I was surprised at the number of hoops google has you jump through before you actually get in the door. Not surprised that they would want to carefully screen, but surprised at how marginal the tests were. Once my resume was accepted, I had to take a skills test (test is a generous word - this test was clearly for weeding out the stupid it was so easy). After the test was submitted, I was asked to provide my GPA from both high school and college and to answer further questions about my education. As I graduated many years ago, it seemed strange to give that level of focus to a gpa, but I was told by a google employee that they have metrics of success at google that include falling into a specific gpa range. This was the first warning light for me, especially as a sales manager. Some of my best employees did not tout exceptional GPAs, and focusing so heavily on this quality may lead to missing bright, creative candidates. That being said, I passed the qualifier and went on to a 1/2 day interview with 4 employees at Google HQ. Note - HR changed my interview schedule 3 times before finally setting a date, and when I was driving down to the interview, called me in the car to change me from the morning to the afternoon, leaving me to cool my heels in Mountain View all morning. Nice!
I interviewed with 4 people who touched the position in one way or another. One was a direct manager, two were co-workers and one was from a collaborative partner department. The first interviewer appeared to have not been told that there was an interview and spent the first five minutes complaining about how "screwed up" the department is. The remainder of the interview was pretty stock questions and it was clear that she was winging it as she went along.
Next up was the hiring manager, who was a complete 180. This woman was one of the most condescending people I've ever met. Her intro consisted of telling me how difficult it is to get a job at Google and how lucky I was to make it this far. She then launched into a series of technical questions about SEO that could have been good questions if they were delivered with less sarcasm. Fortunately I come from a very technical background so the content was easy. I'm also very tenured, so her condescension did not throw me in the way it might have for a more junior employee, but it still was a very off-putting approach. After about 45 minutes of this approach she relaxed and became much more friendly. I can't tell if this was natural, or a deliberate way of handling interviews at google, but at this juncture I had decided not to take any offer given the approach.
That being said, the final two interviews by the collaborative group partners were enjoyable and easy-going in nature. They asked good questions about building relationships across different teams, and gave excellent insight into the internal working style at Google. I appreciated their candor and their genial approach.
