YouTube Online Operations Associate Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Jul 2011 in Dublin, County Dublin (Ireland) (took 3 weeks)

I applied online in April and heard nothing until July, when I received an email from a Google recruiter. The recruiter wanted to know if I could take a phone call, so we scheduled one for the next day. the phone call lasted for about half an our. Some of the questions asked inclluded, "what are your salary expectations?", "have you had any other job offers recently?", and "why do you want the job?".

Afterwards, I was told that the recruiter would be recommending that I proceed to the next round, which was to involve a telephone interview that would last for 40 minutes. A time was set for this, but the call never came. I found this very unprofessional; I had made arrangements to make myself available for the call as the designated time.

After twenty minutes, I received the call. It was an enjoyable interview. Questions included: "how many hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute?", "can you name a currently trending video", "can you think of a (hypothetical) video that would be controversial for YouTube?", and can you name events from the worlds of politics, sports, and entertainment that would have been popular on YouTube over the past week?".

Almost as soon as this interview was concluded, I was invited to attend an on-site interview in Barrow Street.

Having heard great things about Google, I was disappointed to be ignored by the receptionist for five minutes, and kept waiting, without acknowledgement, for ten minutes after my interview had been scheduled to start. Nevertheless, I was escorted by my interviewer to a room close to the employee floorspace where the interview began. This lasted for 45 minutes and was enjoyable. All questions were job-related. I was asked at one point why I wanted the job, given that I am "over qualified" for it. This surprised me, because the academic requirements for the job were pretty rigorous. Yet, it seemed that the actual role of Operations Associate is quite unskilled. With this question, the interviewer actually put me off the job.

I was then invited to ask the interviewer some questions. The first related to how many people would be a part of my team. This question could not be answered for reasons of confidentiality. I then asked about the potential for career development and the chance to branch out into different roles, assuming greater responsibility. I was told in no uncertain terms that were I to take the job, I would spend 70% of my team reviewing YouTube videos, and that this would not change. This also turned me off the job.

When this interview ended, another one began immediately. This one was quite similar, but questions all related to workplace scenarios. Some of the questions were very nebulously phrased, so I had to tease out more detail from the questioner. It ended after 25 minutes, and I was shown out, without being given a tour of the building or an offer of lunch, like I had been led to expect.