indians, so please don't even bother applying here (yep, worked for AA and now G).

You probably didn't intend to sound so racist. You participated in the process and you discriminated based on race? You aren't Indian, yet you still got hired? What's your point?

It’s not racist just pointing it out

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#373

Post by Infinitesimus »

mav3rick wrote: post #367
Infinitesimus wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's not what the company is hiring for: it wants engineers who are comfortable with complexity, whether measured in technical challenge (Tensorflow, Dart etc.), robustness (cloud, GSuite) or extreme scalability (Gmail, ads, search etc.) How confident are you about that assertion? A lot of Googlers are doing generic web/app work that happens elsewhere from those I've talked to. Not HQ tho so maybe it's different…

No no one is writing basic CRUD apps at Google. At that scale there are optimizations needed at every level. I know people who work on the cutsom kernel for the servers to front end people for apps.

Since we're on anecdotes: I've interviewed people who wanted to leave Google because they were bored of not having any interesting work to do.

If you truly believe that "no one is writing basic CRUD apps at Google", then their marketing has been incredibly effective and explains why their interview process remains the way it is

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#374

Post by rimliu »

cflewis wrote: post #90

Alright, so Mountain View is waking up now and you'll get comments from Googlers, so here is mine. DISCLAIMERS: 1. I work for Google, but these opinions are mine. 2. Everyone at Google is expected to interview, but I no longer do, and have not for two or three years. I have a medical exemption because for anxiety. Trust me, I know just as much as any candidate how stressful it is to be in that room. 3. I interviewed…

Sorry, but the combination of the two main goals seems moronic. There is no way to have a pleasant process for anyone who happens to be "false negative".

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#375

Post by francisofascii »

dijit wrote: post #194
francisofascii wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A whiteboard isn't auto-"correcting" me and capitalising my start of lines though.

True. The Google interviewer should have those two settings turned off.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#377

Post by Diederich »

akincisor wrote: post #358
Diederich wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask: why did you work for Google a second time? Thanks.

The first time I was a new (post) grad and I didn't much like it and left for a startup within a year. I figured I'd give it another go with more experience, so the second time I was hired at L5 (expected to be leading teams). Liked it even less the second time, but stuck around for about 2 years for logistical reasons. In my experience at Google and other large companies, the team you join ends up dictating your exp…

Thank you, that was pretty interesting.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#378

Post by dkdk8283 »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #167
fierarul wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evidently, the interviewee didn't meet just any Googler, he met the outlier, the only one unhappy there! Humans don't work like that. That single data point and the experience he had allows quite some generalization. Maybe this isn't how you build a ML model, but that ML model won't work very well when interacting with other people.

I guess I'd have to say that single data point only really allows for the generalization that some people are unhappy at Google. I think it's probably quite a few but that's just my suspicion, the single data point isn't enough to go on.

Unhappy enough to reveal it at an inappropriate time: during an interview.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#379

Post by Pinckney »

_throwawayyyyyy wrote: post #72
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.

one of my in-person interviewers at Google forgot they had to do this - I spent like 38 minutes of our interview whiteboarding and then he said, "oh crap you're supposed to do this on the computer" - i furiously typed for a few minutes to try to replicate what i'd done. when i later talked to HR there was no mention of this in the interviewer's report.

That really sucks. They're supposed to just take a photo of the board and transcribe it later. I never touched a computer when I interviewed.

When was this? I think the chromebooks are fairly new in interviews, and it sounds like the interviewer didn't read the memo about how it works.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#380

Post by PretzelFisch »

wyclif wrote: post #369
dijit wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god. the auto caps is just the beginning, auto-correct is not your friend. And they expected to be able to run the resulting code afterwards!

I'm curious, why wouldn't they let you just write it in Vim, Emacs, or even VSCode?

With google doc, they see you while you edit. There are other third parties that provide pretty good shared editors for this, but this is Google and tradition. I have always felt there 90% the interview process is a form of hazing.
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