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Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.

Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 3 ratings

3.3

“Average” Interview

Interview Experience [?] Based on 3 ratings

Positive	33%
Neutral	33%
Negative	33%

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4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Apr 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 2 months)

The interviews consisted of a HR phone screening, phone interviews with other engineers, and finally an on-site panel interview.

Interview Questions

Describe the difference between TCP and UDP

Answer Question

Negotiation Details

I was not able to negotiate anything, including starting salary or bonus. This was incredibly frustrating, and I had several other job offers come through soon after I accepted, all of which had far better compensation. Ultimately I still stuck with Google due to my belief that it held the greatest prospects for career development. Time will tell if this was the right choice.

Other Details

The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, a Presentation, a Skills Test and a Background Check.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Received and Declined Offer

Interviewed Mar 2011 (took 4 weeks)

I was contacted by a Google recruiter through LinkedIn - he was very persuasive, and encouraged me to send them my CV, saying I was a great match for this role, having nearly 10 years of experience. Having sent my CV over, I then received a list of questions to answer - this is really hard to describe but it was incredibly patronising, so much so that I actually phoned the recruiter to ask if there'd been a mistake, as most of the questions were aimed at someone coming straight out of college/uni (including 'have you ever had a job before?). There were literally NO questions about your experience, why you thought you were a good match for the role, none of the normal stuff, just baby questions. Except for the end one: what makes you special? i.e. what makes you think you're interesting enough to work at Google. This one, I had fun with!

This must have gone well, as I was invited to a phone interview. I shan't name the person in question, but they were fairly senior management. At the appointed time, I was ready by the phone, having spent the whole weekend studying up on the right technologies. After 60 minutes had ticked past I was, frankly, pretty annoyed. No explanation or apology was ever received from this person for failing to turn up for the interview, which I thought was deeply arrogant. The recruiter was very embarrassed, however, I got the distinct impression this is *not* a rare occurrence, and they organised another date, with a different person.

Now to the good stuff: I had a wonderful phone interview with one of the management, and was duly invited down for a face to face interview. There were 4 interviews, with a range of different people. One was over video link with a guy I really did like, but he was quite open about keeping the conversation very casual, and he kept checking his emails all the way through!! However I will say that everyone I met was pleasant, generally clued up, and very positive.

The reason I'm not working there now? It made me appreciate just how much I love my current job (Google rang me out of the blue, I wasn't looking to move), and the people I work with. Google seems to be all about appearances - painfully over-hip office design, yet the meeting rooms were cramped, people looked harried and stressed, and certainly from the impression I got, it's a company that you have to be a highly political animal to enjoy being there. They also, tellingly, seem to want you to spend a lot of time in the office. For a client-facing job, this just seems nuts - I'd rather spend my time with clients, onsite, doing real work, with genuine colleagues, earning money for me and my employer. Google also seems to think that because its brand has such cachet (and let's face it they do some great stuff), it can treat people with condescension and arrogance while telling them officially to HAVE FUN! WE'RE SO KERRAZY! The salary on offer was not really any better than I'm on now - so much for paying 'above market rate'.

Interview Questions

If you were asked to find out how many people are online right now in London, how would you do it?

View Answers (1)

Other Details

I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Negative Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Jan 2010 (took 3 months)

The initial contact with HR was pretty quick. HR explained the hiring process. I had to go through a couple of interviews. Each interview is planed for 45 mins. I had to request a list of people who I am going to meet. At my interview day, I have been told, the list of persons is going to change. The first interview was done with Google Talk. The second interview by a video conference. The third by physical person. Due to all the changes all interviews shrinked to 30 mins. Questions from my side have not been answered properly. The physical interview got messed up, because my interviewer was asking to join another person from Google. Both started a discussion about my profile and if I am the right candidate. Two and a half weeks later I have been asked to join another interview session with two more persons. I agreed. First I have been invited for another video conference session, afterwards the interviews have been done by phone. Again the interviews shrinked to 30 mins.
In my opinion all the interviewers have not been on the same page. Initially Google has asked my to join on my expertise on topic ABC. Two of the five interviews have been asking around topics which have never been on the radar. it seems to me, the job description has been changing every minute.

Besides the interviews I also have been in contact with HR. In my experience HR was not able to answer simple questions like: What is the travel or expense policy? What kind of benefits are offered in Europe?

Generally speaking all the people I have meet at Google have not been willing to answer any questions. Everything around the interview process is around. Do you fit to the Google world. There is never the question, do we fit to the candidates ideas.