Google Interview - The Process and Basics From a Former Google Recruiter

hi guys how's it going so today a big topic how to get the job at Google and Google interviews and so I want to keep this as brief as possible I know based on all the information that that's going to be relatively difficult but I'll try and keep it short and sweet and then provide a lot of information in the bottom just to direct you to an overview of the content and then send you towards a couple of good resources so item number one the big disclaimer is yes I did work at Google for just under five years both in Mountain View and Sunnyvale two of the corporate headquarters for Google so strongly encourage you to not watch videos that are provided by people and companies that are people who didn't work there right the people who work there and know how it actually works and and I'm not trying to guide myself as to end-all be-all resource but just be discerning and that goes for all content right as you're looking at content don't look at one article don't watch one video look at a lot of stuff you'll find some good feedback and I think you'll be able to figure out what seems real and what makes sense and what doesn't make sense secondly I do want to point you to the right resources and the best resource Google employees life at Google is a great place to go I'm gonna put that in the comments below so you don't have to pause and go look for life at Google is awesome and then even if you go to google.com slash careers there is great content just on that page I mean Google is really willing to provide the details to make sure you're successful they're great at that they want you to have success they have trouble finding the best candidates even though their Google takes a lot of work so they want to set you up for success um lastly I just want to kind of mention that this is a broad overview so if you're looking for proprietary information that I am going to release something that you probably haven't seen before I mean it's just not going to happen right it it goes against my core beliefs Google treated me really well and and I want to treat them right by not releasing any proprietary information so if this is a stopping point for you I get it if you were looking for a specific tip but I'm gonna talk about this from a more general perspective I'm so myth-busting let's kind of just chat about this for a second Google does not ask trick questions anymore it goes against their policies and a part of the process I'll talk a little bit about this later in the video is hiring committee and hiring committee is essentially a group of peers in a similar space that didn't interview you that is determining whether you go on to the final stages of the process they review questions and answers so if interviewers are asking to your questions they are going to get flagged and they are gonna get feedback saying hey don't ask this question anymore Google doesn't ask trick questions but they do ask open-ended questions which can be a little tricky again we'll dive a little bit more into that and I think and I keep mentioning that's probably another video so I'll get to that as soon as possible there's a lot of information out there on the process right so I want to go through that as well so basically Google strongly believes in the law of diminishing returns and basically what that principle says is more interviews doesn't yield better results right after you interview a certain amount of times it's just not going to be beneficial so what I really want you to be thinking about is just don't worry about getting over interviewed typically you're going to start with a recruiter screen followed by that recruiter screen you will have either a phone interview or a video interview it's much much more likely to have a video interview that's kind of the 95 to 99 percent typically if it's a good video interview Google will move you to the on site process sometimes there's just not enough content there and they need to do a second video interview if that goes well you will move forward to the on site process that can be as few as a few interviews and lunch or as many as five interviews and lunch it really depends on what the team means if it's a leadership role there might just be more interviews because they have to specifically task for your leadership skills something else we'll talk about in this video if that goes well as I mentioned hiring committee a group of your potential peers reviewing all the information hiring committee they are kind of a final decision-maker in the sense that if they say yes you'll move on to this very simplistic final executive review if they say no the process will stop and sometimes again just like in the beginning stages they'll need more information so you might need to do additional interviews typically those are not done on-site typically those are also followed up via GBC you know the Google Hangouts I just want to say the disclaimer of this process can change executive review hiring committee they might not be a part of the process for forever they were a part of the process up until February of this year when I left Google so what else do I want to chat about ok so let's get into really why you're probably listening to this and and I want to talk about the core basics of what Google's gonna look for in any candidate and this was something that I really developed over time because this is what I consistently saw from the group's I supported which was technical program managers software engineers and support engineers those were the three core functions that I worked in with some leadership roles sprinkled in and so the first and most key item is problem solving so this is gonna be a theme throughout the day this is gonna show up in every question that you answer so behavioral interview questions you've prepped those great examples you're gonna have those problem solving examples to bring to the table but problem solving throughout the day is going to be really really critical the life at Google resource that I'm gonna provide for you Becky she's an engineer at Google if you're not an engineer go ahead two minute twenty one when Becky starts talking about the tips for how to have success but the problem solving is not just about finding different paths it's about asking clarifying questions it's about talking out loud about your thought process it's really developing and building and building and building and that's how you'll get to these answers that are a little trickier again look at what Becky has to say she's an engineer at Google and I love all of her tips starting at minute 21 of that particular video the second core item absolutely is leadership a lot of candidates are coming in interviewing for individual contributor roles doesn't matter Google is looking for leaders across the board leadership is a very very broad word but the way that this is going to show up the most is it's going to show up in your answers to those behavioral interview questions so again examples that demonstrate leadership they're gonna be really awesome for you so be thinking on that concept third core item demonstate demonstrating results and with data so backing up your examples with data I supported one group they're a pretty large hiring group at Google for my first few years and and this was a repeated theme hey that person was good in the interview but they didn't show any data they didn't bring any data to the table you have these specific results that you've had in your career bring that data to the table it's gonna be absolutely critical to success I'm so dig in dive in and and think about those specifics and bring them up during the interview fourth this is kind of a tricky one and you might want to read up a little bit more on this space but it's it's navigating ambiguity and so what is navigating ambiguity mean it means moving forward when you don't have all the information you're gonna take on some uncertainty some risk and you just need to adapt and move forward and that's something that is gonna show up throughout the day in the interview so it really is and does correlate really well with problem-solving but with these vague open-ended questions how do you navigate an answer one of those questions when you have very little information when you clarify you ask follow-up questions and so navigating ambiguity and problem-solving they'll be one in the same if you can do that well during the interview you'll do great um also what I want to chat about is just kind of lastly is this flexibility fungibility adaptability you'll hear me chat a lot about these items and during the interview this is gonna show up in a couple of different ways I mean I think one of the ways it shows up is is specifically when an interviewer asks you a follow-up question if you are so certain about path a and the interviewer stops you and says you know hey sue what about path beat and gives you this option of path B and you're stubborn about knowing that path day is right don't don't do that flex a little bit and and take the path of path be because the interviewer is curious to hear what you're saying about that this is part of the flipping switching and and moving on a dime and talking about something different it will show your problem-solving capabilities and it will show your ability to navigate ambiguity because you've had this path and it's been changed the second kind of funny one that pops up I talked about this in another video is your interview things are gonna go wrong you're gonna have your room moved and interviewer it's not going to show up don't worry about it actually just say hey I'm happy to be here and showing that flexibility and adaptability at the moment it's gonna be so critical to your success and it's just gonna improve your likability a lot again I will post those five core items in the comments below just a few last pieces of advice I know that this is again coming from a more general perspective but again this is where I saw great success at Google prepare if you're not willing to prepare you're probably not going to get the job so prep on those great examples really work on your presentation skills and lastly practice sit down with somebody else you know whether that's a family member or former colleague current colleague a friend and the best part is you can do this via video it's better to do it face-to-face but I know that can be tough especially if you're working you have a family you have other things but a friend would be willing to hop on with you at 8:00 p.m. and say hey your eye contacts not working or you tend to say i'm alois there's a lot of different items that your friends and the people that know you best will share with you if you're willing to take the time and go through that practice section session um the second item is a really really big one open-ended vague questions google is famous for these engineers you might even get open-ended math questions so just be really prepared on the open-ended questions do your research and figure out how you answer them the best way ask clarifying questions ask follow-up questions I can tell you in my Google interview my analytical interview I was asked a very open-ended question about enhancing a complex project I took a half an hour to answer that question and the only reason why we were able to go and have a half an hour is because there was a great back-and-forth there were lots of follow-up questions in there I asked lots of clarifying questions I checked in a lot with the interviewer to make sure that my story was making sense and that question went great because I was doing all the other core items I was problem solving I was navigating ambiguity and doing all those things if the question seems really short and simple it's not yeah that is how Google doesn't ask you trick questions but can trip up and trick candidates a little bit if it seems really big dig in they want you to problem solve the last piece is is common sense and I really I want you guys to use this in the entire interview process so as you're watching videos and you're prepping just think does this make sense and if it does it's probably good content same with the interview no rote question-and-answer treat it almost like you are already an employee so if you're in a meeting and a question comes to you in a meeting you probably might not answer it right away you might be thoughtful and take a second to answer collect your thoughts get organized if you were working through something you might ask for some feedback along the way does that make sense am i moving forward in the right path do the same thing in an interview be a normal person I know that it's it it's so hard you get into this a mode where you're just you're trying so hard to get the questions right but think about just having a really honest and open dialogue with the interviewer typically that goes really well a few last thoughts of most of the interviews that Google are going to be a mix of technical and behavioral it's an engineering organization so most of the interviewing is done at some level of engineering so you're going to get that tech the behavioral piece you know for the behavioral piece you just got to prep those examples how you dress talk to your recruiter about at Google is a casual company I mean when Google announced that they were becoming alphabet Larry Page was wearing basically sports gear t-shirts shorts I was thirty feet away from him when he announced it and so if Larry Page is making this huge announcement dress that way it's pretty safe to say you can dress casually my best interview candidate at Google ever rolled out of bed walked in the interview sweat pants t-shirt bed head and crushed it and I also had somebody come in in a three-piece suit when I told them to dress casual and they didn't get the job Google's a casual environment again check with your recruiter but don't worry about the clothes worry about prepping on all these other items and then lastly this is very engineering specific engineering interviews up until early this year and you'll have to ask your recruiter engineers you have to code on a white board that's weird you're used to coding on a computer get comfortable practice coding by using a piece of paper and a pen or if you have a whiteboard that you can use at your current office after hours or whatever it's gonna be it's different and it challenges your brain to work in a different way and I think that this is part of the reason why Google likes it I can't say that it's going to be done that way forever but that's the way it's been done for a long time so it's a great exercise to go through that again practices is really key I really hope this helps you know I saw a lot of content that was extremely misleading which is the reason why I did this video that I never intended on doing I didn't want to use the Google brand to build my presence my goal is to help people looking for jobs or advice anywhere for any position but with all the misleading stuff out there again I just felt like this this type of video was gonna be helpful please look at the content below the life at Google and a couple of the other links that I provide can be really helpful if you think that this kind of information is helpful at all please subscribe you won't get emails unless you click into them so really appreciate the time and and good luck with your Google search take care bye

Channel: Jeff H Sipe - Practice Interviews

Views: 126,144

Keywords: Google Interview, Interviewing at Google, Interview at Google, Interview Tips for Google, Jeff H Sipe, google job interview, google interview preparation, google interview process, google interview tips, google interview experience, google, tech company interview, google interview questions and answers, google interview questions, interviewing at google, google interview prep, google interview program manager, google interview preparation guide, interviewing with google tips

Id: ZD3NXATM-2w

Length: 16min 36sec (996 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018