261–270 of 359 posts
I do enjoy this author's flagrant disregard for Google's NDA they require you to sign and promise not to discuss the interview questions. I'm curious if they'll enforce it. For what it's worth, my one experience with Google recruiting last year was the polar opposite. They were curious and professional, of more knowledgeable recruiters I've dealt with, and timely in scheduling interviews. I had my first and only phon…
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> Linked list questions are a favored choice of this class of interviewer despite the fact that 90%+ of programmers will never have a good reason to write a linked list - or even use one, for that matter. If you can't write basic algorithms to manipulate linked lists (traversal, reversal, etc) on demand, you almost certainly aren't a good coder. These kinds of questions are a good weed-out pass. They don't correlate…
> You shouldn't be expected to know Floyd's algorithm And yet it's a somewhat common interview question
A year later, I'm asking the question. I obviously don't hold it against interviewees if they don't know the answer. I see it is a "bonus points" question, not one that will make/break my opinion of a candidate.
Asking about cycle detection in linked lists can be informational even if the candidate doesn't know Floyd's algorithm. Like simpler questions, often the interviewee's thought process is more important than their final answer.
An acquaintance of mine applied for a product management job, did two interviews in NY that went fine, then was flown out to MTV for a series of interviews. When this person got there, two of the people they were supposed to meet with were traveling on business and hadn't notified the recruiter. A third was out sick. The supposed-to-be fourth, now first interview walked into the room and said, "Look, I don't have any…
It's not any better if you get hired. Google recruiters will tell you whatever you want to hear, including things that are not necessarily true. I was assured that a minor issue in my background would not be an issue multiple times (I have email proving this), then Google hired me and let me work for more than two months. I got comfortable, I moved to Mountain View, began real honest work and set about making an impa…
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Another incident demonstrating that "the system" (more than just the criminal justice system, as it extends to subsequent civil and commercial life) is neither about justice nor about rehabilitation. A further corruption: I've read that, even when there is a will to "take a chance" (aka employ and treat as a member of society) people with a criminal record, businesses can face obstacles -- sometimes insurmountable, f…
> One particular one: Insurance companies audit for such employees, and either cancel insurance or raise it to unaffordable rates. Never been to the States, but shouldn't there be a law against this?
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It's not any better if you get hired. Google recruiters will tell you whatever you want to hear, including things that are not necessarily true. I was assured that a minor issue in my background would not be an issue multiple times (I have email proving this), then Google hired me and let me work for more than two months. I got comfortable, I moved to Mountain View, began real honest work and set about making an impa…
Sorry. Does google do something like a 6mo probationary period? Did yo have to return things like signing bonus or relocation expenses provided by google? Did they offer some settlement?
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I've interviewed at and worked for a number very very large companies before, and none of them have been as disrespectful at interviewing and hiring as Google sounds from these stories. I'm not defending this practice at all, but I think I can understand it. It sounds like the typical problems involved in scheduling 10 people to all perform together at once. Nobody can prevent people from getting sick. Going out of t…
> As for the calculus interview, that sounds like fair game. PMs are supposed to have some PM interviews and some SWE interviews, and math is a perfectly acceptable area to ask SWE candidates I upvoted you because it's not fair to down-vote people who are on topic, but you're not correct when you assume that of all things calculus (!?) should have anything to do with hiring a PM. I honestly fail to see how solving so…
The OP says his friend was interviewing for "product manager", which is not that. Product management is basically coming up with ideas for new products and seeing them through to the end. That includes helping design the actual computer program, which is why they ask software engineering questions.
(There are a ton of jobs called "PM", but they're all very different. None of them manage engineers, though, that's just "Manager" or "TLM".)
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And blacklist myself entirely from this career? This throwaway comment is pushing it already in terms of burning bridges, not to mention getting fired from Google itself after my extended network congratulated me on the position. Who, in this incestuous valley, would hire the guy that sued Google for an employment issue? I've seen it happen, no way. Right to work, too, sigh. To be clear I moved from the Oakland area…
If you have the evidence you say you have, I'd bet a good attorney could get mid-five figures out of them along with an agreement not to disclose the settlement. I don't see what harm there would be in getting a professional opinion, anyway.
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Because then your interviewer does a hatchet-job on you in a feedback form and you get shitlisted from interviewing at Google forever. That's the problem with large companies. There are companies where I would just walk out of an abusive interview, because the brokenness represents their whole company. Then you have massive, mega, ultra-sized companies like Google where even though this particular team is beating you…
Funny that there seems to be a consensus that Google can effectively black-list people, and yet it seems they can't even keep track of who they are supposed to actually interview or who they have previously contacted about interviewing.
If you are scheduled, many people must refrain from screwing up.
It even took them months to figure out that they hired an ex convict, after he personally disclosed the fact multiple times.
I had great hopes for Google to innovate in sense of culture. I saw Larry Page and Sergey Brin as intellectuals. Turns out they just went and built a high school elite club, for geeks. Another bloated company ran by a corps of smug geeks that like to claim how they are holier than thou.
I am really sad about it.
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It's not any better if you get hired. Google recruiters will tell you whatever you want to hear, including things that are not necessarily true. I was assured that a minor issue in my background would not be an issue multiple times (I have email proving this), then Google hired me and let me work for more than two months. I got comfortable, I moved to Mountain View, began real honest work and set about making an impa…
It may have been a good idea to try to get them to acknowledge your prior issue as insufficient grounds for firing in your contract.
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If you have the evidence you say you have, I'd bet a good attorney could get mid-five figures out of them along with an agreement not to disclose the settlement. I don't see what harm there would be in getting a professional opinion, anyway.
I've never been in the GP's position, but my thoughts on such things have always been that there's usually not much point in suing your current or former employer, barring something really extreme that somehow cost you 6 figures or more. The only real upside to it is a one-time payment of a few tens of thousands, which sounds like a few months of salary at any company in the industry. Why spend the time with lawyers…
It's just not worth it, and they know that, which is why they treated me like shit.