Live data from Hacker News

Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

habr.com

241–250 of 422 posts

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for writing such a detailed response. I appreciate it as someone who had interviews with Google 2 times (first one pass phone but failed onsite, the second one failed on phone but that was primarily because I wasn't in a good condition mentally during that time so that was on me). I've heard and witnessed a couple people that I know who actually got into roles at Google (also FB, Amazon) but were not techni…

Unfortunately sometimes it's just the luck of the draw on who you got as your interviewer. Remember that it is expected for false negatives so it is totally normal to just apply again in a year. The thing you can do to help yourself is to study; there are only so many problems you can be asked. Most candidates don't. That gets you a lot of the way there. I used "Cracking the Coding Interview". You are doing the right…

Thank you for the answer. I've been studying a lot, Leetcoding like crazy but lucky cases like that just demoralizes me.

Anyway, I guess what I can keep trying is to roll the dice. Thank you for the answer, it motivated me.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#242
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

right, but federal, state, and FICA is still less than 40%

Not really. That's about what I paid last year.

It's about 38% last year on that gross, as I noted elsewhere (including FICA and state). But assuming no 401(k) or match isn't realistic either so it's actually lower.

I'm not really sure why you keep pushing back on all of this. It's just how the math works.

The short version is, if you make $300k year if you are careful with the money you can have 1 million in savings in (conservatively) 6-8 years just by doing the obvious things, assuming reasonably similar market conditions.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#243
I know it isn't perfect, but I personally am a huge fan of Google's interview process. It's a boon to people switching careers because data structures and algorithms can be studied without any professional experience. Behavioral interviews and GitHub portfolios are biased towards those with previous experience and internships, which many of us never have the opportunity to do.

After leaving graduate school (not CS), every startup expected me to magically know how to be a professional software engineer, and I found Google to be the only company willing to hire and teach me. If the goal is to bring together smart people with diverse academic backgrounds, I find that Google's process is rather successful.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#244
Man what a stark contrast to how my Netflix interview went. I was contacted directly by the hiring manager, three days later I was onsite for the phase one interview, three days later I was onsite for the second phase, and I had a verbal offer on my way out the door (for more than I asked for).

Came back a week later to sign the paperwork after I emailed with the recruiter a few times about offer details. Started a week after that. (And then went on a one week vacation after working for only two weeks and got paid for it, because it was already scheduled).

And this wasn't an outlier. Pretty much everyone we hired had a similar timeline. Sometimes the candidates made us wait for an answer because we were so quick that they hadn't even had their first round at Google.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#245

Every time this topic comes out, I can't help but think that the majority of comments show some degree of confirmation bias. What's missing from the conversation are the perspectives of those who had a positive interview experience... Without that, the conversation doesn't have quite so much education value.

> What's missing from the conversation are the perspectives of those who had a positive interview experience...

Maybe these positives perspective are drowned out by the sheer amount of negative perspectives?

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#246

Man what a stark contrast to how my Netflix interview went. I was contacted directly by the hiring manager, three days later I was onsite for the phase one interview, three days later I was onsite for the second phase, and I had a verbal offer on my way out the door (for more than I asked for). Came back a week later to sign the paperwork after I emailed with the recruiter a few times about offer details. Started a w…

May I ask: roughly what year was that?

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What was the job? I only hear about people with comp sci backgrounds getting hired there.

I did not study CompSci but microengineering (mix of things, including robotics and manufacturing) and I am now working there as a SRE. Some colleagues are mathematicians. So definitely not only CS background :)

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all honesty, there are not that many "bog standard SDEs" at Google. 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.) A PhD is clearly not the only path to that skillset, but it's not unusual either. Separately, I'm sorry the o…

This may have been true 15 years ago when they were a small company. Google now employs ~60K engineers and the majority of them are "Bog Standard". Disclosure: I worked at Google twice.

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

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#249

Man what a stark contrast to how my Netflix interview went. I was contacted directly by the hiring manager, three days later I was onsite for the phase one interview, three days later I was onsite for the second phase, and I had a verbal offer on my way out the door (for more than I asked for). Came back a week later to sign the paperwork after I emailed with the recruiter a few times about offer details. Started a w…

You are a fairly well known dev. That certainly opens doors.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#250

Man what a stark contrast to how my Netflix interview went. I was contacted directly by the hiring manager, three days later I was onsite for the phase one interview, three days later I was onsite for the second phase, and I had a verbal offer on my way out the door (for more than I asked for). Came back a week later to sign the paperwork after I emailed with the recruiter a few times about offer details. Started a w…

Netflix is known for being speedy with hiring because they are also speedy with firing under performers.

So they see hiring as a relatively low risk proposition and will make decisions faster since the long term effects are greatly lessened.

Post reply on HN