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My Google Interview Experience

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Re: My Google Interview Experience

#21

Post by throwawayttt »

minwcnt5 wrote: post #17

Five problems in five interviews sounds low. Obviously this is pure speculation, but perhaps the concern was that you didn't solve them fast enough. Interviewers are supposed to ask more than one technical question; the candidates I am enthusiastic about hiring tend to solve 2-3. That said, some problems are multi-facted enough that an interviewer can run with the same basic theme for the whole interview, I just thin…

I actually had a couple of interviews with more than one questions, but not others. I agree this could have been one of the reasons, but again an indication of this in the feedback could have helped.

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#22

Post by zacman85 »

As someone who was rejected by Google the first time, and hired the second time through, I went through a similar range of emotions during that first rejection. (I did not have an Ivy league education and only had a 3.2 GPA)

It was only after I was later hired into Google that I learned from my original recruiter that I had actually done quite well in my first interview process. What I did not know at the time of my rejection letter was that they had narrowed down their pool of potential applicants to about 1200 resumes for three open positions they were looking to fill. Apparently, I made it into the last round of 10-12 applicants and just did not have the experience level with the specific tools for the job as others did. Thus, I received the same rejection letter the other 1196 people received, and never even knew I did as well as I did.

My advice would be to just stay in contact and keep Google updated anytime you have something new added to your resume or skill set. Based on what you have described, it actually sounds like you might have done pretty well. There are too many factors going on behind the scenes to say one way or another why you did not make it through this time.

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#23

Post by lutorm »

cletus wrote: post #12

Hi, I am a Google engineer and have gone through the process twice (the first time unsuccessfully). It can be a frustrating and even exhausting experience so I certainly understand why you're bummed it didn't work out (I was the first time) but let me clear up a few things. You don't need to go to an Ivy League or otherwise top school (actually most of the Ivies aren't in the top CS schools). I certainly didn't. I di…

As far as releasing interview scores goes, that isn't going to happen for good reason.

This is true, but it sure would be helpful if they could give qualitative feedback like "the impression was that you were strong in a and b, but weak in x and y." That doesn't seem like too much to ask. (In fact, if he had good rapport with the recruiter I'm surprised that they didn't give that much information.)

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#24

Post by lamby »

cletus wrote: post #12

Hi, I am a Google engineer and have gone through the process twice (the first time unsuccessfully). It can be a frustrating and even exhausting experience so I certainly understand why you're bummed it didn't work out (I was the first time) but let me clear up a few things. You don't need to go to an Ivy League or otherwise top school (actually most of the Ivies aren't in the top CS schools). I certainly didn't. I di…

> You don't need to go to an Ivy League or otherwise top school [..] I didn't even go to school in the US.

Because there are no good schools outside the US?

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#25

Post by throwawayttt »

zacman85 wrote: post #22

As someone who was rejected by Google the first time, and hired the second time through, I went through a similar range of emotions during that first rejection. (I did not have an Ivy league education and only had a 3.2 GPA) It was only after I was later hired into Google that I learned from my original recruiter that I had actually done quite well in my first interview process. What I did not know at the time of my…

Wow, 1200 resumes for 3 positions, I didn't know that getting recruited by Google was that competitive, good for them that they can afford being that competitive.

Do you mind telling us if in the first interview you aced all your interviews, because I surely didn't.

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#26

Post by redguava »

"Or it could have been that I might have not paid attention to little details which I thought were not important"

I think you are underestimating the importance of this. I have hired people before and this is a critical thing I look for. Attention to detail is very important as a developer, if you don't showcase it while on your best behaviour during an interview, I would be concerned what you are like day to day.

I think as a general rule you can assume every detail is important in an interview test.

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#27

Post by robrenaud »

throwawayttt wrote: post #20
killedbydeath wrote: post #18

Not sure if this helps, but as an interviewer I found "masters in computer science from a within top 50 state university in US" to be very weak signal of programming skills. Many candidates from schools which I would consider to be top 20 (like USC) even could not even get past a simple programming question a la "fizzbuzz" test. I would probably trust 5-10 US schools, but it seems for many American universities Maste…

Does being at the top of your class in one of the Top 50 Universities in the nation, with a near perfect GPA matter? I actually liked the CS program at my university, and being a state university the fees were pretty low compared to other universities, so I wouldn't call it a money making machine.

Honestly, if you want to do well on Google interviews, do enough Topcoder until you hit something like a 1500 rating steadily, and then I am pretty sure you'll make it through the interview.

Google style interviews are about being able to solve and code the solution to small, well defined problems quickly and correctly. This is really only tangentially related to being a good software engineer, where problems are not very small or well defined, and you are often working with large, complicated existing code bases. The interview process is not a great measure, it's just the best thing Google has come up with.

On the other hand, the interview process is basically the same exact thing that Topcoder is testing.

I had a high GPA from a probably not quite top 50 university (Rutgers) and got into Google. I saw a friend of mine with a perfect 4.0 GPA get rejected. I am sure you have the aptitude to get hired, you just need better luck or better training.

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#28

Post by bmj »

cletus wrote: post #12

Hi, I am a Google engineer and have gone through the process twice (the first time unsuccessfully). It can be a frustrating and even exhausting experience so I certainly understand why you're bummed it didn't work out (I was the first time) but let me clear up a few things. You don't need to go to an Ivy League or otherwise top school (actually most of the Ivies aren't in the top CS schools). I certainly didn't. I di…

I would suggest that anyone who wants to apply have someone within the company refer you. For one thing they'll be able to guide you through the process better and (hopefully) set your expectations correctly.

I want to underscore this. I have two friends (who didn't know each other), one who works at Google, another who applied at Google. The applicant had a similar experience (though he had two sets of phone interviews, since he wasn't in town), and he didn't get an offer. My Googler friend, however, was able to provide very good feedback, and the applicant walked away feeling motivated to try again in 6-12 months.

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#29

Post by eta_carinae »

Google employee here. Let me clear something for you: your rejection has nothing, repeat nothing, to do with your education.

As for not giving feedback, like you hinted, it's purely for legal reasons. It sucks, but that's how things work in the US.

Re: My Google Interview Experience

#30

Post by mdwrigh2 »

throwawayttt wrote: post #15
cletus wrote: post #12

Hi, I am a Google engineer and have gone through the process twice (the first time unsuccessfully). It can be a frustrating and even exhausting experience so I certainly understand why you're bummed it didn't work out (I was the first time) but let me clear up a few things. You don't need to go to an Ivy League or otherwise top school (actually most of the Ivies aren't in the top CS schools). I certainly didn't. I di…

Thanks Cletus for taking the time to write that up. That really makes me feel better and provides somewhat more insight into the process. My 5 years of experience was actually divided like 3 between Masters and Bachelors and 2 after Masters here in US, so I thought my Masters grade would matter. My interviews were 3 before lunch and 2 after. Lunch was good :). The interview conductor asked for references multiple tim…

> So what you are saying is that for me to not have made it through I must have equally messed all my interviews or at least a majority of them. I surely didn't feel like that after the interview, but who knows, since I still don't have a way to know if that is the case. Then this really sucks.

No, I don't believe that's what he's saying at all. All he's saying is that without knowing the past scoring of the interviewers, and the scores of other interview candidates, the numbers are meaningless. I could rate you a 6 on a scale of 1 - 10. This seems fairly average at first glance, but perhaps my median interview score is a 3. Now it's starting to look pretty good.

Nowhere in there did he say that you have to do poorly with all interviewers, or even most, just that they won't release numbers because without extra information those numbers are meaningless.

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