Google AdWords Associate Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated Jan 11, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 14 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 14 ratings
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| 1–10 of 14 Google Interviews | Sort by |
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Jan 11, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jun 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 6 weeks)
I had one phone interview asking about my interest in the position, and they went over my resume in great detail. The next phone interview was scheduled with the manager of the position I was applying for, and we talked more about the position and he asked me some logic questions (how many houses are painted red in Canada?, etc). The talk went well, and he said that it looked like I had a good resume to match the position. An on site interview was scheduled for three weeks away, and I asked for the day off work ahead of time, and read up on AdWords and AdSense extensively, but then on the day before the interview, they called to say that it had to be cancelled because of a recent staff meeting with senior management, and that they no longer wanted to fill the open position. It was very unexpected, and I was bummed out after all the planning ahead for this interview, but that's life! They were very apologetic about it, and everyone I talked to throughout the process was professional and sounded like a good person, so I'm planning on trying again if the opening ever comes up again, or something similar to it.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Aug 29, 2011 — 1 of 2 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jun 2011 (took 6 weeks)
I applied online, and was contacted by HR via mail.In a week I had my first phone interview, then they have arranged the second phone interview. Questions were about my education, working experience, what would I do in certain situations. Recruiters were helpful, I feel stressed at the beginning, but they made everything possible to calm me down.
And then I went to the on-site interview, I had 3 interviews, 35-45 minutes each. Didn't get an offer.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted May 14, 2011 — 2 of 2 people found this helpful
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2011 (took 4 weeks)
A job interview is usually a dull affair, but not at Google. After a very strange, exhausting, sometimes entertaining interview, I feel the need to speak out about this ineffective hiring process in hopes of helping Google and their hires. It was a big dream of mine to work here but after the interview process and seeing it in person, it didn't look much greener than my current job.
First, I submitted a resume online. About a week later I got an email back about a different job than the one I applied to. The email asked when I'd be available to talk and what my overall GPA was. I didn't hear back for a week so I shot another email finally getting a response. Then I talked to the hiring manager about a week after that. By this time, I already had a bunch of other interviews with other companies in my pocket. The phone interview was 30 min, and consisted of about 5-6 IQ/ case questions and about 1-2 questions about my interest level. I studied for about 1 week total, brushing up on all my industry news and Google product knowledge, so I aced these questions. The interviewer responded without feedback, except to say "interesting" here and there. The job itself was barely explained.
Within a day or so, I got word that I was going to the Google headquarters. I was asked to fill out official job forms, GPA info (they are obsessed in knowing your GPA despite the fact that I graduated well over 5 years ago). They set up my schedule and logistics, paying for everything. The entire process, including finding your way thru the Googleplex seemed like a huge IQ test. The Googleplex itself looked like a mix between an engineering grad school and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory- it's very whimsical and spread out across many buildings. Colored tricycles everywhere gave a strange impression. I met with my recruiter and had no idea who I was meeting with next.
I cannot talk about what happened next because they made me sign a ND agreement (very odd). During the ENTIRE process, I was not asked one question about my skills or experience. The interviews are not done in a conversational style, rather like a spoken timed math test you cant study for. The interviewers try to "stump" you with silly questions, most irrelevant to the job, to make themselves seem smarter. Depending on the luck of the draw, you may be given an easier question and be able to get through the rounds of these interviews. There's no anticipating what will be asked, you just have to think on your toes and BS. Many of these questions require lots of thought and meditation before answering though. This company tries hard to be anti corporate, when in fact this is the closest thing I've gotten to a consulting interview. I'm glad I went though, because now I see what they are really like. I hope they can make their hiring process better, there's lots of room for improvement and they are turning off a lot of talented potential hires.
Interview Questions
Reason for Declining
Job ended up being salesy and ambiguous, the company seemed cult-like (secrecy, strange initiation/interview process), the interviewers were pretentious, and they didn't ask me anything technical or anything about my skills.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and an IQ/Intelligence Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Apr 20, 2011 — 2 of 2 people found this helpful
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2010 (took 3 months)
Looking for Ivy leaguers and high GPA
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, an IQ/Intelligence Test and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Apr 8, 2011 — 1 of 2 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 6+ weeks)
Interviewing with Google was a great experience. I should first say, I was first contacted for a phone interview after submitting my resume internally through someone I know there. This is a great way to get noticed. Anyways, the first phone interview was pretty standard, and I got along well with the recruiter. She was pretty hard to understand on the phone. I was invited to interview on-site in Mountain View during the same conversation! I was surprised, but rolled with it.
They flew me out to Mountain View, and they payed for flight/rental car/hotel/generous amount of food every day. It was awesome. The interviews were not too hard. I wasn't asked any of these "brain teaser" questions you read about all the time, although some of the questions did test your ability to think reactively and quickly. My strong point was expressing my personality, interest in the position, and fit for the culture. If you've made it this far, there's no question you're qualified already. Just be excited about it and be yourself.
After four 30 minute interviews, I left Mountain View and 3 days later was contacted by the recruiter saying the team liked me and wanted to move forward with me. Now, I thought that an offer was coming, but I was wrong. The recruiter asks you to prepare some notes for her on all sorts of questions, such as your accomplishments, hobbies, experiences, and leadership examples. The idea is to get a sense of how "google" you are. Then, the recruiter contacted all my references and put together a packet of everything my references, I, and the inteviewing team said about me. She then submitted this packet to Corporate, which then gave the "approval" to give me an offer 2 weeks later. All said and done, the process took like 1 and a half to two months.
Overall: I think the "hype" surrounding the Google interview process, at least for this position in particular, isn't appropriate. Getting contacted in the first place is half the battle. From there on out, it's all about being cool, having concrete examples of your experience/leadership, and being able to relate and be friendly with the Google people. Just enjoy the ride.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
Not able to negotiate salary, able to negotiate start date.
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Skills Test and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
View Comments (1)
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Mar 21, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2011 in Dublin, County Dublin (Ireland) (took 3 months)
I applied online and a few months later, I was contacted with a Google recruiter by phone. She asked a few questions, lasting about 15 minutes and a few days later, another person from Google called me and we had a 30 min interview. That one was easy, more like a conversation, she asked a few things about my education and experience background and a few basic interview questions about different kinds of situations, team work and so on. A few days later they called me for an on-site interview. They paid for everything, my plane ticket and the hotel. On-site I had 4 interviews, one lasting 45 min and the three other ones lasting for 30 min. The first one was the most difficult one, with my future boss. He was asking all kinds of questions, relevant ones and irrelevant, analytical questions too. Sometimes he wanted so much details that it was ridicilous. And a lot of questions were about my past work experience, how I handled dif.kinds of situations, teamwork, my successes, creative ideas, how was I processing and so on. We also did a customer - salesperson game play, so they can see your skills. The other 3 interviews were by younger people and easier. I thought I did ok, but I guess I didn't do so well, as they didn't hire me. They didn't even answer, I had to contact them and then the recruiter told me - It has no sense to drag this any longer (like they already knew I didn't get the job a lot of time before).. and that they were very impressed by my performance (yeah right) and a few other, typical stuff.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Feb 2, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2010 in Dublin, County Dublin (Ireland) (took 3 months)
The most ridiculously drawn out interview process ever. I went through 14 interviews, realized people who work at Google are not all that brilliant, it's mostly self-aggrandized employees. As a non-engineer I found the salary offer insultingly low, lower than average pay for someone with that level of education and when I tried to negotiate salary they were not willing to budge. It took me three months to get passed all the interviews and an incredibly lengthy process that involves passing your papers on to Mountain View even if your interviews are in another country. Incredibly bureaucratic and the perks are not that great, my recruiter kept talking about the free food and massages to compensate for the low salary and it felt like their tag-line was "we're Google -- of course you want to work for us!". My advice, don't buy into the hype if you're a non-engineer, you can do better!
Reason for Declining
Salary was too low -- the interviews were not difficult but incredibly time consuming and laborious and a very slow and bureaucratic process to push through a lot of paper work, after passing the 14 interviews i had to do an "executive summary" which is basically summing up all my skills, this is after two writing assessments and another written test prior to the interviews -- just a massive load of time wasted and not worth the salary offer! Also the stock options were very measly and unimpressive! So much for buying into the hype and their aggrandized self image!
I would say the interview process was difficult because of the time consumption and frustration of pushing through and keeping the energy up for so long with a disappointing end offer! Formed a very bad opinion of them as I realized they are a massive soulless corporation that does not value the worth of an individual who is non-Eng! also, they really only care about money "don't be evil" is a fallacy, it's only about the bottom-line.
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Skills Test and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Dec 15, 2010
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took 2 months)
The interview process was expectedly more tedious than most, but is not as bad as many claim it to be in terms of transparency, efficiency, and feedback, at least for my particular case. Aside from a non-functional archaic PDF employment application that wasn't compatible with Adobe (how ironic) and some constant probing of timeframes and interview logistics on my part, the experience was quite acceptable. I mean give em' a break, they are hiring hundreds of people a month...
First round interviews were conducted at my university's career center after I applied through online recruiting. It consisted of two back-to-back behavioral interviews with individuals from the Adwords team. Great experience, as I came prepared (read two or three books on Adwords and Online advertising). There was one quick mini-case question that Google likes to throw out every once in a while, but there is no right answer and it was actually a very reasonable one. I got called back the next day for a second round interview (very speedy).
Getting all the information and logistics ready for the second round interview was another story. After receiving the e-mail notifying me of my second round interview (no date, no time, no other information), I was in the dark for about three weeks. I repeatedly sent e-mails to the recruiters and finally got the logistics together. Hotels kept changing, but you do get a generous room service allowance!
The second round interviews were on-site. Shuttle picked us up from the hotel. You get placed with a group of other applicants (for the same or different position). They probably have one of these group interview days about every week. Spent nearly half a day there, doing the usual Google tour, meeting with some recruiters, asking questions ect. The interview was again another 2 back to back behavioral interviews with a couple of mini-cases about internet market sizing, how would you sell Adwords, ect. Again, nothing too out of the ordinary if you did you homework and can demonstrate a clear thinking process. Ate lunch at one of the gazillion cafeterias, had some small parting gifts, and off we went. Nice and smart people, but it seemed like the engineers definitely ran the show at Google.
Here is where the curveball was thrown. I was informed a week or two later that they thought I was more fit for another position (also within Adwords) and asked if I was still interested. Of course I agreed and we proceeded to reset the process all over again. Couple of weeks after another phone interview, I was given given the offer.
Overall it was an acceptable experience. The fact that it was with Google probably helped in keeping me excited and raising my patience level.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Oct 29, 2010
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took 6 months)
Very difficult interview. The brain teaser was definitely an experience I would like to forget. The process of hiring was long and dragged out. (Was strung along for 6 months before I got a "no") Look elsewhere. If you think this is the norm for Silicon Valley, think again.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Aug 22, 2010
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2010 in Dublin, County Dublin (Ireland) (took 5 days)
I submitted my application online and was contacted by e-mail a week later. They asked me to fill a second application by e-mail that contained answers to some questions they had. After that I had a phone interview. The interview went smoothly and the HR person was very friendly. She asked general questions about my background and why I want to join Google. I did not, however, advance to the second level.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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