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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

#51

Post by vanusa »

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…

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.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#52

Post by pysxul »

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.

I was in the same situation. I simply asked if I could use intelliJ instead and then copy-paste everything in google doc at the end. The interviewer was ok with that.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#53

Post by cs02rm0 »

gear54rus wrote: post #5
untog wrote: post #3

I'd be curious to know if this is typical. As someone that's never interviewed at Google but idly wondered at moments if I'd ever work there this sounds hellish. Not necessarily the exercises themselves (although they seem to have nothing to do with what any developer does day-to-day), but the sheer number of them and the amount of preparation required. I already have a full time job, I don't want to take on another…

> I don't want to take on another part time job of "practicing for an interview at Google" Problem is someone else will. And there's no easy fix. If there was an easy way for a group of uncoordinated people (applicants) to coordinate against bullshit (stupid-long interviewing processes sometimes unrelated to the job and other stuff) we could solve many of this world's problems, don't you think?

>> I don't want to take on another part time job of "practicing for an interview at Google"

> Problem is someone else will. And there's no easy fix.

Isn't that... eventually... Google's problem that their interview process is putting of substantial numbers of engineers?

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#55

Post by francisofascii »

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.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#56

Post by dijit »

bowmessage wrote: post #45
OhSoHumble wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (where the interviewer got hung up on the fact that I said I would use postgres instead of making my own database Huh? Google thinks it's valuable for their SREs to be hand-writing databases in place of industry standards? SREs specifically?

They were probably looking for something non-relational, not suggesting you write your own.

The exact message I got back was "Attempted to use magic software solution", so I believe they intended for me to say "some kind of relational" or "some kind of non-relational" database and maybe some key criterion about what kind of access pattern instead of me internalising the problem and pulling out a ready-made solution.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#57

Post by hello_moto »

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 did not downvote you but ask yourself: do you want to hire a primadona candidate that thinks she/he is above the company?

Of course you'd want to hire people who want work for your company. That's call a matching-process.

Would you marry someone who's not into you?

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#59

Post by gdy »

karatestomp wrote: post #43
chrisvogt wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nit: Cialdini's Influence: Science and Practice .

Yeah, that. That's what I get for not checking my shelf first. In my defense mine's the version that at least does contain the word "persuasion" somewhere in the title, though the proper short version is still Influence . I'll leave my original post as-is as a monument to my failure.

"I'll leave my original post as-is as a monument to my failure."

I don't think anyone cares and there is no reason to make them read the wrong title.

Re: Google interviewing process for software developer role in 2020

#60

Post by cmckn »

vanusa wrote: post #51
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…

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.

Definitely -- gave me a much healthier perspective on this "tier" of tech job.
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