Search Engine Journal

Job Interview at Google

I’ve had only a handful of job interviews in my life (although I have conducted many) and thus far can claim that I am 4 for 4 in the interview to employment ratio. Not being an expert on the receiving end of the interview process, I found the blog posting My Interview & Job Offer from Google by Peter Abilla to be quite entertaining.

Peter writes about his Google job interview for a position on the Google Print team. The interview process consisted of the usual images of the GooglePlex with sweaty bike riding engineers and brain teasers, but there were some interesting accounts of Peter’s interview process with Google which I found surprising.

* Google not forking out any money for the flight:

“unlike most companies that fly their candidates out for an onsite interview, google’s policy was for me to pay for my flight, hotel, and food, but that they would reimburse me later. i thought that was lame and unprofessional; after all, they are the ones that contacted me for an interview and i never applied for a job with them.”

* Fluffy questions from a Google Print ‘Librarian’:

“the next person came in had a background in library science and an mba from michigan. he was really nice too and asked fluffy questions. he wasn’t an engineer and i don’t think he knew what to ask me, so he asked me lame conversational-type questions. i don’t think it was a fit interview either; i think he was just clueless.”

* Can’t do an interview on an empty stomach:

“there was no lunch, but i was free to raid the fully-stocked kitchen whenever i wanted to”

* Ultimately declining the ‘Google’ job offer:

the hr guy called and gave me an offer! but, it wasn’t what i was expecting. i was excited for the google stock units (gsu) and the phat salary that would barely keep me alive with the bay area cost of living, but that’s not what i got. instead, google offered me a contractual position, with a very high hourly rate. of course, because it was contractual, there would be no benefits or google stock units. on the phone, on the spot, i declined the job offer.