Google Senior Product Manager Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – The person interviewing had a "I am better than you " attitude .

Interview Details – I applied online and got contacted after about 3 weeks. The HR person scheduled a phone interview and asked typical screening questions for PMs and Google in general. That round was easy and went well. I was then scheduled for a technical phone interview, which I knew would be a random PM from any location. It turns out I got an Associate PM 2 years out of college (from NYC) who said "Okay, cool" before each question. She clearly was not an experienced interviewer (esp. for Senior level position) and made no effort to connect with me, find out about my experience, what I knew about Google and their products or anything else specifically relevant to the position for which I was interviewing. She asked me a few brain teasers, such as Russian Roulette questions. After the 45 minute call, I did not hear anything for 2 weeks, which ended up with Google not wanting to pursue any further steps. I was not impressed with their interviewing process, but mainly with the Associate PM that I talked to which had no relevance to my local Google apps/features or the team I would be working with.

Interview Details – Google reached out to me through LinkedIn and asked to interview me for a product manager position at one of their satellite offices. They described it as a role that determines what products to make based on market trends and then builds them.

They conducted two separate rounds of phone screens before deciding to invite me to Mountain View for a day of on-site interviews. Fairly normal for the industry, though unusual that at no time was I asked to talk with anyone in the office where I'd be working.

Points of interest:
1) All interviews were identical, consisting of hypothetical scenarios that I was asked to re-design or improve like "how would you redesign a gas station to make it better?", "how would you redesign your favorite web site to improve it?", "what business opportunity would you tell LinkedIn to pursue to improve growth?", and "design the elevators for a 40 story office building and the best algorithm to fill and empty the building each day". Fun!
2) Only one screener asked anything about how I'd implement any of the changes I offered.
3) Although my recruiter mentioned they selected me because of my extensive experience, all my interviewers relayed that they'd graduated within the previous 2 years and had all their experience at Google. None could answer questions about how hard it was to garner support for their ideas or what their biggest challenge was in bringing a product to market. I expected at least one person in the loop to have a similar background to mine and test the breadth of my knowledge. It didn't happen.
4) All screening interviewers were currently working in the role I was interviewing for. No cross-group teams were represented. Maybe they would have included more perspectives if I'd done better during the on-site interviews. Since I don't live in Mountain View that seems like an expensive way to interview if in fact that's how it's done (repeat trips).
5) A screener commented "one of the best things about working here is that everyone works hard to build the best product and experience for the customer. If you can argue that your idea is better for customers, you win". When I asked how they research what's best for customers, he replied "that's a problem." I got the distinct impression that 'winning' depends not on what's actually best for customers but on what stakeholders imagine is best.
6) I did quite a bit of homework on the company before the loop. None of my interviewers asked me what I knew about the organization. They did ask me what my favorite Google product was and why.
7) My lunch host (not a screener) had the most experience, about 8 years in various startups in the valley. He commented that he'd been with the company under a year and expected to quit before two. He wanted to add some name recognition and credibility to his resume' but found it too frustrating to actually get anything done to want to stay.
8) I asked if the company had considered a way of using their search data to better target product opportunities (was quite specific in fact) and although it matched the core philosophy of the company founders was told my idea to drive decisions on massive data trends "would never work".

I can't imagine how the on-site loop added anything to their phone evaluations. If I was the hiring manager and had only the assessments the loop did to inform my decision I wouldn't have hired me. Too little unique information and almost none about the hardest aspect of product management: execution. Likewise I learned too little about the position including the most important aspect of a new role at a new company - who would I be working for and what is their management philosophy?

I would not have accepted an offer and wasn't surprised when the company didn't extend one.

Interview Details – The whole process took about 3 months, from the original conversation with the recruiter. I got a call from the recruiter and had a phone screen. After the phone screen, I heard back the next day, inviting me to come onsite to Mountain View. However, it took about 2 weeks to just schedule the on-site, which was then about 2 weeks off. In Mountain View, I interviewed with 4 people, and one for lunch. After the on-site interview, I sent thank you letters, but did not hear anything back for weeks. Then I followed up with a phone call, and again, and learned that the recruiter has not yet received feedback from people I interviewed with (this is now weeks past). When I followed up again, they said still no review, but they'd like to ask me to come out to Mountain View the second time, so that, as the recruiter has put it, she can get the required number of interviews in. This made me curious as to the whole review process. The candidate takes the time to prepare for the interview, fly to a different city, do their best, and the reviewer does not bother to submit their feedback (and is not pushed by Google to do so). Strange.

Second round on campus was with 2 people. After that, heard back in 2 weeks. All in all took 3 months.

Interview Details – Friend submitted resume into internal tools for Product Manager position.
Got email from recruiter a few days later.
Phone screen 1 week later.

Phone screen was very vague, similar to those for NCGs vs. experienced folks.

Was very unclear what the interviewer was looking for.

Interview Details – The interviewing process was very professional and thorough from the end to the beginning. However, what I was not told they were hiring for very specific position with a certain language requirement. It was just assumed on their part that I would be proficient in that language given my name. So it was disappointing after six weeks of interviewing that I was not being interviewed for just a "Senior Product Manager" but a "Senior Product Manager for language X".

Interview Details – HR first - 1 hour by phone
Prosuct Manager - on site Google Victoria London - 1 hour
Director Product - 1 hour by phone
Onsite at Google Victoria - 3 face to face (HR! Product, BD) and 3 video call interview with Mountain View (2x Product, 1 VP)

Interview Details – very challenging

Interview Details – My resume was referred to the Indian recruiter by a senior US employee. The recruiter scheduled a phone interview for 5 days later with someone in the US (late night call). Before the call they gave me instructions on what to expect. As Google PM was my dream role, I actually prepared a 12 page cheat sheet for the call [ what a waste!].

The interviewer was a PM who had relocated from India to the US and showed major attitude. My strong sense here is that the phone interview was just a formality, they had already decided not to proceed further. [This has happened to me before, at EMC]

For the first 15 minutes he mocked my startup venture, that had not taken off. Then he gave me a problem about locating, classifying and displaying search results for commercial products. He mocked me for the next 15 minutes about that while I explained my solution.

He ended it after that and I asked a few questions from my end to complete the call.

The interview went totally contrary to everything I had read about Google PM interviews, design, strategy, appreciation of Google products etc. I later realized that those reviews were mostly for US positions. It was also different from what the local HR recommended as preparation in her interview scheduling mail.

One recommendation I do have, start practising linear thinking, and staying within bounds, while preparing for interview. At least this PM did not seem to appreciate lateral thinking while problem solving.

I got the canned rejection letter within 10 days.