My Interview With Google
Update: Apparently this site (talking about the ways in which people blew their Google interviews) links to me, and also used my picture. It kind of sucks that an article titled "How I Blew My Google Interview" has my face on it, but that's what happens when you put a picture on the internet, I guess. More disconcerting to me is that the portion of the article below that was highlighted was my discussion of my interview with the guy with the thick accent. The implication of the linked article is that I blew the interview by not understanding him. I'd like to clarify, that part of the experience was just a relevant part of the story, which is why I shared it. I blew the Google Interview not for that reason, but because my algorithm skills simply were not up to snuff at the time. Blaming the rejection on having a hard time with accents would be petty and silly. I was rejected because I wasn't good enough, plain and simple.
Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing with Google. It was very exciting, as I've wanted to work for Google for quite some time, and they opened up a branch near my home through an acquisition recently. I wanted to share the process of interviewing with Google, not because it was particularly noteworthy, but because I wondered about interviewing with Google before I did so, and I figured others might. I've had to sign an NDA, so I'm going to be pretty careful about what I share in this post.
The position I interviewed for was a Software Engineer position in the Boulder, Colorado office (near where I live), but they still conduct their interviews from the California office. Because I'm not in California, I had to go through two phone interviews first. The questions Google asks are pretty interesting for a number of reasons. I think the best word I could use to describe the questions is "fair". I didn't get any tricky puzzle questions. Nobody asked me what I would do if I were shrunk to the size of a nickel and thrown in a blender. Not a single question was an "a-ha!" type brain-teaser. Pretty much every question was a good question for figuring out if someone can write code. Even though I was interviewing for a Java position, I only had one Java-specific question. I could really feel from the questions that Google wasn't concerned with me being good with a specific language; they really wanted to know if I was just a good coder.
When I was first told by the recruiter that the questions would be algorithm-based, I was worried I'd have to reproduce quicksort or something. In fact, the questions were far, far more reasonable (though reviewing sorting algorithms WAS a good idea). Most of them involved manipulating data in an array for some purpose. I'd give an answer that worked, and they'd ask me if there were any corner cases. I was asked to solve the problem in a way that avoided those problems. Then I was asked to improve the space efficiency or running efficiency of the solution. A solution that "worked" was never enough, the interviewers always pushed me further, trying to squeeze out performance. I had to say the runtime complexity for nearly every solution I suggested. I would NOT recommend interviewing with Google without a Computer Science degree. You need to be able to look at a function and know the Big-O for it immediately. Specifically, you need to look at YOUR OWN functions and know the Big-O immediately.
After doing well with both of these interviews, Google actually flew me out to California for a weekend for an all-day interview on the Google campus. They paid for my plane ticket, hotel room, rental car, and some food. I bought a second ticket for my fiancee and we did touristy crap around San Francisco. Overall, it was a lot of fun, but I couldn't help but keep the back of my head occupied with the thought of an all-day interview.
On Monday, I went to the Google campus. In the main lobby, they have a projector with a scrolling list of Google searches. I sat in the lobby waiting for my interview to begin, happily watching the searches scroll by. Lots of female celebrities were being searched, and someone searched for "vista crack" which made me laugh out loud, ensuring the receptionist thought I was an idiot. I sent my fiancee a text message telling her to search for "Rod is awesome" but it didn't show up. They also had a neat visualization showing where people were doing searches on a spinning globe.
Pictures of Googlers with celebrities adorned the wall next to the new Google whiteboard. For those that don't know, Google has a giant whiteboard which was finally erased not too long ago. Before being erased, someone took pictures and posted them to the internet. The new board was already mostly full by the time I saw it, and a large section of it was devoted to complaining about the board being erased.
I also had lunch in one of the cafes on campus. The Google cafes are all buffet-style, and completely free. You simply walk in, grab whatever the hell you want, and leave. My "lunch-date" was one of my phone interviewers, and he took me to the health food cafe. Salads, tofu, bean sprouts, and similar food items filled the buffet. I searched desperately for some meat and filled my plate when I finally found it. I'm definitely NOT a California person. People looked at me like I personally killed a cow in front of them.
The on-site interviews were much like the phone interviews. I had one-on-one meetings with a handful of people, one after another. Each person asked me algorithm-type questions. I did some whiteboarding, but was mostly able to write the answers in my notebook, which was better for me as I could keep up with my brain much more easily on paper than on a whiteboard. It was sometimes difficult to focus on the questions while "OH MY GOD I'M INTERVIEWING WITH FUCKING GOOGLE" whizzed by in my brain over and over. Luckily, pretty much everyone was extremely friendly, which helped calm my considerable nerves.
The biggest difference in the questions between phone and on-site interviews was how my answers had to be presented. On the phone, it was sufficient that I explain, at a high-level, how the solution to a problem would work. On-site, I had to actually write it out. Of my four interviewers, two actually wanted it to be valid Java.
I finished early with one of my interviewers, and he asked me a joke question: if a Stormtrooper shoots a red-shirt, does he hit? It was comical how universal this seemed. Of course I'd know what he was talking about, I write software. Luckily, I was familiar with the term redshirt from being a film nerd, and I was able to come up with a joke answer that didn't let him on to the fact I've never seen a single episode of Star Trek in my life.
The worst part of the process was my fourth and final interview of the day. The guy was from Moscow, and he had a very thick accent. All of my life, I've had immense trouble with accents, even slight ones. My project manager at work has a thick accent from Italy, and she basically sounds like Chewbacca to me. I'm not complaining that Moscow Guy had an accent (all tech companies have folks with accents), but it sure made the rest of the interview process challenging for me. My interview with the Moscow Guy resembled one of those satellite interviews on the news. He'd say something to me, and there'd be this long pause before I responded. To make matters worse, he told me his first question was going to be "an easy one", so when I barely understood what he said at all, I imagine I looked like a complete imbecile. "What was that? You want me to WHAT two numbers together? Mo de ploy? Mah dah bu? Oh, multiply! Right, two times two is four. I'm obviously partially retarded."
To make matters worse, the Moscow guy was the only person I talked to the entire day who wasn't friendly. He wasn't a complete jerk or anything, but he definitely wasn't as warm as my other interviewers. Right before the interview ended, he asked me what I'd work on for my "20% time" project. Each Google employee gets to devote 20% of their time to a side project, which is why so many of the Google Labs projects exist (like Gmail and Movie Search). I actually had an answer to this question, since I thought about it on the plane ride out to California. There's been a side project I've been wanting to work on at home, but I haven't had time. I figured, if I got the job, I'd just make that a Google Labs project and do it there. I explained my idea to him, and he told me it sounded interesting, then proceeded to write it down right in front of me. All I could think was "I hope I get this job so I don't regret that."
I imagine the four interview feedback e-mails looked like this:
- "Candidate knew his stuff, but seemed awfully nervous."
- "Candidate knew his stuff and seemed relatively comfortable."
- "Candidate kept joking around like I was his friend. Clearly was not nervous enough, given that he was interviewing at FUCKING GOOGLE."
- "Candidate seemed to have the brain of a chimp. Was surprised he could speak without forgetting to breathe. Interviewer confident candidate eats glue."
I flew back to Colorado feeling pretty good about the whole thing. As it turns out, though, I was told over the phone (while trying to push a car out of the snow during the Denver blizzard) that I didn't get the position. I need to work on my algorithm skills, so I guess I got docked for not thinking of the best solution right away. The Google Recruiter told me it wasn't the last guy that did me in, but I imagine if I had tried to come up with the best solution earlier (rather than the naive one so I could improve it) and if I had gotten a different interviewer for my last interview, I'd be writing this blog post from my desk at Google.
Considering how much I wanted the job, I admit I'm pretty bummed about this. I'm allowed to re-apply in a year, but I can't imagine improving my "algorithm skills" without more information on where my problem areas were. What's really unfortunate is that I know if Google had hired me, I'd have done a good job. If I see my idea appear on Google Labs any time soon, I'm going to go nuts.
All in all, it was a pretty pleasant experience. I'm disappointed, but I'm proud of myself for at least being considered seriously by Google. It was honestly kind of fun answering their interview questions. The questions reminded me of my undergraduate work, and it was nice to think about that kind of material again. I'm bummed that my progress into the world of Google came to such a screeching halt, but the journey has definitely been fun and interesting. And hey, I got a free trip to San Francisco out of it.
UPDATE: To my great surprise, this story actually wound up having something of an epilogue.
Dailydose of Internet:
Ha ha, Rod, that’s well written. Interviews at Google are definetly one of the most interesting things to read about. And you’ve put it just right.
Cheers man!
Mani.
31 December 2006, 4:18 amSander:
Thank you for sharing your story!
If the fourth guy didn’t do you in, maybe you should decide not to kill the cow next year..? ;-)
(I mean, you once didn’t hire a guy just for *wanting* to kill a purple dinosaur. Speaking of the rest of your blog, do you know the (actual) codesamples on it are MIA?)
1 January 2007, 3:08 amKeith Cowing:
I read this post and thought it was really interesting. I run a website where people can share information about various interviews they’ve had ( http://www.interviewshark.com ). I was wondering if I could have your permission to re-print this on my site. I would provide a link back to your blog post explaining where it came from. If that’s OK, email me. I thought this was a great story.
2 January 2007, 8:11 pmThanks,
Keith
Anna:
Thanks for this great post.
9 January 2007, 8:27 pmAfter your interview, how much time passed before you got the phone call?
Sorry you didn’t get the job. Sounds like Google made a mistake and should have hired you. What a mystery their process is.
Thanks.
Rod:
Anna,
It was a little under a week for me. I asked that they move kind of quickly though, because Christmas was only days away and I knew that if I didn’t know early, it would drive me crazy for my whole break.
9 January 2007, 9:42 pmAnna:
Thanks Rod. That’s quicker than I would have thought. Reading through your experience, I cannot imagine why you weren’t hired. Or is it simply that no one gets hired without a major ‘hook’? Your resume is dynamite, you did well in the interviews. What more could they possibly want? Google claims to need all these new engineers but doesn’t seem to hire any of them. I don’t get it.
10 January 2007, 1:32 amJeremy Dunck:
I had almost exactly the same experience. I was going for a web front end job, though.
Pics (conspicuously leaving out Goog stuff, since I was not unemployed at the time):
17 January 2007, 4:25 pmhttp://flickr.com/photos/jdunck/sets/72057594096875853/
Jeremy Dunck:
Hmm, it’s been almost a year. Lookit that!
17 January 2007, 4:25 pmDes Traynor:
Interesting story. I have a friend who had a very similar one only last week.
2 phone interviews, then a flight to London, then another phone interview, then a flight to London, then on his arrival whats waiting in his Inbox “We’re sorry , we feel you’re not the right candidate”.
I think their interview process is getting soo ridiculous that they’re gonna start costing themselves quality people.
17 January 2007, 5:30 pmAlexander (Sasha) Gondarenko:
Hey!
We went to UR together and worked for Truth-n-Beauty, congrats on the making it on reddit, if not the job!
small world
-Sasha
17 January 2007, 5:36 pmMatt:
The guy probably wrote down your idea so he would remember what you said for his evaluation. I don’t think he was trying to steal you idea.
17 January 2007, 5:51 pmRob:
Doing topcoder or ACM problems is a great way to improve algorithm skills.
http://www.topcoder.com
17 January 2007, 5:53 pmhttp://acm.uva.es
Rod:
Matt, Yeah I was kidding, I’m sure he wasn’t actually trying to steal my idea. ;)
Rob, I was looking at Topcoder for that exact reason actually. Right now I’m working full time and I’m in school, so I don’t really have time for that sort of thing, but once I graduate I’d definitely like to look at it.
17 January 2007, 5:59 pmGoogle Water Gun:
I like your jacket. Can you send it to me. I’ll pay for shipping.
17 January 2007, 5:59 pmRob:
I work full time and I am in a part time masters program AND I still managed to make today’s SRM. If you want minimal time use, you can just do the once a month Saturday matches. It will just be two hours a month.
Not to pressure you or anything ;).
17 January 2007, 6:03 pmwww.blogsaic.com:
“I bought a second ticket for my fiancee and we did touristy crap around San Francisco.” Classic.
“Candidate kept joking around like I was his friend. Clearly was not nervous enough, given that he was interviewing at FUCKING GOOGLE.”
funny stuff
17 January 2007, 6:20 pmRod:
Rob,
I guess I’m out of excuses then. ;)
Thanks for the tip.
17 January 2007, 6:27 pmJames A:
Hey, sorry you didn’t make it. I hope you’ll try again in a year and maybe be able to come join us. From your writing, you seem like a really nice guy.
17 January 2007, 7:02 pmNot a Trekki:
Um…Stormtroopers were in Star Wars, not StarTrek. Or maybe that was a joke. Anyway, it was funny.
M@
17 January 2007, 7:18 pmRod:
Not a Trekki,
The joke was that Stormtroopers never hit anything (I was familiar with this joke because I’m a Star Wars nerd), and that “red-shirts” always die (which I was familiar with by being familiar with the film term “red-shirt”), so what would happen when they meet.
It’s quite possibly the nerdiest joke in the world other than jokes that start like “two isosceles triangles and an equilateral triangle walk into a bar…”
17 January 2007, 7:37 pmJay:
Don’t feel bad about this.
Google today is not the same company to work for as it was 10 years ago anyway.
Aren’t you glad not to be working with the type of people that interviewed you ?
If they are threatened by your skill-set or cannot see the value you bring to them then you’re way better off.
Or maybe, just maybe they are not really looking for independent thinkers any longer…
17 January 2007, 7:37 pm(just a thought)
stijn v.:
Thanks for writing down your experience. Next week I have a series of interviews at Google too so your post was indeed helpfull. Good luck with your other ventures!
17 January 2007, 7:50 pmRod:
Jay,
I didn’t really mind anyone that interviewed me except the last guy. I thought everyone was very nice. To be honest, I expected to feel like people were being condescending. I imagined that working at Google would give you a big ego, and you might treat non-Googlers as less intelligent. As it turned out, though, everyone was very down-to-earth and friendly (except Mr. Moscow).
I can’t really blame them for not hiring me. I had 6 total interviews, counting the two phone interviews. I did well with the first 2 phone interviews, well with 2 of the in-person interviews, poor with one of the other in-person interviews, and completely tanked the last of the in-persons. Google wanted a rockstar and I wasn’t one based on the sample they got. I wish they could have gotten a sample that, in my opinion, is more representative of me, but perhaps they really did and I’m just being bitter. ;)
17 January 2007, 7:50 pmJay:
I guess I’m wrong and bitter. I’m sure they’ll hire you in a year from now.
17 January 2007, 8:14 pmAnyway, “Do no evil”, peace out…
Interesting Bits:
[…] What it is like being interviewed by Google […]
17 January 2007, 9:14 pmRalph:
Rod,
17 January 2007, 10:02 pmI recently had two of those phone interviews with Google after they contacted me out of the blue. The questions were tough and challenging, and I think I have done well. What I think really killed the deal: I accidentally leaked the fact that I cannot possibly live in California anytime soon. A few years back, my wife insisted that California will fall into the ocean in the next 20 years. So, when this opportunity rose, she flat out refused to move out there. What a weird position I was in. Google vs. Family. It was a tough decision. After I mentioned the moving problem, the interview seemed to end pretty quickly. I was not surprised that a couple hours later, I received a rejection email stating that I was not a proper fit.
Peter:
Fuck google. You fly out there and kiss their ass all day and they say, too bad? Fuckers.
Listen - tell those fucks you’ve seen their shitty code - you know about their umpteen million bugs - you know about their total disregard for security - and you know that Blogger doesn’t stay up for more than a few hours at a time. So tell them to take their running time and shove it up their bidet-cleaned asses!
Fuckers.
:)
17 January 2007, 10:14 pmravehanker:
er.. Didn’t they(GOOG) ask you NOT to disclose the questions? As for some beaten-down-to-the-end-of-the-earth advice for improving your algorithmic skills
1. Cormen!
17 January 2007, 11:24 pm2. http://acm.mipt.ru/judge , http://acm.uva.es/problemset , http://www.spoj.pl
3. More Cormen :D
Eugene Crosser:
Rod,
I think that I know the Moscow guy whom you mentioned, he was my second interviewer when I applied for a position at the Moscow office. Also the only one who did not introduce himself (not that I remembered the names of the rest, but they where much nicer).
(and I was turned down, too, although I do not regret it as much. As you said, they apparently seek for *coders*, which does not sound that exciting for me…)
17 January 2007, 11:25 pmChris DiBona:
Great post! If you end up interviewing (or just in the bay area) again, email me I’ll take you to one of the cafes with plenty of meat.
17 January 2007, 11:26 pmbalachandar muruganantham:
i attended twice. but didnt get through. i guess i didnt have luck
17 January 2007, 11:30 pmDavid:
I’m a CIF alum as well (doing a take 5 this year). We bumped into each other a few times when you were still on this side of the country. If I recall correctly, you had a very cool software demo in CS200. The college simulation was… awesome.
I wanted to note that I applied a year ago for a Google job, and had my hopes and dreams thoroughly crushed when I got rejected after interviewing. But, reapplied a year later after honing various skills, did so much better in the interviews, and got a job offer. So the whole “try again in a year” thing can actually work.
Toss me an email if you’d like to talk more.
18 January 2007, 12:30 amnsharp:
Why don’t you go ahead with the side project you talked about?
As for not getting the job, well, look at it this way, you have the opportunity to work for yourself instead of working for some huge company where you are employee no whatever.
18 January 2007, 2:47 amDavid Burdon:
Rod,
a great piece. California is different - even from the rest of the US. I deal exclusively with the Google people in Ireland. They’re so charming. Maybe, you should apply there.
18 January 2007, 4:13 amRod:
ravehanker,
The only question I disclosed was the stormtrooper one, which wasn’t a real question. I think I played it pretty safe. ;)
Chris,
I didn’t mention this in the post, but after the hippie cafe (noname, I think?), my guy took me on a tour of the campus, and we went to a different cafe so he could get an ice cream sandwich. That place looked full of burgers, chicken, etc. It was also much bigger than the other cafe, I got the impression that it was the “original” cafeteria. D’oh!
Nsharp,
I intend to. It’s on my pile of side projects I want to develop but never have time to work on, unfortunately.
18 January 2007, 7:09 amSteve:
Great post, pity it didn’t work out for you.
Maybe you should write to Google and ask for more information on what you can do to improve. Worst that happens, they say ‘Ehhhhh no. Figure it out.’ And at least you’ll look good for treating ‘getting into Google’ as a problem that needs to be solved.
Best of luck!
18 January 2007, 7:09 amRod:
Steve,
I actually tried that. I got on the Google Recruiter’s nerves pretty bad, badgering her about how I could improve. I was originally not told anything at all other than a no. The “work on your algorithm skills” had to be extracted.
They’re quite tight-lipped about the reasons for rejection, unfortunately. It makes sense, I suppose. It prevents me from studying and getting in even if I suck.
18 January 2007, 7:13 amSteve:
Hmm, bugger. I suppose you could have a point, but then again they’re missing out on people like you who (1) clearly do not suck (2) would be willing to work to improve any perceived deficencies. If you go again in a year I hope happens for you :-)
18 January 2007, 7:22 amboxlight:
Thanks for posting your experiences, very interesting. Who would’ve thought all that “o” notation from Comp Sci theory classes would actually come in useful — it certainly never has for me!
I’m interested to hear about your “google labs” idea — why don’t you email me and we’ll build it.
boxlight, boxlight _at_ gmail.com
18 January 2007, 7:33 amScott:
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve also read your 2 years article and was thinking about my own experience.
I hope that Google works out for you in the future.
18 January 2007, 7:52 amIan:
Don’t even be disappointed. Everything happens for a reason - you were not meant to work there.
Something better will come along. In fact, it’s already on its way.
18 January 2007, 8:11 amJan:
I never really liked the Google interview process from what I’ve read. I think in the long term it will be the Google Achilles’ heel. It creates a mono-culture of aye-sayers and theoretical programmers. There are many problems with that. One is that I firmly believe that diversity of people and opinion and conflict leads to better software and end-product. Also in my experience the best “algorithm programmers” are no match of the best concept builders, but at Google the last won’t get in and the first throw away 20% of their time. But now Google is cutting back on diversity of services, and adding everything up, you got to wonder if working for Google is as exciting as it is imagined anyway. I used to think the games industry was exciting, until I realised it was about optimizing and redoing existing stuff, at an abstract level. Google is probably the same. Great if you’re into theory and low abstraction, you can enjoy the vast amounts of data, the algorithms, and how it all works out. If you like to build things like me, you’d probably be very bored at Google. It’s a limited amount of popular services and they sell ads, after all. If you’re a sales person, now there’s an exciting career.
18 January 2007, 11:33 amLaura:
Disclaimer: I’m in an engineer at Google, and I interview lots of people and sit on one of the hiring committees. I don’t think I was involved in your hiring decision at all, so I think I can say a few things. (Though I interview so many people that they all blur together after a while, so apologies if I actually did talk to you.)
I’m sorry you didn’t get hired, and I hope you do re-apply in a year. From what you’ve said I suspect you’ll have a fairly good chance if you try again. No promises, of course.
A few semi-random comments, which I hope are general enough that they won’t get me in trouble:
Our hiring process tends to select only very good people. I haven’t worked with anyone here (in engineering or elsewhere) who hasn’t been smart and technically competent. If people have problems, it’s usually for personality reasons. Unfortunately, the bar is set so high that it also weeds out some good people. Of all the folks I’ve referred for jobs at Google, only one has gotten a job, and that was a friend of a friend who got hired for a non-technical position. Still, it’s probably the right place for Google to set the bar; having such an excellent workforce is very valuable and is one one of the main things that attracts new engineers and keeps the existing ones here. And even one bad person can be a big drag on an organization, so it’s important to keep them out if possible.
We sometimes have different or higher standards for new or small offices, because they tend to have fewer and more specific projects. Even though we really like to hire good, smart generalists, just being a good generalist sometimes isn’t enough in that situation. I don’t know what office you were interviewing for or what they work on there, but I’ve seen this happen for other small offices.
I disagree with your statement that people without a CS degree shouldn’t apply. I have a math and science background but my CS knowledge is totally self-taught. I did fairly well in the interview process, though I didn’t do that well on a couple of distributed systems questions. (Indeed, I didn’t even know they *were* distributed systems questions until after I’d been here for a while and learned more about that way of solving problems.) But I am the sort of person who is genuinely interested in CS topics and used to read algorithm and data structure books for fun. Someone who just programs but isn’t interested in the more technical or theoretical CS aspects probably wouldn’t be a good fit here.
I do agree that it is important to be good at identifying the right algorithm and data structure for a problem, and to be able to know or analyze the performance characteristics of those approaches. You’d be amazed at how many people I interview who don’t even know how a hash table works. Definitely re-read an algorithms book if you’re thinking about interviewing at Google. I was very glad the recruiter I worked with told me to do this.
I doubt that you got penalized for not thinking of the best solution to each problem right away. Most of the people who answer my questions tend to mention the naive, brute-force approach first and then improve on it. As long as they know *why* it’s a naive, brute-force approach, that’s fine. Many of the questions people ask are as much about how you think about the problem as about coming up with the “right” answer, though if you don’t come up with *any* good answers that’s obviously a problem.
Yes, the big cafe with the ice cream is the “original” one, at least on this campus. The original, original one was in a building we don’t occupy any more. I tend to alternate between the “hippy” one and the big one, with occasional forays to ones in other buildings.
Ralph: we have engineering offices all over the place these days, not just in California. See http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/topic.py?dep_id=1056&loc_id=1100 for a list.
Rod: feel free to send me an email if you want to talk more.
– Laura
18 January 2007, 11:38 amRod:
Laura:
Thank you for your comments.
I suppose what I should be saying is that I don’t recommend applying to Google without a Computer Science *BACKGROUND*. You happen to have a CS background from free-time study, so that works for you, but I believe that’s very rare. Most “self-taught” programmers tend to focus on languages and systems, rather than topics as academic as Computer Science.
18 January 2007, 12:00 pmDropout:
Thanks for sharing your story.
As noted here and elsewhere, everything about the Google interview process reveals the profile of their ideal candidate: coder. This makes sense–they’re a big company and they need foot soldiers. If you’re an entrepreneurial type or generalist, you should work for a start-up or create your own. One type isn’t necessarily better than the other; that’s just the way it is.
Perhaps that wasn’t always the case, but they’ve grown fat and that’s the dynamic of large organizations.
Here’s a short quiz that potential Google applicants should take:
1) The following best describes me:
a) I live to code
b) I code to live
If you answered ‘a,’ then you may be etc., etc.
18 January 2007, 12:20 pmLarry:
I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Don’t be afraid to try again.
18 January 2007, 2:19 pmLaura:
“the profile of their ideal candidate: coder.”
That’s fairly true, but perhaps not in the sense you mean. We like to find people who are entreprenurial, and we especially like to find smart, skilled generalists who can pick up new technologies quickly and work on any of the huge number of projects we have going on at any given time. *But* if they want to be an engineer here (as opposed to a manager) they should be coders too. Even the extremely senior people — “Google Fellows” and the like — write code for the systems they design. I think it’s true that people who want to be architects or system designers but let someone else do the coding don’t tend to be hired here and don’t tend to be very happy if they are.
I don’t know for sure why this is because I’m not really an old-timer, but I’m guessing it’s for historical culture reasons. Larry and Sergey wrote the first version of the search engine after they designed it, and they probably tended to hire people with the same mindset. The system works pretty well, so there doesn’t seem to be a need to tinker with it.
18 January 2007, 4:35 pmmrBadak.com:
Google Interview…
A programmer posted in his blog his experiences being interviewed by Google. An interesting read - after 2 phone interviews, the next interview was in the Google campus itself. Google even paid for his plane ticket, hotel room, rental car, and food. Wo…
18 January 2007, 6:11 pmA Googler:
Great article! I’m sorry that you didn’t get hired. As Laura wrote, many great people get rejected by Google. The sentiment is that it’s better to have false negatives than false positives. This philosophy may (or may not) be good for the company, but it sucks for the false negatives.
The book “Programming Interviews Exposed” is good preparation. I recommend reading it.
18 January 2007, 8:07 pmError Forum Blog » Blog Archive » Interesting Bits:
[…] What it is like being interviewed by Google […]
19 January 2007, 3:26 amAndrew R.:
Don’t mind the Moscow guy.
19 January 2007, 9:52 amIt’s because Russian mentality is quite different from the western one. They’re not as smiley and talkative in general and your guy didn’t even had a good English.
So, he couldn’t do any better.
L Mateja:
Agggh I get soooo tired of hearing about people just desperate to get “The Gig” at Google. Google is just another for-profit company - don’t forget that. The managers there have specific objectives that they are trying to achieve in a specific timeframe. If you have ever hired a contractor or designer, selected a doctor, mechanic, tutor, whatever, to do a job, you realize that while someone may be very accomplished and well-respected by others, they, given all the available choices, may not be the optimum choice for what you really want as the person spending your hard-earned dough. You might choose to hire someone else. You might even choose a guy who otherwise seems like a complete loser, because he’s the only guy in a 200 mile radius with the right-sized Allen wrench. Or whatever. They’re not even gonna tell you what they’re looking for cause maybe they don’t even know till they see it. So gee whiz, everyone obsessing about the Google gig, get over it, people get rejected from all sorts of things all the time, and working for Google is not the panacea for all ills in one’s life. Frankly, they’ve gotten way too “big company” for me, and if I were God’s gift to the coding world, I’d be out working on the next big technology that’s going to change the world, at some company you’ve never heard of, rather than trying to kiss some other guy’s bottom at a company that seems to think it’s a good idea to waste a whole lot of CPU cycles on a time-consuming and clearly frequently fruitless interview process. I mean, talk about runtime complexity. All I’m saying is don’t get swept up in the marketing image you’ve now been fed that Google is this wondrous heaven and if you don’t get in there’s something wrong with you – remember a lot of money went in to building that image and brand and making you feel that way. At the end of the day, there are lots of jobs, companies, and technology opportunities out there. Including some companies who think they’ve got better technology than Google, and are getting the funding to prove it.
19 January 2007, 12:44 pmPeter:
here are google’s ‘algorthimic’ skills. losers.
19 January 2007, 6:37 pmBrian:
Since when are there Stormtroopers in Star Trek?! Haha, good article anyways, I really enjoyed reading it. :)
20 January 2007, 8:37 amJay:
You make a very erronous assumption in your post about the knowledge and capabilities of people without CS degrees. You do this because you spent the time and expense getting a CS degree– and either you want to feel it was worth it, or you needed the training. Others have natural ability that makes getting a CS degree redundant. Yet its not surprising to run into people who assume you have a CS degree because you know what you’re doing… or not knowing you well, assume you don’t know what you’re doing because you don’t have one.
This is the kind of thing you ran into at google. You’re probably quite capable of doing the job.
You just were excluded because of arrogance.
22 January 2007, 10:45 amAbsolutely No Machete Juggling » Blog Archive » My Interview With Google (Continued):
[…] I didn’t expect the story of My Interview With Google to be a two-parter, but it turns out the story didn’t end where I expected. […]
24 January 2007, 9:05 pme t:
thanks for sharing your interview experience with google.. i just had 2nd phone interview with google 2 days ago,i’m still waiting for the answer from them..
27 January 2007, 3:44 amWaitingfmGoogle:
I very recently interviewed at GooglePlex. The persons whom i met was very nice. Everyone was friendly and they liked lots of my ideas, approach and design. The last person who interviewed me understood that i was very exhausted by the end of their long interview process. Regardless, the questions were interesting and i did not know few answers. I tried my best effort possible but during the course of giving replies i realized myself that i was not giving the right answer and i was very upfront about it. I was able to assess myself.
If i get the job yes i will be very happy. If i don’t then also i will be fine because i picked up lots of confidence and self belief after that interview and i could see that already reflecting. Now any job i give interview, i am sure i would be easily able to pick it up like winning tournaments :-)
30 January 2007, 6:23 pmEzecho:
I wish I could work for Google, so that I could enjoy the fantastic environment
30 January 2007, 10:41 pmDublin-bound-Argonaut?:
Quite a witty treatment of the now all-too-common overly torturous tech industry interview syndrome. This is not the sole preserve of Google I can assure you and I agree with many of the postings highlighting some of the potential outcome pros/cons that such a mindset and mode of selection will produce.
I am however slightly nervous now as I’m due for interview with Google next week (location not CA) for a non-programming position in operations and I certainly don’t come from a conventional pure CS background. They’ll be waiting a long time for a ’solve this data sorting algorithm’ question to be answered if they do stick to the formula rigidly ;-) It was bad enough to be quizzed about the arcanities of disk arrays in the second screen.
That said, I have been nothing but impressed by the personal warmth, professionalism and competency displayed by every interface of Google that I have come in contact with during the selection process so far….
Overall, I have found this posting informative and always support ‘judicous’ bravery under the banner of constructive change, NDA or no….
I would not be disheartened, you clearly sound like a rounded, motivated candidate and things will work out - it was just not meant to be on this occassion. Only you can decide if a further attempt is something that you really desire. If so, forget the past and try again with belief and without cynicism.
2 February 2007, 11:08 amErin:
Hi all,
I just had my first phone interview with Google today. It was for a non-tech position (ad sales). Does anyone know how hard core they are about selecting non-tech people. I mean, I imagine they have high standards, but how high is high? :-)
I’m sorry this is such a selfish post. I really enjoyed reading about your interview, Rod. You tell a great story!
7 February 2007, 4:58 pmJuujWerks:
Thanks for the fun article & comments. What is puzzling is the focus on algorithmic complexity. Having designed and built big systems, IMHO it is much more important to understand things like proper OO design, separation/encapsulation of concerns, knowing the difference between pass by value and pass by reference. Concurrency (w/ the multi-core machines)is becoming important too. Big-O stuff just does not come up that often in the real world — especially in Java where so many algorithms have been coded for you (e.g. sorting). Just my $0.02.
14 February 2007, 10:48 pmLee:
Very nice story. Thanks for sharing
22 February 2007, 9:52 pmGerry:
Hi, I’m actually in that position, do you think you can contact me :)
thanks
21 March 2007, 10:53 amjob interview at google! - FunEnclave:
[…] the london museum and the alexandria library but this is quite impressive also read it, worth it Absolutely No Machete Juggling Blog Archive My Interview With Google _______________________________________ Safin’s Signature: “A man is great by deeds, not by […]
26 March 2007, 5:07 amGreg Paskill:
History is replete with examples of those who were rejected by the authorities, only to be a rockstar anyway. (Think of the music executive one young man that he’d never make it in the music business, a rockstar named Elvis Presley.) The question then becomes, was it the candidates who were flawed or the evaluators and their selection process?
Google can definitely take on one more project that transforms humanity, far more than its text-based search engine ever could. And this one is about “search” itself, extending “executive search”, to all levels.
Let Google amass a database of all the people it’s rejected, especially those who make it into face-to-face interviews at the GooglePlex. Then just like there’s a Google Dance that crawls the Web, keep track of those rejects every quarter. Look to see who become the failures that Google declared them to be, and which become of great value to their employer and industry anyway.
That’s the one thing those in hiring rarely ever do. They don’t keep track of the good ones who got away.
And when I read about MoscowGuy, that’s a great indicator of how this problem is compounded. There really isn’t any kind of talent shortage like so many employers like to push. Instead, there’s an abundance of managers and interviewers whose position authorizes them to constantly negate the potential of capable applicants. They can make a whole career out of preventing the advancement of other people’s careers. And nobody will ever call it on them, especially these companies that arrogantly proclaim “Our hiring process tends to select only very good people.”
I’d love to see what becomes of Google Rejects, and whether they’re motivated by revenge, vanity, or sheer professionalism and dedication to their career shine triumphantly anyway. I’d love to see that captured electronically too, searchable, especially to place them in other companies.
6 April 2007, 10:44 amfrank:
I really enjoyed reading about your interview experience and will be experiencing a Google interview myself. I have been asked by Google to an onsite Interview in Mountain View for a systems engineering position. How shall I dress for the interview? I do not want to over / under dress for the interivew.
16 April 2007, 10:20 pmSteve:
Nice story. I went through the whole process myself mid last year. Three phone interviews and SIX in person interviews over more than a month added up to quite the grueling experience. Despite the more than thorough technical drubbing, I didn’t get an offer either.
I don’t really feel too bad about it - a tour of the Googleplex sized up the reality for me. The resident demographic appears to be singles under the age of 30 with a substantial chunk being plucked right out of school and under 25 (like most of my interviewers). Not to mention all the amenities - free food, laundry facilities, gym, etc. are clearly designed to keep employees at their desks for longer hours (why go home?). Being a family man in his mid thirties I realized it just wasn’t for me. I can certainly see why the Google lifestyle, and that’s what it is, appeals to a certain type though.
Certainly Google turns down a great deal of worthy candidates. As stated here before, no interview process is an exact science and a great many variables enter into hiring decisions (even the mood of a particular interviewer on any given day). There is no reason to be bitter about it. As Greg alludes to, use the rejection as an impetus to strive for greatness elsewhere. I can honsetly say that for me, the whole ordeal has proven significantly worthwhile. This was the kind of eye opening type, kick in the pants type of experience that has pushed me to work harder and is something I haven’t had in some time. I take great pleasure in becoming successful at my current organization and telling the story of how I wasn’t hired by Google. In all seriousness, thank you Google for the rejection.
29 April 2007, 11:59 amMichelle:
My hubby went through the same experience , His recruiter called today and said he was a perfect fit technically…but there was a “cultural mismatch”..??
Is this a code word??
What does this mean???
21 May 2007, 12:29 pmFB:
I recently completed an on site interview with google. I found the experience to be enjoyable and everyone was friendly. I felt the purpose of the interview was to determine one’s thought processes. There were very few questions I could not answer.
Google is out to hire the best and brightest no doubt about that.
In the end I was notified that I was not a candidate for the position. I was bummed out but in the end everything works out for the best. The google interveiw has given me confidence for future job interviews with other companies.
3 June 2007, 8:04 pmSoftware Testing - Testing Tools » Blog Archive » Interview with Google:
[…] read yesterday My Interview With Google article and would like to leave a few notes. I would NOT recommend interviewing with Google […]
27 June 2007, 12:11 pmJessica:
Hi FB,
How long do you have to wait before you got the answer from Google after the on site interview?
I got an interview with Google 10 days ago but haven’t got reply from them yet. They don’t even try to contact my references, either. Does that sound pessimistic?
17 July 2007, 3:17 pmDer Google-Masterplan at Jims Crib:
[…] kann man ihn sich anschauen, den Masterplan unser aller Suchmaschine Hier kann man von jemandem lesen, der sich bei Google beworben hat, aber leider nicht genommen wurde. […]
18 July 2007, 2:41 pmFB:
Jessica
It took about three weeks after my onsite interview. Google appears to take their time as they want to hire the best and brightest.
The time between scheduling my interview and actually going on site was over a month.
25 July 2007, 11:04 pmsunny:
Hi Jessica,
24 August 2007, 10:52 amDid you get response from google ?
If so, how much time you had to wait ?
-sunny
Abhi...:
Hey Dude………
i had also faced the telephonic interview from google, and in 1 hour they people had asked 1000 questions…….
humf….humf…….
I WAS NOT SELECTED
27 September 2007, 4:40 amJohn:
Has anyone ever thought about what all those genius employees are doing at Google?
Besides the search engine which was innovative 10 years ago, what else is there? Are those great computer scientists working on Gmail which is basically a copy of Hotmail? Are they working on Google Talk, which is a not much used copy of Skype. Are they working on unpopular Orkut, which was supposed to beat Myspace and FaceBook, something that never happened. Or are they working on Google earth, a service which was actually bought from another company just like YouTube. And what about the much hyped GPhone which never was to be.
If you are a good computer scientist you probably don’t even want to work at Google if you want to have an interesting job. Go work for a startup which is actually doing something innovative. Or start your own company if you have a good idea.
Google will have to work on its image otherwise it will be a second Microsoft anytime soon.
This holier than thou attitude is completely misplaced too if you think what they are actually doing.
20 November 2007, 11:09 amGoogle « Vijayendra Rao’s Weblog:
[…] Just imagine being called for an interview at Google. I’m sure that would be a dream come true for many developers out there. Brandon Harper has written a pretty comprehensive blog about his experience regarding going for an interview in Google. […]
3 January 2008, 11:55 pmChaitanya:
few more questions from google
Interview At Google
23 March 2008, 12:53 amGoogle Top Interview Questions ( around 30 With Solutions)
Google Interview for Freshers
Tom:
Where did this notion that all Californians are vegetarians come from?
Bullshit.
I’m a “California person” and I love my meat.
23 March 2008, 1:40 amSILICON ALLEY INSIDER | How I Blew My Google Interview - MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:
[…] Rod: (Photo Credit) […]
24 March 2008, 8:48 amHenry Blodget:
Rod, thanks for the story and the comment on Silicon Alley Insider. Happy to remove the picture if you like. We loved both.
In the collage of interview stories, some of the excerpts are funny, some are telling, and some are downright depressing. Yours was hilarious, and a lot of people have enjoyed.
All best,
28 March 2008, 10:47 amHenry Blodget
Baron VC » Blog Archive » Enter the Googleplex:
[…] My Interview With Google […]
2 April 2008, 7:20 pmwackatoodles:
well one thing is incorrect, theres plenty of meat of all kinds. it depends on the time of day. it comes during dinner. its likely you ate lunch.
23 April 2008, 8:16 pm