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my interview & job offer from google

March 29, 2006 at 12:57 pm · Filed under amazon, business, general, google, technology

/*begin update*/

12/20/2006 Update: You might be interested in this ajaxy, draggable timeline of acquisitions completed by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Enjoy!

8/23/2006 Update: I capitalize now — have been for several months. Enough readers gave me crap that I decided to capitalize. Also, the position was originally a full-time, well-paying position. I don’t think I made that clear enough. Google, then, offered me a contractual position and asked me to give up my well-paying, full-time position.

04/26/2006 Update: yes, i recited that brain teaser from memory, so i’m sure i shared it incorrectly. the approach, though, is this: thinking now of probability without replacement,

(364/365) * (363/365) . . .

this is the approach to the problem. given this, would i take the wager? no; it’s a bad bet.

regarding CapITALizATION: in business memos, reports, papers, and dissertations — yes. on my blog, i find it easier to just write and not worry about capitalization. no big deal; just a preference.

google contacted me about a position with the print team. i was well paid and was doing well at the company i was with at the time, but i agreed to interview with google anyway. the head of global print operations was under a lot of pressure due to the lawsuits, etc. yet, he needed headcount. the job was for a permanent position — why else would they go through a grueling 2 days of interviews for a contractor?  but when i pressed him on salary and asked him to match what i was making and i anchored at an amount, he buckled and made it contractual instead. he waffled, so i said "no thanks".

the people i met were nice, very bright, and focused on their work. several of them complained to me about their frustrations. i thought that was interesting. i declined because of the iffy-ness of a contractual job (though the cash would be very good); the high cost of the bay area wasn’t appealing to me; and, the future of the print effort seemed unsure to me. those were my reasons. now, back to the google interview below…

/*end update*/

+++++

back in october 2005, i interviewed with google, for a position with google print. my interview was over 2 days, on 10/12/2005 and 10/13/2005. i didn’t do much to prepare for the interview, except read-up on all the google print controversy regarding the n lawsuits against google print. 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. luckily, i was going to be in that area anyway for business, so i just scheduled my business trip for that week.

day 1, 4 interviews

in the lobby reception desk, i typed my name on this little widget and signed the dotted line. then, this little widget prints a self-adhesive name tag with my name, google, and my location. i gladly took that self-adhesive and put in on my shirt breast. then, i met with the hr people, both of whom were very nice. they were very, very late, but i had fun hanging out in the lobby of 1625 charleston road, building #44. in the lobby were 4 refrigerators full of odwalla drinks; i helped myself to a couple. on the wall was a large flat monitor that showed, in real time, the current google searches. this was really amusing. i remember the following searches:

  • size d bra
  • how to make a bomb
  • osama
  • italian mob + hbo
  • catholic anger

this was really cool. finally, the hr folks were ready and brought me into a room next to the korean and chinese speaking engineers. my first interviewer came in late and was really sweaty. he had just ridden his bike to work. he was sorry he was late. he was super nice and his questions were easy. the next person was a little tougher; she had been with sun microsystems for several years and was in charge of their warehouse and distribution side. she asked some tough questions, was very open about her frustrations with google, but ended up very nice to me. 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. the next person i interviewed with was sharp; he was a stanford mba and had been in the print industry for a while. he wasn’t quantitative at all, but was nice. he asked me hypothetical questions about potential problems that they face in the print group. the problems were very interesting. there is true innovation going on at google, for sure.

that was it for day 1. there was no lunch, but i was free to raid the fully-stocked kitchen whenever i wanted to; i helped myself to a healthy dose of mountain dew and stopped by the cafeteria for a veggie sandwich. the atmosphere there is very cool and i felt energy and could visually see the innovation going on. very cool.

that evening, i went to my hotel and did some work for the company i was with at the time.

day 2, 7 interviews

i did the whole self-adhesive, name tag thing again. got an odwalla (2 of them), then waited. eventually, the hr people came and got me. this day was much tougher than day 1. my first interview was with a former nasa scientist-turned googler. my interview with him was fun and interesting; he proposed several real case studies and problems that they face in the print team. my second interview was with another engineer; he asked me basic questions and one brain teaser. the brain teaser goes something like this, if i remember it right:

you are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager?

i had fun trying to solve this one. the answer has to do with the number of days in the year and the probability the person’s birthday falls on the same day as mine (without replacement). i eventually solved it, but it took time learning how to apply probability with no replacement. i tried using 10! (factorial), for some reason, but that was totally the wrong approach. we ended the interview; i didn’t feel as good about that one, because i struggled a little bit through that brain teaser.

my next interviewer asked a lot of algorithm questions. he made me write pseudo-code for a binary search; he had me uml a system; he made me explain cron, diff, the permission system in unix, and had me write a bunch sql queries. this guy was a scientist at epson, the printer company. he was sharp; quantitative but warm. i liked that interview. my next interview was with a nice lady who had been with google for a few years. she was cold, but not mean; observant, but not expressive. i felt that i answered her questions fine and our interview was done.

my next couple of interviews were with people that i had interviewed with the previous day, in day 1. those went fine and uneventful. but, by this time of day, i was getting really tired, physically and just tired of interviewing.

alas, the last interviewer came, the head of global operations for the google print team. he was very nice, open, and direct. that interview went fine and he openly shared his strong interest in my background and said that i’d be a great addition to the team. he also shared how living in the bay area is so nice and seemed to be trying to sell the location and the company. i saw this as a good sign. our time ended; i left, but before i walked out the bulding, i managed to steal a few more of those odwalla drinks.

i drove to the san jose airport, caught my flight, and went home.

weeks later. . .

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. moving to the bay area wasn’t that appealing to me, especially if the job didn’t have google stock units and benefits. the cash was good, but my family needed more than that.

all in all, the experience was okay. there is certainly more hype about google than i believe it really merits. true, they hire sharp — really sharp people; i felt a lot of energy and could see the innovation happening there. but, the people i interviewed with didn’t seem happy to me. they looked tired and grumpy. i didn’t get a feeling that google treats their people very well. i’m glad for my decision not to join google. but, i’ll always wish i had free reign on those odwalla drinks :)

+++++

Articles on Ethnography and Design:

  1. People Remember Experiences, Not Features
  2. Simplify The Product
  3. Ask Aza Raskin
  4. Aza Raskin on Poka-Yoke & The Humane Interface
  5. Aza Raskin on Quasimodal Design and The ATM
  6. Aza on Feature-Bloat and Site Clutter
  7. Aza on Google Search Results Page
  8. Aza on Cooperation and Team Size
  9. Design Thinking in Medicine
  10. On Designing a Watering Can for Little Hands
  11. Queueing Theory and Visual Management
  12. An Interview with the Inventor of "Clocky"
  13. Bad Breath but Good Design
  14. What is Ethnography

Please find originally-written articles on Queueing Theory below:

For a few articles on Operations, lean and six sigma, please visit the links below:

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151 Comments »

  1. Chad Blodgett said,

    March 31, 2006 @ 9:13 am

    Pete - I’m glad you documented that. Very interesting post. I think I’ll go get an odwalla drink!

    P.s. I found your spot on VIPBloggers!

  2. Anonymous said,

    April 2, 2006 @ 8:13 am

    It may not be a good idea to decline an offer on the spot. You should have told them you were excited about the opportunity to work at google but for practical reasons you needed a better offer.

    In other words, tell them exactly what it would take to get you out there and see if they give it to you. You never know. If you decline immediately they assume you have no interest and there is nothing they can do to hire you.

    Maybe you didn’t have any interest, but it’s always good to try to negotiate and see what happens.

  3. Paul Allen (The Lesser) » Interviewing with Google said,

    April 19, 2006 @ 9:45 am

    [...] A new Utah business blogger Pete Abilia has a great post on his site about his 2 days of interviews with Google last year. He turned them down when they offered him a high-paying contract position but no stock and no benefits. Pete will be able to tell his grandchildren someday, “yeah, Google made me an offer, but I turned them down on the spot.” Cool. Pete has one of the most ad-packed blogs I’ve seen lately, but he does have some great content, and Guy Kawasaki actually does link to his blog. Welcome to the Utah blogosphere, Pete! [...]

  4. Haochi said,

    April 22, 2006 @ 8:09 am

    InsideGoogle(http://google.blognewschannel.com) just added your interview story.

  5. n m said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 5:01 am

    The answer is obviously NO-DON’T WAGER.

    you don’t even need to do probabilities.
    Do you mean birthday, or birthday MONTH

  6. psabilla said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 5:08 am

    n m,

    actually, the answer is located here. also, they were looking for a thought process rather than a final answer. thanks for reading.

    pete

  7. Daniel said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 5:59 am

    Why do you use TinyURL? it’s so annoying!!

  8. Not a Googler said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 7:28 am

    I got the same feeling about the Googlers. In my interviews, they generally seemed to be pretty disheveled, and not so thrilled that they had to be interviewing (when a company grows as fast as they did, everyone hires). Some interviews were better than others, and the immature interviewers resorted to “Im smarter than you” tactics (technical one-upsmanship). As someone who has hired technical staff for over 5 years, I really only got the feeling that one or two of my 7 interviewers knew what they were doing. In the end, they pulled a bait-and-switch on me, offering me a different job than the one I applied to. I’m really glad I hadn’t drank the Kool Aid…a lot of Googlers I know seem to be unhappy with their jobs.

  9. Josh said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 7:34 am

    They actually offered a job (contract) to someone who doesn’t seem to be able to use proper capitalization?

  10. Ganesh APP said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 7:48 am

    Hey nice article. I am a fan of google and I aspire to work for tham as soon as I get my degree.

  11. Peteris Krumins said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 7:51 am

    I am sorry but the teaser you wrote is not much of a teaser. Can you
    verify if you got it correctly?

    Having 10 people in a room and asking for odds someone having birthday
    the same day you do is next to nothing. Basically you lose all your money.

  12. Jonathan Tang said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 7:53 am

    On the birthday problem…

    The link you give is a different problem from the one you describe in the interview. The link describes the probability that *any* two partygoers will have the same birthday, which is 1 - 364/365 * 363/365 * 362/365 … * 343/365, which works out to > 1/2. The interview question, as you describe it, is whether any of the partygoers have the same birthday *as you*.

    I don’t really understand the question, because it seems too easy. The chance that any given person will have the same birthday as you is 1/365. If you lose $2 364/365 of the time, and win $1 1/365 of the time, you’re going to be in a really deep hole. Are you certain this is how they phrased it?

  13. Dan Nordquist said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 7:56 am

    Well, now you’ve gotten yourself into three separate birthday party puzzles, all with different answers and probabilities. If I’m talking to you on a street corner, and someone walks by, the probability of him having my birthday is 1/365, or 364 to 1. I will happily pay you a dollar if he doesn’t have my birthday, but only if you pay me a fair rate for actually matching my birthday: $364. It doesn’t matter how many times this process is repeated (a roomful of people will have independent birthdays). The odds are still the same.

    Perhaps 12 people in a room want to wager that any two of them have the same birthday? 4:1 odds would be about fair for that.

  14. Tim said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 7:59 am

    “also, they were looking for a thought process rather than a final answer.”

    The problem, as stated, is trivial and shouldn’t take more than a second’s consideration. I believe you stated the problem incorrectly. As stated, your friend is essentially offering you:

    For every person at the party, 1/365 you win $1. 364/365 you lose $2.

  15. Bombie said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 8:41 am

    I don’t know why people seemed unhappy to you in Google, the stock price alone takes very good care of them. Are your interviewers all contractual workers? haha…
    I know someone who just got out of college and went there as a beginner QA not that long ago, still got filthy rich with his stock options. Is he happy? Do we even need to ask?

  16. Matt said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 9:07 am

    Some info on birthday probabilities is here: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BirthdayProblem.html

    I recall reading somewhere that the minimum number of people to have in a sample in order to have a 50% chance of at least ONE pair of people sharing a birthday is 23. I also recall reading (somewhere? or maybe it was in college) that with 50 people in a room, there is a 97% chance that at least one pair of people will share a birthday.

    That’s all I got, and I don’t work for Google.

  17. mike marzolf said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 9:55 am

    you didn’t indicate that YOU would have to pay him the $2

  18. Dan said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 9:55 am

    Maybe you’re at a party that is thrown for multiple people celebrating the same birthday…wow, now we’re talking. Personally I would have asked a question or two about the party before answering…it’s definitely about thought process, you could argue that everyone there has the same birthday, technically you’re not wrong without knowing more information.

  19. Digg User said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 10:02 am

    Do you know there are Shift and Caps Lock buttons on your keyboard?

  20. Another Digg User said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 10:41 am

    Do you, Digg User, know that the lack of capitalization in no way detracted from his story? Stop nitpicking just because you have nothing worthwhile to say.

  21. mk said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 10:43 am

    I think the birthday question is how many people have the same birth *DAY* as you.

    As in if you’re birthday is on the the first of the month, how many people will also have their birth day on the first vs. the same birth date: month/day/year

  22. Julius Seizure said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 11:21 am

    I wonder what the hourly rate was. I live in the bay area as a software contractor. The going rate for Sr. C# / .NET contractors (going through a body shop) is around $60-$70 / hour on a 1099 or corp-to-corp basis.

    I would assume that since there was no body-shop middleman adding an additional 25%-35%, they would be able to beat this rate.

    Were they able to better the typical going rate?

  23. Craig said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 11:33 am

    My response would have been …

    “So, is my friend a hot girl? Cause i’d probably just give her the money in hopes of sleeping with her…”
    -or-

    “Hell, I’m at a party and gambling? Do i have bigger problems. . .?”
    -or-

    “I work for Google, I want to bet more like, $10,000 dollars (evil laugh)”…

  24. lowdown said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 11:36 am

    Not using capitalization is a way to show that you are too cool for school. Obviously you know how to capitalize, but you just don’t give a **** - so why bother. Next year people will start dropping the punctuation. Then you will be sorry for whining about this lack of capitalization.

  25. infundibulum » Wikipedia will Eat us All said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 11:46 am

    [...] I was reading somebody’s description of their job interview at Google, and apparently they asked him something to do with the birthday paradox: you are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager? [...]

  26. alec said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 12:43 pm

    I think you capture the essence of the Google work environment very well — especially the part of the Sweaty Bicycling Employee being late for your interview. I hope he wasn’t covered in Smug, though ;)

  27. Siqi Chen said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 1:13 pm

    Isn’t the interview process subject to nondisclosure? You could be risking your offer by disclosing it.

  28. Anon. said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 1:39 pm

    Siqi Chen….

    uh… did you read? i dont reckon he cares if the offer is “risked”… he declined them cuz they weren’t ready to drop that stock on him…

    lol@the story…. i love to hear how unhappy people are behind the digital curtain of this very public company… hehehe. it’s like a nazi propaganda film where all ‘ze’ germans are eating their bunt cake and smiling and waving, and forthing over hitler like he was a Beatle or something… but the reality of it is that they are all paid actors or threatened before hand… ahh.. such is google… the fourth reich.

  29. not@google said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 3:37 pm

    I can understand how people can make good money and still be unhappy
    with their jobs. Especially in the SF bay area, where there is a lot
    of pressure put on people not just to work hard, but to live up to
    certain expectations. It doesn’t surprise me at all that some
    Googlers are unhappy.

  30. SEARCH ENGINES WEB said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 8:35 pm

    ///but, the people i interviewed with didn’t seem happy to me. they looked tired and grumpy.

    They may not have APPEARED to be happy, but Human Beings are certainly more multi-dimensional than a chance meeting during their workday.

    To you this was a very important ocassion, but don’t forget - they may have had many other important projects on their minds which consumes alot of mental and physical energies.

    But, even as a consultant - the networking with some of the most brilliant minds anywhere is priceless.

    check out the xooglers.blogspot.com if you haven’t already.

  31. tab said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 8:43 pm

    >Do you know there are Shift and Caps Lock buttons on your keyboard?

    I guess somebody at digg thinks you should scream some in your article.

  32. czar said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 8:58 pm

    The birthday problem (as stated) analysis is as follows:

    You have to calculate the expected value (average winnings) of each person (you and your con-artist friend) and compare the two.

    The expected value for you is:

    (9C1)*(1/365)(1-1/365)^8 + (9C2)(1/365)^2(1-1/365)^7 + … + (9C9)(1/365)^9

    The expected value for your friend can be caluated in a similar way. As it turns out your friend’s expected winnings is much higher, as a result he will make a killing.

    Now it seems based on the answer given by the author, that the original problem statement was probably something along the lines of:

    “you owe 2 bucks to your friend if no one in the room has the same birthday and you get a buck from your friend if at least have 2 people have the same birthday”

  33. csapdani said,

    April 26, 2006 @ 11:23 pm

    Interesting story, thanks for posting!

  34. dorkfish said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 9:13 am

    All nitpicking aside, the Google interview process can be painful. I was approached by Google for work internationally, and went through a 12 person interview process. All the feedback I got was very positive (inside source), and the final stage of the interview process was with a very high level person in the company. She determined (probably fairly accurately) that I didn’t have the experience they needed for that particular position. End of interview process.

    Ideally, I wouldn’t have done the previous 11 interviews, or at least those 11 interviews would have been with people who were looking for something more similar to what this final interviewer was seeking.

    In short, I think Google is a great company with solid market position (in an industry with almost null switching costs… ergo shaky ground) and pretty smart (though generally not brilliant) people. The interview process, however, could stand some scrutiny…

  35. boomer2006 said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 9:41 am

    Interview processes at top companies are generally very painful. They are trying to be highly selective. If they just wave everyone in the door, they wouldn’t get extraordinary people.

    One company I worked for during the Internet boom, staffed entirely with Stanford, MIT, and Princeton grads, asked nothing but hard brainteasers. They were a web startup, but didn’t bother asking programming questions, under the theory that a bright person would pickup any programming they needed. For 6 hours, a candidate would be asked approximately 12 brainteasers. If you made some progress answering 4, that was considered good, but we generally didn’t make an offer unless they made some progress answering all 12. One candidate stopped in the middle of an interview and said, “stop, I’m tired of this. It’s over” and just walked out of the building.

  36. DoubleXL said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 2:37 pm

    I agree with the instinct that you needed a permanate position rather than a contract position. I personally belive that from my expreience in HR and management that you may have found your interviewers to not be excited about there jobs because they first do several of these a day, boring work, second the position requires alot of thought, many of these people who opperate at such a high level are not capable of being your best friend, they relate to people on a much more mechanical level. As for the brain teasers, these other comments don’t get the point, that is to describe the odd mathmatically not just using reason. Computers don’t use reason, they use math!

  37. Rt Wing Fan said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 3:29 pm

    It amazes me to see how many people equate happiness with financial achievement. Just as some of the happiest people I know are very low wage earners, some of my richest contacts are also very unhappy. Joy is a gift. All the rest is posing.

  38. Stuart said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 3:40 pm

    You can see a video clip of ‘Google Live Query’ here:

    http://google-blog.dirson.com/post.new/0341/

    Just makes you want to type searches in like

    “We know you are watching us”

  39. cypheranarchist said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

    It must be all those free meals and massages.

  40. Scott Bryan said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 6:32 pm

    I’m guessing that Google is offering most of the people they would like to try out high paid contractual work in order to allow for an arbitrary evaluation period before taking them on as FTEs if they make the grade. I do think you reacted too quickly. I think I would have had a pat answer ready, like “I’ll get back to you after I talk with my …,” regardless of their offer just to allow myself time to distance myself emotionally. Then I would have countered that I thought they were wise to arrange for an arbitary evaluation period in this way, that I was pretty sure I’d be able to fit in and contribute substantially to their team, and that I’d take the job if they paid twice the relocation costs up to something like $20K.

  41. Vermouth said,

    April 27, 2006 @ 8:49 pm

    Couldn’t help myself… the answer to the birthday wager in a subsequent link to a Stanford mathematician’s typically rigid calculations is, of course, wrong also. He neglects to take into consideration that birthdays are not evenly distributed thoughout the year. For instance, if your birthday is in October or April you have a better chance than if your birthday is in December or sharing a birthday with someone else. The link below states it more discreetly, but mathematicians and their hard science breathren, as a group, are among the stupidest people on the planet.

    http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=402

  42. Raza said,

    April 28, 2006 @ 7:40 am

    The brain teaser is so straightforward without any calculation and you tried solving it !!!!

    There are 365 days and probability of having people with same birthday is so less compared to having different leave alone the fact that he is even getting twice then you.

    I wonder now what kind of people google hires.

  43. AkAk said,

    April 28, 2006 @ 11:26 am

    Is there alcohol at this party? Was it BYOB?

  44. Snake said,

    April 28, 2006 @ 12:18 pm

    Ya think Google would get better people if they located someplace where the cost of living was more reasonable?

  45. Rocketboom Viewer said,

    April 28, 2006 @ 3:33 pm

    You had an odd experience. I have a friend (who now works for Google,) who had a different interview experience.

    In his case, they DID pay to fly him down. The actual interviews were similar in concept (he is a system administrator, so the actual technical info I’m sure differed.) But they did offer him a real permanent position. Which miffed some of the interview-ers, because when they started at the same position, they were contractual, and took awhile to convert to permanent.

    (But, he has to move from Portland to ‘middle of nowhere, Oregon’, so maybe they have to offer permanent to offset the awful location.)

  46. Another Rockboom Viewer said,

    April 28, 2006 @ 6:36 pm

    I clicked on Amanda and she sent me here…

    Interesting observation about the folks who work at Google (tired, grumpy, chronically late…) Because of a book I’m reading now, I bet you knew a lot about them right away - and weren’t going to take a job there either. Maybe you’d enjoy the book, too:

    “Blink” by Malcom Gladwell.

    I read his book “The Tipping Point” last week. Another good read.

    Have a great day!

  47. Jian Chen said,

    April 28, 2006 @ 10:38 pm

    Like big corps, Google is a great company for beginners. It is not good to work there if you aim high…

    Maybe you can become the next google or microsoft. So, why be a corp cag?

  48. Aks said,

    April 29, 2006 @ 2:00 am

    Google sux!!… get a phd and go write javascripts… thats what google is all about?.. there is only one thing that I am personally happy with.. google search… not because i find everything.. but usually they are better other existing competitors. honestly i dont think they are going to last like this for long.. they do have a long list of failures or things that did not really create a big buzz or give that cutting edge over their competitors.. seriouslty. google in my opinion is heading for 100$ end of the year… and thats even higher that what they are really worth

  49. North by Northeast said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 6:33 am

    [...] I was reading this blog entry about an interview at Google and the author wrote that he wasn’t offered the compensation he was looking for. The commenters jumped at the chance to say “money doesn’t equal happiness.” Which lead to the following thought: [...]

  50. Webmaster Blog said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 10:58 am

    Job-Interview bei Google

    Hier kann man einen interessanten Bericht von einer Bewerbung bei Google nachlesen. Zwar auf Englisch, dass sollte die meisten ja aber nicht stören

    …

  51. John A. Bilicki III said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 4:52 am

    I suppose you could use first-letter pseudo-element to capitalize letters but it doesn’t really matter that much especially since this would only apply to the first sentence of each paragraph. This font size is fine since your site doesn’t have a lot of clutter.

    Any company that sends you an unsolicited invite should always cover costs up-front. Too bad they didn’t offer more for you though.

  52. Jay-O Journal » Google Hiring Process said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 8:32 am

    [...] Rocket Boomで紹介してたのでmy interview & job offer from googleを読んでみた。Googleで採用面接を受けた人の体験記なのだけど、詳細に書いてあっておもしろい。 [...]

  53. Johnny Debacle said,

    May 3, 2006 @ 4:44 am

    “One company I worked for during the Internet boom, staffed entirely with Stanford, MIT, and Princeton grads, asked nothing but hard brainteasers. They were a web startup, but didn’t bother asking programming questions, under the theory that a bright person would pickup any programming they needed. For 6 hours, a candidate would be asked approximately 12 brainteasers. If you made some progress answering 4, that was considered good, but we generally didn’t make an offer unless they made some progress answering all 12. One candidate stopped in the middle of an interview and said, “stop, I’m tired of this. It’s over” and just walked out of the building.”

    And I’m sure that was a hugely successful web-startup.

  54. Greatpeople Hunting » Blog Archive » The Google effect said,

    May 3, 2006 @ 11:32 am

    [...] Some really smart folks are speaking out on the egalitarian culture being created and can it be sustained. See, Shmula, my interview and job offer from Google [...]

  55. Tunde said,

    May 3, 2006 @ 8:11 pm

    Some guy asks ‘does he mean birthday or birthday month?’ way up there. I think the ‘day’ in birthday actually means day.

  56. mark said,

    May 3, 2006 @ 8:31 pm

    If I was to ask someone the Bithday brain teaser….I would rate them on how fast they answered the question. Right or Wrong would be my second thought…

  57. PJ said,

    May 4, 2006 @ 10:22 am

    I’d say to puzzle face: Here’s $2, go calculate some Pi and leave me alone.

    Besides, I don’t gamble.

  58. PJ said,

    May 4, 2006 @ 10:23 am

    PS: You sound a little bitter.

  59. Q said,

    May 5, 2006 @ 3:54 am

    i don’t capitalise either. and sometimes i spell British.

  60. Rainer said,

    May 7, 2006 @ 2:27 pm

    here is a video of the monitor with the searches you mentioned:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=EHV4C5W0slw

  61. deananash said,

    May 7, 2006 @ 10:48 pm

    Q - you’re too funny. You capitalized not once, but twice!

  62. Nev said,

    May 17, 2006 @ 11:30 pm

    So far, the comments on this birthday puzzle have neglected the effect of leap years.

    Imagine a span of time four years long. Wikipedia informs me that you can call this span an “Olympiad”. For the sake of clarity I’ll just call it a “fouryear.” Every fouryear consists of three common years (365 days long) and one leap year (366 days long). How many days are there in a fouryear? 365+365+365+366 = 1461 days.

    Imagine that one baby is born every day in that fouryear. For most birthdays, there will be four babies with that birthday. For instance, in the fouryear 1980-1983, there will be one baby each born on June 2 1980, June 2 1981, June 2 1982, and June 2 1983. There will be one baby born on leap day, February 29 1980.

    Imagine you were born on a regular day (not a leap day). If you meet someone at a party, the odds that you have the same birthday are, I think, 4/1461, or 0.00273785. That’s a little bit lower than 1/365, or 0.00273972.

  63. Macalua.com said,

    May 22, 2006 @ 1:23 am

    Google Interview Transcripts

    It’s not everyday that we get to read transcripts of what transpires during a Google interview, more so from a Filipino! Peter Abilla was blessed (I keep saying it as if it were religion) to have been invited for an interview and given a job offer whi…

  64. Sam said,

    May 22, 2006 @ 10:03 am

    I agree with what anonymous said Pete, you should at least have tried giving them something to htink about, that way, at least you can figure out if you rhypo of the way Google treats its people is right…right?
    anyway, it’s also right on the other side that after all, if what they offer you is what you feel not right for you, go,ahead, by all, means, please yourself….
    Your a good person in my anlysis.

  65. Chris Sells said,

    May 22, 2006 @ 5:08 pm

    My employer has Odwalla and a number of other free drinks : )

  66. Forever Geek said,

    May 30, 2006 @ 11:20 pm

    Turning Down a Google Job Offer

    So much for roller hockey at the Googleplex!Most would think that working at Google is every tech geek’s dream. Well, it’s probably just hype. Of course there are the excellent benefits and work set-up such as free gourmet lunches, Google…

  67. Balakumar Muthu said,

    May 31, 2006 @ 1:28 am

    Just read your experience… but my experience With Google India is quite interesting and amazing :) , … check it out at :

    http://i5bala.blogspot.com/2005/03/my-unforgettable-one-day-at-google.html

    I just loved the whole process,its really very Challenging …
    –
    Balakumar Muthu
    http://i5bala.blogspot.com

  68. Jarl Robert Kristiansen said,

    May 31, 2006 @ 5:21 am

    “Matt said, April 26, 2006 @ 9:07 am

    I recall reading somewhere that the minimum number of people to have in a sample in order to have a 50% chance of at least ONE pair of people sharing a birthday is 23. I also recall reading (somewhere? or maybe it was in college) that with 50 people in a room, there is a 97% chance that at least one pair of people will share a birthday.”

    Actually it’s 98% ;-)

    1 - ((50 C 2) / (365 C 2)) = 1 - (2450 / 132860) = 0.982

  69. Does this ring a bell? at BOK said,

    June 1, 2006 @ 5:24 am

    [...] While reading this blogpost “my interview & job offer from google” there was a sentence that made me frown my eyebrows: i met with the hr people, both of whom were very nice. they were very, very late [sic] On the other hand I was hardly surprised. They let ME wait for almost half an hour while attending for an interview… You remember my previous post from March 3rd regarding a job at this company? It turns out almost 4 months later they are still looking for the right people, ’cause here’s are the ones for “Junior sysadmin” (refreshed yesterday) and the “Linux Engineer / Linux Manager“. [...]

  70. guruparan said,

    June 14, 2006 @ 2:52 am

    I hate google

  71. EXCELER8ion&#8482 | The blog about online recruitment marketing and interactive advertising said,

    June 14, 2006 @ 9:26 pm

    [...] We were watching Rocketboom’s vlog last night and came across this really interesting story about Google’s hiring process.  It is by Pete Abilla on his blog schmula - you can find the post here.  [...]

  72. Anon said,

    June 15, 2006 @ 3:02 pm

    I interviewed for the position of Recruiter. I would love to blab, I mean blog, but am seriously scared off due to NDA, living in an area with few real hi-tech companies, and on an unhurried paced but still on a job search.

    I am glad you wrote what you wrote, Pete.

    I wonder though at why the deal fell through. Your “HR guy” should have cleared money issues with you from the get go. I know you spoke upfront about your requirements but… what a waste of time, lack of efficiency, and professional skill and care by recruiting.

    I wish you would write about how many recruiters you were passed on to.

    I hate what’s happened to my industry. It facilitates the dark side. See I just used the word “hate” and so have others on this page. I will be strong. I will continue to fight the “good fight.” We’re so outnumbered though.

  73. mediaguy74 said,

    June 16, 2006 @ 3:00 pm

    Ok heres my experience with Google.

    Had a great phone interview until they asked me what my GPA was as an undergrad. She said if it wasnt a 3.0 or higher that she wouldnt continue the conversation. No rationale would make them change their mind. Since I didnt have a 3.0 (yet I got into an MBA program) the conversation ended. I think I am better off not having gone there.

  74. Все про Google » Интервью на позицию программиста said,

    June 21, 2006 @ 11:53 am

    [...] В продолжение темы, рассказ еще одного программиста. [...]

  75. e-domen dot com Blog » my interview & job offer from google said,

    June 21, 2006 @ 11:53 pm

    [...] Copyed from http://www.shmula.com/?p=31 [...]

  76. Andy said,

    July 5, 2006 @ 9:58 pm

    If it was contract, do they allow you to work elsewhere as well incase you happen to get some small software projects from somewhere to work over weekends or are their contracts very strict ?

    Would appreciate your thoughts on this.

    Andy

  77. d said,

    August 3, 2006 @ 11:49 am

    Hi,

    I have my 2nd telephonic interview with google on monday. could anybody plz tell what i could expect?I finished my first interview last monday…it is for a linux systems admin position.
    would appreciate if anybody could give any pointers as to what to expect.
    thanks
    Dianne

  78. gbella said,

    September 28, 2006 @ 2:08 pm

    II’m curious who decides who will be interviewed? Does the recruiter see a resume and decide “this person sounds like a possible fit” or is it a hiring manager? I also wonder if it is the person who does the phone interview who decides if the possible candidate gets to continue the interview process or is it someone else. I have a friend who has failed two initial phone interviews, poor thing. He has a Masters, and many yrs of experience in the business. I think he has given up on G now.

  79. shmula » Shmula Search Engine Optimization said,

    October 2, 2006 @ 12:21 pm

    [...] The Pareto Principle “The Long Tail” Ad Naseaum Lean for Software On Time-traps and Waste All Articles on Operations Agile & Team Size Featuritis & The Customer Click-to-Ship Optimization On Game Theory & Digg Queueing Theory, #4 Amazon.com Insider Stories Totalitarian Powerpoint Rejecting Google’s Job Offer Disruptive Company Interviews The State of the Craposphere  Theory of Constraints & Drum, Buffer, Rope  Root Cause Analysis [...]

  80. Breno said,

    October 19, 2006 @ 6:02 am

    Hi,

    I’ll have my 1st telephonic interview with google tomorrow. Could anybody plz tell what i could expect? It’s a Linux/Unix sys admin position.

    Thanks

    Breno

  81. Breno said,

    October 19, 2006 @ 6:03 am

    Dianne,

    could you help me on this, please?

    Breno

  82. Daniel said,

    October 23, 2006 @ 4:57 am

    Dear Breno,

    The only thing I can tell you is that being the very best in what you are doing is not enough to go through the gauntlet of Google’s recruitment process.

    I went through 10 interviews (4 over the phone, 6 in the GooglePlex) and they did not make me an offer. By the standards of where I currently live, I am in the top 5% of the best software engineers. I lead open source projects, write articles in renowed magazines, mentor younger developers and started to code before being a teen.

    But it was not enough for Google. So, in fact, after much thinking, I concluded that you have to be the very best not in what you are doing but in what *they* are doing, which is the whole trick!

    Btw. the people I have met were simply the brightest software engineers I have ever met and extremely kind at the same time: it is worth to go through the recruiting process just for this.

    And being rejected by such luminaries is, after all, acceptable.

    All the best,
    Daniel

  83. Breno said,

    October 23, 2006 @ 9:10 am

    Thank you for this reply Daniel. It was very usefull. I’m becoming impressed with all that I have heard. 4 phone interviews? There’s a long way… there was too many people concurring the same position?
    The travel (hotel, flight, etc) was sponsored by Google?

    Thanks,

    Breno

  84. Daniel said,

    October 24, 2006 @ 1:41 am

    Hi Breno,

    There were surely many people in competition for the position, but the position itself is opened to many Java developers.

    Yes, Google paid it all: flight, hotel, rental car… they are really great.

    Best of luck!
    Daniel

  85. Breno said,

    October 24, 2006 @ 9:02 am

    I’m going to the 2nd round next week. They told me that this one is much more in-depth questions…. and should take 45 minutes. All your interviews over the phone were 100% technical?
    Maybe they would ask about google products, revenue, etc.?

    I’m O’Reilly book author, I write articles to Linux Magazine and I’m one of the best professionals where I live, I have a good incoming working for a big and well known IT company. But I don’t think that I’m good for them…. I’m not such luminary.
    I don’t know why professionals wants to get in there. Why they attract everybody? I suppose Google will explode like any other dot com big bubble.

    Thank you again!

  86. Daniel said,

    October 25, 2006 @ 1:12 am

    Interviews were about technical problems to solve (including some related to actual Google services) and methodological approaches. I can not detail further because I signed an NDA.

    Do not lose hope, you can do it!

    And why targetting Google? Well, the GooglePlex is an incredible place to work, a kind of a geek-stuffed campus where you can work and learn from others in a self-organized and highly productive manner. This makes Google attractive.

    I do not think they will explode but the risk is that people start to doubt about their “Do no evil” motto and that the current “Microsoft domination is evil” mantra shifts to “Google domination is evil”.

    If this happens, will Google be able to restore core values? If no, engineer might leave the place, the same way they leave Microsoft, because the place will simply no longer be the good one to be…

    As I said, keep the faith and good luck!

    Daniel

  87. Breno said,

    October 27, 2006 @ 4:15 pm

    Hi Daniel,

    I went to my 2nd round interview today. About 40 minutes of in depth technical questions. I think that I answered 70% of all questions. But I don t know how good is enough to clear this second interview. Did you answered all your questions correctly over the phone? How good were you in the phone screen?

    I did´t like the interview… they asked me only things that I don´t work daily. But things that I could answer with a very fast research. What a bad luck.

    Breno

  88. Antony’s Personal Opinion » Blog Archive » Birthday Probability said,

    October 28, 2006 @ 11:02 pm

    [...] Update (28-Oct-06): Just additional note, Google didn’t ask me this question during interview. I just heard they may ask this kind of questions during the interview. Read this link for an example. For me, they asked computing and programming questions. No brain teaser questions. [...]

  89. Breno said,

    October 31, 2006 @ 8:38 am

    Nobody can answer my question above, please?

    Thanks,

    Breno

  90. Charu said,

    November 2, 2006 @ 3:34 pm

    HI All those ppl looking for info on Google interview, After being Interviewed 2 times on site, i feel like It is overrated.Sure ODwallaJuice and Sandwitch is free and restrooms are very nicebut they have lot of problems too Receptionist at bld 41 in mtn view sucks, she is rude and has no training how to talk to people.After a written,phone and 2in-person, I was offered Contracting too..which i did not take…….may be their loss may be mine But wait 5 yrs and then u are going to ask.GOOGLe? Who?

  91. Daniel said,

    November 6, 2006 @ 5:28 am

    Hi Breno,

    Sorry for the delay. I was travelling.

    > I went to my 2nd round interview today. About 40 minutes of in depth technical
    > questions. I think that I answered 70% of all questions. But I don t know how good
    > is enough to clear this second interview. Did you answered all your questions
    > correctly over the phone?

    Kind of okay. I did well on my stuffs (Java) but probably less well on other things (algorithms). Many questions were open, so it is hard to know if I did well.

    > How good were you in the phone screen?

    I guess no so bad after all as Google flew me to the Googleplex ;-)

    > I did´t like the interview… they asked me only things that I don´t work daily. But
    > things that I could answer with a very fast research. What a bad luck.

    No bad luck here. I told you. They do not care about who you are and what you are good at. They care about who they are and how good you are in what they do. They probably do not even try hard to figure out how easily/rapidly you could evolve to the particular skillset they are looking for. At least, this is what I have learnt from interviewing with them.

    Do not despair, it is not over until it is over. They will surely contact you again within a few days/weeks.

    Take care,
    Daniel

  92. shmula » Acquisition Mashup: Google-Microsoft-Yahoo : Business, Technology, and Stuff in Between said,

    November 6, 2006 @ 5:21 pm

    [...] The Pareto Principle “The Long Tail” Ad Naseaum Lean for Software On Time-traps and Waste All Articles on Operations Agile & Team Size Featuritis & The Customer Click-to-Ship Optimization On Game Theory & Digg Queueing Theory, #1 Amazon.com Insider Stories Totalitarian Powerpoint Rejecting Google’s Job Offer Disruptive Company Interviews The State of the Craposphere  Theory of Constraints & Drum, Buffer, Rope  Root Cause Analysis [...]

  93. My Job Interview Arejae.Com | Jom Belajar Programming said,

    November 7, 2006 @ 9:42 pm

    [...] my-interview-job-offer-from-google [...]

  94. Breno said,

    November 8, 2006 @ 9:42 am

    Hi Daniel!!
    Yes, I have failed! I thought that I would go farther than the 2nd phone screening. Take a look:

    “Breno,

    We would like to thank you for your interest in Google and taking the time
    to talk to us. After carefully reviewing your experience and qualifications,
    we have determined that there is not a fit for a ‘Linux/Unix System Administrator position.

    Thanks again for considering Google. We wish you well in your endeavors.

    Sincerely,
    Google Staff”

    It’s real, I don’t fit this position. They are looking for someone with diffrent skill set. I’m working with a lot of big projects, but I wasn’t asked about any of them. So, here is what I have learned from Daniel:

    > They do not care about who you are and what you are good at. They care about who they are and how good you are in what they do.

    > They probably do not even try hard to figure out how easily/rapidly you could evolve to the particular skillset they are looking for.

    … and don’t be nervous. It can kill your knowledge.

    I think it was fair. Thank you very much Daniel! It was a VERY usefull help!

    Breno

  95. Daniel said,

    November 9, 2006 @ 2:47 am

    Breno,

    I am sorry to read you have been rejected. I am glad this discussion could have been informative.

    Do not have a bad image of yourself after this rejection: Google is a particular employer with particular needs. There is still plenty of great opportunities out there!

    Best,
    Daniel

  96. Anon said,

    November 12, 2006 @ 6:57 pm

    I would rather work for start-ups like youtube, than for salary payouts at companies like Google

  97. ALP said,

    November 20, 2006 @ 9:43 am

    Hi,

    I have my onsite interview with google next week for QA engineer role. I cleared two telephone interviews. Could anyone please help me as to what I should expect and how I should prepare myself?

    Thanks
    ALP

  98. Huan said,

    November 29, 2006 @ 8:57 pm

    Hi,

    I send my resume to google for for QA engineer, and they give me an interview. Could you share your experience of the first two phone interviews to me? For example, will they ask me about software for testing, writing a script to test a software?

    Thanks
    Huan

  99. Yasir said,

    December 3, 2006 @ 7:27 pm

    haven’t read all the posts here …

    but for that birthday question, it doesn’t make sense to solve it mathematically IMHO, its so obvious that you’d lose if you interpret it literally

    sounds like a trick question. it doesn’t say you’re limited to people in the room, and it also doesn’t say the friend knows your birthday.

  100. ALP said,

    December 5, 2006 @ 8:36 am

    Hello Huan,

    I would advice you to be prepared with all QA concepts and analytical questions. Also you should have good knowledge of the skill set you have mentioned in your resume.

    Good Luck!
    ALP

  101. John said,

    December 5, 2006 @ 12:39 pm

    Hi guys,
    I just finished university and just for fun applied for a system administrator position at Google and they actually contacted me and gave me a phone interview. After reading all these posts i’m VERY nervous. Since i just graduated from school i’m not up to par in my linux knowledge as to the rest of the people here. Can someone give me some pointers on questions they may have asked you? breno i would appreciate your help.

  102. Daniel said,

    December 6, 2006 @ 2:31 am

    Hi John,

    Do not worry too much! Google is much more interested by your potential and fundamental knowledge rather than by your professional experience.

    D.

  103. Advanced Technology Products Interactive » Blog Archive » Google get asked hard questions said,

    December 7, 2006 @ 3:02 am

    [...] You hear people turning down google interviews, and saying that googles are unhappy several of them complained to me about their frustrations [...]

  104. Breno said,

    December 13, 2006 @ 4:57 am

    Hi John,

    sorry, to read your post very late…. did you clear the phone interview!?

    Breno

  105. shmula » Google, Click-Fraud, Insufficient Metrics : Business, Technology, and Stuff in Between said,

    December 13, 2006 @ 5:14 am

    [...] An Ajax-y Google The Pareto Principle “The Long Tail” Ad Naseaum Lean for Software On Time-traps and Waste All Articles on Operations Agile & Team Size Featuritis & The Customer Click-to-Ship Optimization On Game Theory & Digg Queueing Theory, #1 Amazon.com Insider Stories Totalitarian Powerpoint Rejecting Google’s Job Offer Disruptive Company Interviews The State of the Craposphere  M&A Mashup: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft  Theory of Constraints & Drum, Buffer, Rope  Root Cause Analysis [...]

  106. ChrisKnudsen.biz » Best Blog Posts of 2006 said,

    December 27, 2006 @ 9:40 am

    [...] Pete Abilla (Shmula) blogs about his Google job interview process. [...]

  107. BBinod Kumar said,

    December 28, 2006 @ 10:56 pm

    Hi,

    I’ll have my 1st telephonic interview with google tomorrow from Mountain View office. Could anybody plz tell what i could expect? It’s a Techical Specialist Solution - analytics position.

    Thanks

    Binod

  108. Daniel said,

    December 30, 2006 @ 2:18 am

    Dear Binod,

    I had several phone interviews (before going to the Plex) so here are the common points I have found between these interviews:

    * very cold atmosphere, do not expect to engage in a human to human dialog,
    * similarly do not expect to talk about yourself, your resume has been quickly scanned,
    * a list of (apparently scripted) technical questions of all levels and well related to yo