Maybe I’m an outlier but my interview experience with Google was extremely positive. It was challenging, but the interview team worked cooperatively with me the entire way. My single biggest piece of advice is to become best friends with your Google recruiter. We matched professionally straight off the bat (she swiped right on me on LinkedIn). Preparing for the interview gauntlet was actually fun.
Here is what I did to prepare, which got me top marks across the board:
1. Read “Cracking the Coding Interview”
2. Learn the products built by the business unit hiring you
3. Lynda.com courses cover what you need to know
4. Know the tools of the trade, Docker, JSONP, whatever is the subject matter for the business unit hiring you
5. Do a LOT of practice interviews
I think practice interviews were what got me the job at Google. On a daily basis I worked with demanding customers. My technical and interpersonal skills were tested frequently. By the time I was doing Google interviews I could handle it. Even go as far as doing interviews with other companies, just to sharpen your skills. Amazon is great for that, they love interviewing people multiple times. Play their game to your advantage.
The hardest part was the open ended non-technical questions. Think word-problems for the intellect. I can’t give details but the opening chapters of “Cracking the Coding Interview” cover this very well. Study HARD for your interviews. Like tell your partner you can’t see her for two weeks. Put your dog in the kennel. Use vacation days. Really REALLY study. You need to be without any doubts on your answers to technical questions. This is because it’s the interpersonal questions, your behavior, how you act under stress that gets you the job. You need to be technically dominant so you can devote mental energy to holding yourself together. You want to be cool as ice when they’re trying to sweat you out.
Finally, know how to code, well. Even for the Customer Engineer interviews. They won’t ask you to write a triangle collision algorithm in 5-minutes, but they will ask you to explain any solutions you propose. You will almost certainly be given an open ended development project to build and then defend it in front of a panel, if you make it that far. Again, if you’re technically strong you can tap dance around your code while focusing on having a cool, commanding demeanor.
Be in control and you will get the job.
