[How To Prepare For Your Google Interview
Leadership] You've done it. You've landed an
on-site interview with Google. Congratulations! My fellow Googlers and I
would like to share our tips and advice on how to prepare. But before we get started,
there's something that you should know. Leadership here at Google
is important at every level. Leadership can take many forms. And every Googler, no matter their job
or level, has leadership qualities. No matter which role
you're interviewing for, we will be evaluating you
on communication and leadership style, navigating complexity and ambiguity,
working with teams, vision, and delivering results. 1. Communication and Leadership Style Communication is incredibly important
in the work we do at Google. It plays a significant role
in how we approach developing and building our products. In your interview, it's important
to illustrate your communication skills and style as a leader
with examples from your past. Googlers expect leaders
to be authentic, transparent, humble, and technically knowledgeable. No matter your level or role,
they will want to know the why behind your decision-making. And they may challenge you
on some of your choices, which is why it's important
that you're open to leading and working with diverse teams whose views
may be very different from yours. As a leader,
we don't expect you to always be the most knowledgeable
person in the room. And we know you won't always
have the answer to every question, but we do expect you to seek out
and work with the teams or individuals who are the best suited partners
to solve a problem or make a decision. [2. Navigating Complexity and Ambiguity] At Google, we look to solve
complex problems at a global scale, and this can often put you
and your team in ambiguous situations. A strong leader keeps an open mind,
understands the larger picture, and always goes out of their way
to communicate those big decisions. You want to make sure
no one is left in the dark. Strong leaders are also able
to identify and manage the needs of internal and external stakeholders, while keeping your
own team's projects in mind. It's very likely that someone from
another team would come to you and ask for work
that's critical to their project. And that could stretch you
and your team thin. Knowing how to balance these requests
with your team's priorities is a necessary skill
to leading at Google. [3. Working with Teams] For our products to be successful, we
need teams who are inspired to innovate. During your interview,
we want to hear about the times when you've shown team members
that you value their perspectives even when they're
different from your own. Leaders at Google create an open
and inclusive environment through clear communication
and by showing respect for each individual's opinion. Explain to us how you handle these
situations with understanding and care and how you
avoided escalating the issue. [4. Vision] One of the many reasons
people work here is because they have a vision
of changing the world to make it better. As a leader, it's your job
to help shape that vision. To do that, you'll need to be
ready to answer these questions. Have you formulated
your team mission? Who are the users of your product? And what are you solving for? But that's not all. We are always challenging the status quo
and rethinking how we do things. You should be prepared
to think outside of the box and share examples of your vision
and product thinking. [5. Delivering Results] Having a vision and expressing
it well aren't worth much if the team can't translate
that into concrete goals. So, we will be evaluating you
on your project management skills and how you deliver results. We will be looking for
how you define clear goals, develop a plan, delegate tasks,
manage progress, and maintain the team's focus. At Google, we aim to eliminate
as much process overhead as possible. That's because we value
a results-driven environment rather than one driven by process. Therefore, finding the right
balance between process and flexibility can be viewed as one aspect
of the art of leadership. On one hand,
you want to remain adaptable and ensure enough space for creativity. On the other hand, you still want
measurable results in the end, and consistent tracking helps that. Be prepared to explain
how you'd balance process and getting the results you need. [6. Best Practices] Now that you have the focus areas,
here's some overall best practices to keep in mind for
your actual interview day. We want to understand how you think
and how you make decisions, so it's important to explain your
thought process during the interview. Many questions will be
deliberately open-ended to give us an idea
of how you solve problems. We encourage you
to ask for clarification. And lastly, it's important for us to hear
how you've improved as a leader over time. So share with us the moments
when you didn't get it right, what you learned,
and how you've grown. And those are our tips to help you
prepare for the leadership components of your interview at Google. If you have any questions
about your upcoming interview, you can always reach out
to your recruiter. We're here to help. And we look forward to seeing you
at one of our offices around the world soon. [Create for everyone] [Design for everyone] [Code for everyone] [Build for everyone] [Google
careers.google.com]
