I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Seattle, WA) in Nov 2016
Interview
Recruiters were terrible with lots of hand-offs, but on-site interviewers were nice. I think I talked to ~7 different people before I even got on-site, which is insane. It's very difficult to get feedback regarding areas for improvement... Google seems awesome but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.
I applied online. The process took 8 weeks. I interviewed at Google (París) in Jun 2016
Interview
Got a call at an inconvenient hour (7pm), phone connection was really bad (why don't they simply use Google Hangouts?) so it was difficult to hear the interviewer. The scheduler was very nice and accommodating however. Did feel very impersonal but that's fine.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What are industries will be impacted by self driving cars? How and why?
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Oct 2016
Interview
Met 4 people in the morning, 1 over lunch and was invited back to the afternoon session to meet 2 more people. If you get invited back after lunch it means you have done reasonably well. If you do well during your final 2 interviews you will be presented to the hiring committee in a week or two (completely different people than the ones you interviewed with - they just read the feedback). The committee makes the final call and if you pass you then need to find a team in Google to work with as a PM.
The people I wet with were all very nice and asked some interesting questions. I have read enough about Google PM interviews to know what to expect. The Engineering guy I met in the afternoon asked me to explain the most difficult technical challenge I faced and how I overcame it.
In the end I got the thumbs down for the committee - no reason given which is very frustrating considering I put in weeks of preparation. With Google you can generally apply again after a year, but I move on.... maybe in my next life :-)
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
You are tasked by your Google manager with creating a "smart fridge". Take me through the steps to come up with the product, how you'd sell it, market it, etc.