20 replies to this topic

[Pally]

Had a very exciting and nerve wracking interview with Google, looking forward to a response tomorrow.

 

I spent 45 minutes doing some coding in Google documents with a Sr. Software Engineer at Google via phone interview. If all goes well I will be invited down for a formal interview (or should I say 5) at their offices.

 

Anyone else have any experience applying with big tech companies?

Edited by Pally, 24 February 2014 - 12:35 PM.

[TahirSultan]

Had a very exciting and nerve wracking interview with Google, looking forward to a response tomorrow.

 

I spent 45 minutes doing some coding in Google documents with a Sr. Software Engineer at Google via phone interview. If all goes well I will be invited down for a formal interview (or should I say 5) at their offices.

 

Anyone else have any experience applying with big tech companies?

I wish you good luck man and if you got selected it,s really a honour to get a job at tech giant like google.

Do you have a degree related to programming or computers from some university or higher education institute or you are self taught?

Edited by TahirSultan, 15 January 2014 - 09:14 PM.

[Chall]

Nice! Google sounds like a very fun and exciting company to work for. Since I'm still quite young, I got a long way ahead of me before I even think of applying for any tech job.

 

You said you did some programming in Google docs? Which language, if I may ask?

Edited by Chall, 15 January 2014 - 09:31 PM.

[BlackRabbit]

Way to go Pally! I am sending good vibes for you from here!

Codecall roots for you, and that's already a reason to be happy!

[0xFACEB004]

Congrats Pally, and good luck!

[Sundance]

Congratulations!

[WendellHarper]

Best of luck buddy. All the codecall members are cheering for your

[CharanSingh]

Congratulations.......i will pray that you get this prestigious job..............

[WingedPanther73]

Good luck!

[lespauled]

Excellent.  Good luck.  

 

I once went for a position at Microsoft.  The interview was in the evening, and I had been at work for about 18 hours straight, due to a major issue with some clown promoting something to production without going through QA.  I wasn't in my peak for an interview, but went anyway.  

 

Microsoft had a method of interviewing in pieces.  There are usually 20-30 candidates, and you meet with one interviewer at a time.  If you pass that interview, you move onto the next one.  If not, you go home.

 

It started at 6:30 pm and I met with 7 different technical people and one salesman.  First was an easy "getting to know you" interview to get a feel of your personality.  The technical questions came after that.  It was jump into the fire time right away. 

 

I love these types of interviews.  I see it as a challenge, almost a sport.  The hours being awake were taking their toll.  One interviewer asked me to be more verbose with my answers, even though I gave him the correct answer.  He knew I knew the technology, but wanted a bit more explaining of the technology.

 

Throughout the evening, the 20-30 people dwindled down to a handful of people.  I met with 7 technical people, and we were down to 3 survivors left.

 

Finally, I met with the district sales manager.  This is where things got a little strange.  He asked if I had any sales experience.  I was a developer, so I answered truthfully, no.  He went on with the interview regarding sales.  I simply couldn't understand it, but I went this far.  

 

The end result was that he told me that I had incredible technical skills but they are "looking for someone to go into a company and sell the Microsoft brand".  Apparently, they want people that will do anything to persuade people to stop doing things in house and have them hire Microsoft to do it for them.

 

I left there at 11:45pm.  It was an exhausting night, especially considering I was up for more than 24 hours straight.

 

The problem was that I was stunned about how the interview turned wildly.  I didn't get much sleep that night and was a mess the next day.

[Pally]

Thank you everyone for your support, I'm still waiting for a response and wanted to answer a few questions I saw.

I am graduating college with bachelors in computer science this is spring / may. Google reached out to our university and requested a list of recommended students and am happy to say my professors added me to the list.
The position is for a full time software engineer specifically for new grads.

The language we used in the interview was java and it was my choice, ultimatly they gave me a choice between python c++ or java, the human resourses lady who organized the interview said those are the primary languages google uses and thus want to see some profieciency in those areas. They also made it fairly easy by listing exactly what they were looking for from us.. basically 90% mix of datastructure, algorithim, and coding ability.

Thanks again hopefully ill get a response soon
Les pauled, sorry to hear about that.. interesting to hear about how they wanted sales experience.. when I talked to googlea human resources the first thing she went into is that the failure rate of interviews at google is high and basically made sure I was ready for rejection and to understand how hard it is to get in... though i must say microsoft running groups of 20 down sounds even more stressful lol

[lespauled]

Hope it works out for you.  

 

Nothing to be sorry about.  I was mad for about a day or so, then got over it quickly.  Thankfully, I still had my other job.

 

Every interview is a learning experience.  Look at it that way.  When you first start out, you get nervous in interviews.  After a few years of consulting, you get so used to them that you don't get nervous at all.

 

Best of luck.