I've been through a couple of Google interviews. My last one, I didn't even apply for, they contacted me a couple of months ago, asking if I wanted to interview. Why the heck not. I guess my previous interview was good enough such that they didn't require a phone interview, so I skipped that. Although it's perfectly reasonable to think that they were just trying to hurry the process up for everyone so that's why they had me skip the phone interview, and there was nothing particularly special about me.
I had 5 interviews, and I didn't end up getting the job. I didn't do that great, and I knew it. I spent 2 weeks preparing and covered what I thought were my weak points, and still of the 5 interviews, 1 I nailed, 2 I did pretty good, and 2 I did just okay on, but not horrible.
I can understand why this got me rejected, though. I'm not whining that it's not fair, because obviously they have a particular type of person they want to hire, and I didn't fulfill the qualifications. I think I'm pretty smart with pretty good experience, but nothing entitles me to a job anywhere, especially at Google. The questions were extremely hard, but fair, because as I said, I guess they're trying to hire candidates who can answer them.
The thing I didn't like, however, was how some of the interviews were conducted. One in particular was a guy who asked me a fairly hard question, something that I hadn't seen before, and I was stumped for a bit, so I wanted a couple of minutes to think it through in my head. As I was trying to answer it on the whiteboard, he kept interrupting me, and kept steering me to HIS solution, not my solution. So because it wasn't my solution, I kept on trying to guess at what he was trying to say, and because of that I didn't have the benefit of having thought through it completely. This meant that I had a couple of bugs in my solution, because I spent most of the time trying to figure out where he was steering me to, and I didn't get the benefit of having thought through the process in my own way, where I probably would have caught the bugs.
It was also obvious from his tone that he was annoyed at having to provide me with the answer that he wanted to hear me say. This left a rather bitter taste in my mouth.
I would rather have finished the interview with a completely blank whiteboard because I was totally stumped, rather than play mind-reader and trying to guess at what the interview was pushing me towards. At least a blank whiteboard would have been a more accurate portrayal of my answer, instead of some half-baked solution because the interviewer kept pushing me towards a solution that I didn't get enough time to think through.
Try again next year. Consider the math (not exactly how it works, but you'll get the idea):
A job offer depends on 5 flawlessly decided "hire" votes. A mere 5% of interviews are flawed due to interviewer weaknesses (poor training, bad attitude, bad day) or miscommunications. What are the chances that a desirable candidate gets an incorrectly decided "no-offer" result?
I had 5 interviews, and I didn't end up getting the job. I didn't do that great, and I knew it. I spent 2 weeks preparing and covered what I thought were my weak points, and still of the 5 interviews, 1 I nailed, 2 I did pretty good, and 2 I did just okay on, but not horrible.
I can understand why this got me rejected, though. I'm not whining that it's not fair, because obviously they have a particular type of person they want to hire, and I didn't fulfill the qualifications. I think I'm pretty smart with pretty good experience, but nothing entitles me to a job anywhere, especially at Google. The questions were extremely hard, but fair, because as I said, I guess they're trying to hire candidates who can answer them.
The thing I didn't like, however, was how some of the interviews were conducted. One in particular was a guy who asked me a fairly hard question, something that I hadn't seen before, and I was stumped for a bit, so I wanted a couple of minutes to think it through in my head. As I was trying to answer it on the whiteboard, he kept interrupting me, and kept steering me to HIS solution, not my solution. So because it wasn't my solution, I kept on trying to guess at what he was trying to say, and because of that I didn't have the benefit of having thought through it completely. This meant that I had a couple of bugs in my solution, because I spent most of the time trying to figure out where he was steering me to, and I didn't get the benefit of having thought through the process in my own way, where I probably would have caught the bugs.
It was also obvious from his tone that he was annoyed at having to provide me with the answer that he wanted to hear me say. This left a rather bitter taste in my mouth.
I would rather have finished the interview with a completely blank whiteboard because I was totally stumped, rather than play mind-reader and trying to guess at what the interview was pushing me towards. At least a blank whiteboard would have been a more accurate portrayal of my answer, instead of some half-baked solution because the interviewer kept pushing me towards a solution that I didn't get enough time to think through.