I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Google (San Francisco, CA) in Nov 2018
Interview
Initial call with a recruiter, a phone call with a designer, design exercise and onsite interview.
My recruiter was really helpful throughout the process. The phone call that I had with a lead designer was a bit confusing. I know that they have a template to follow, but sometimes they don't truly care about what they are asking, so the question tend to be pretty broad and ambiguous. So it was difficult to understand what they wanted to get out of each question sometimes.
The design exercise didn't go well. I liked the exercise topic, but obviously their exercise is not a quick one. You need to invest tons of time to figure out end-to-end process and deliver in a presentable format.
It was okay that it didn't go well, but they don't give you any feedback at all on the design exercise, which is pretty unfair. I didn't feel that the design team respects your time, interest and effort. I felt almost like I was treated just one of many disposable design pawns (which is definitely true to them). I wish they have a bit more humanity rather than being a cool top snob company...
This was the second time to work on an exercise. They told me that let's keep in touch for the future opportunities. But this is it, I won't do it again. I'm sure that they don't want to deal with me again either :(
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What would be your approach when your design worked effectively for the one aspect of the product but not working for the other aspect?
The interview process felt quite unprofessional.
HR emailed me on the same day and asked me to choose an interview time that day, which felt very unreasonable and gave me almost no time to prepare.
After the phone screen, I was supposed to interview with the hiring manager, but the coordination seemed to missing something.
No interview was scheduled, and I only found out something was wrong when I followed up during the interview week. I then received a last-minute calendar invitation.
After the interview, there was no follow-up at all. I finally received a rejection email about a month and a half later.
Overall, the process showed a lack of respect for candidates.
The interview process has been pretty smooth. Their HR team is super friendly and helpful throughout the process. Although I didn't get an offer, it was a great learning experience.
I applied online. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Aug 2024
Interview
first was a call,
Second was an assessment,
Third was an interview round.
I got rejected after the interview round. No feedback was provided, neither any ways to contact them back.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why did I choose to do a Master' program in spite of having a good experience?