Anyone been interviewed by Google (specifically Irish Educated)

TheShadowMan

Hi

I applied for a Job in Google 8months ago, a job that i would have the qualifications for. Would have got an Interview for it when it was an employees market (2001-2007). Anyhow i heard nothing only the automated email thing
that they do.
So a couple of weeks ago I applied for a lower grade job (requiring css,html,php,javascript,sql etc). I have a 1st class honours in computer science and 10 years consultancy/training, before i went back to college. Again I only got the automated email thing. I now have the feeling that you need a phd to get an interview as a toilet attendant in there, or be educated outsidt the not so great irish education system.
So, has anyone got an interview there or know what the hell they are looking for in there. I know the "positive people" will say keep trying or some bs like that, but honestly i don't think i could fill out another application that justs givea an inpersonal automated email. At least an email from a human would be nice and then i would f off.
Thanks

arleitiss

TheShadowMan wrote: »

Hi

I applied for a Job in Google 8months ago, a job that i would have the qualifications for. Would have got an Interview for it when it was an employees market (2001-2007). Anyhow i heard nothing only the automated email thing
that they do.
So a couple of weeks ago I applied for a lower grade job (requiring css,html,php,javascript,sql etc). I have a 1st class honours in computer science and 10 years consultancy/training, before i went back to college. Again I only got the automated email thing. I now have the feeling that you need a phd to get an interview as a toilet attendant in there, or be educated outsidt the not so great irish education system.
So, has anyone got an interview there or know what the hell they are looking for in there. I know the "positive people" will say keep trying or some bs like that, but honestly i don't think i could fill out another application that justs givea an inpersonal automated email. At least an email from a human would be nice and then i would f off.
Thanks

I applied today as student where no degree was required, got only automated email , but it said they contact you only if they think you are legible for interview.

digiman

I got an interview there last September and done 6 altogether, there was very few Irish people working there in fairness. Out of the 8 engineers I met that day only 1 was Irish.

arleitiss

digiman wrote: »

I got an interview there last September and done 6 altogether, there was very few Irish people working there in fairness. Out of the 8 engineers I met that day only 1 was Irish.

Maybe their job factor is languages? but I don't know obviously, I am non irish with 3 fluent languages, hopefully I get job, wouldn't mind having job as a poor student in college I am.

Pablo Sanchez

They had one of the top Google Ireland chaps on the business programme on Radio one a few months ago, he was trying to prompt Irish students to take up foreign languages.

He made a point of saying that most staff have at least two foreign languages.

Seriously, what are the chances of an Irish person having that, seeing as foreign languages dont seem to be taught until second level.

arleitiss

Pablo Sanchez wrote: »

They had one of the top Google Ireland chaps on the business programme on Radio one a few months ago, he was trying to prompt Irish students to take up foreign languages.

He made a point of saying that most staff have at least two foreign languages.

Seriously, what are the chances of an Irish person having that, seeing as foreign languages dont seem to be taught until second level.

Suddenly your post gave me such hope and motivation.

TheShadowMan

arleitiss wrote: »

I applied today as student where no degree was required, got only automated email , but it said they contact you only if they think you are legible for interview.

I applied for the same job i think, but they say nothing about requiring languages on the one i applied for. I know languages are important to them, but i guess what i was getting at is, do they look down on the Irish education system, i know i do, as i am currently studying an MSc and i dont think much of it.

TheShadowMan

digiman wrote: »

I got an interview there last September and done 6 altogether, there was very few Irish people working there in fairness. Out of the 8 engineers I met that day only 1 was Irish.

6 interviews for the same job? holy crap
All of my jobs have been 1 interview, or in 2 cases no interview, just peolpe from my network in the It sector.
I am rightly put off if they do 6 interviews, going on the X factor would involve less scrutiny

Delancey

I have the impression that Google , Pay pal , eBay and many other internet companies are quite poor at getting back to applicants.
Having applied several times to some of them I never got more than an automated e-mail .

southernstar

all I got also was an automated response. It is pretty disrespectful when you go to the effort of writing up a decent cover letter etc. A one liner from whoever reviews your CV would be decent of them.

A person at Facebook did write me a note to let me know I wasn't suitable for one role - then she passed my CV on to another recruiter internally and I had an interview with them for another role.

I got a job with one of these types of companies - but had to go through a contact. Applied through the web for the same and different roles at the same company before that. I can tell you that Managing Directors of SMEs and all sorts of really experienced people are applying for these jobs. They're usually receiving at least dozens of CVs per job. Google also pay decent finders fees for referrals so if you know anyone there I'm sure they'd be happy to send in your CV.

Anyone who has started with us since has experience in similar companies - you tend to need that to get your foot in the door. Google pay well over the odds so everyone wants in.

digiman

TheShadowMan wrote: »

6 interviews for the same job? holy crap
All of my jobs have been 1 interview, or in 2 cases no interview, just peolpe from my network in the It sector.
I am rightly put off if they do 6 interviews, going on the X factor would involve less scrutiny

It is an extremely tough process indeed. I had 2 technical telephone interviews, and then was brought on site for the day where I had 4 face to face interviews which lasted around 45mins to an hour. Every single interview was highly technical which would involve drawing diagrams on the white boards or green boards!! They really dig into your answers until they find where your knowledge level is at. Pretty much impossible to BS these lads as they are probably some of the best engineers out there.

I have being in touch with the recruiter several times since my on site interview. He says that they havn't come to a decision yet as I have read on other forums that Google are on a hiring freeze at the moment. They are too late for me now anyway as I have taken a job offer in Sydney instead.

vibe666

Google have their own way of doing things and it works very well for them.

They would rather leave a position unfilled for a year than hire someone who they didn't feel was 100% right for the role.

I was headhunted by them a couple of years ago, but after all the interviews I didn't get the job because I didn't really want it, I just wanted to work for google.

I read somewhere that they get a huge number of CV's in annually, but only hire from between 0.1 and 0.4% of the CV's, with the majority of people not even getting to the interview stage.

Something I was told at interview is that they never even discuss money until they decide that they want you, but that they've never lost anyone they wanted due to the package not being good enough, so if they DO want you, you will definitely be happy with their offer.

Davidian_ie

Just stumbled upon this article, might interest someone.

http://moneyland.time.com/2012/01/11/are-you-smart-enough-to-work-at-google/?iid=pf-article-mostpop1

kaytee26

I have just gotten an interview offer with Google for Friday! It's not for a highly technical role but I was told by the recruiter that for the position that I am going for I will definitely be asked some critical questions (ie. how many sheep are in New Zealand!) Its apparently to gauge your ability to think critically, observe your thought process, test your quick thinking ability under pressure in real time and see how you articulate your thoughts and ideas. I have no experience with these kind of questions!

Can anyone help me out!

freeze4real

kaytee26 wrote: »

I have just gotten an interview offer with Google for Friday! It's not for a highly technical role but I was told by the recruiter that for the position that I am going for I will definitely be asked some critical questions (ie. how many sheep are in New Zealand!) Its apparently to gauge your ability to think critically, observe your thought process, test your quick thinking ability under pressure in real time and see how you articulate your thoughts and ideas. I have no experience with these kind of questions!

Can anyone help me out!

The thing with google is that their questions are easy to pass and fail.

How many sheeps are in new zealand ?

if i was in the interview I wont make any guesses because 99.9% you will be wrong.

The only person that kmnows the answer uis the interviewer, so IMO the answer is ask the interviewer.



Another question they can ask is how many 10cm diameter balls can fill a room ?

With the right mathematical formula you might not know the answer, so answer is I will have to ask someone who has done it before or you the interviewer as he has a good chance of knowing.


They dont want spoofing thy want to know that you are a good team member.

I know these as my mates go an interview with them and failed because of these.

goodluck

Mrs OBumble

freeze4real wrote: »

How many sheeps are in new zealand ?

if i was in the interview I wont make any guesses because 99.9% you will be wrong.

Do not, for the love of all that is good, ever guess!

They don't care how many sheep are in NZ.

And even if you miraculously got the right number, it's still wrong, because what they want to know is what sort of reasoning you'd do to find out - and maybe whether and how you'd use a search engine to find out.

So some possible answers are:

I'd google "how many sheep are in NZ"

One moment please, while I pull out my smartphone and google it. (yes, really do pull out the phone!)

I've heard there are 4 sheep for every person, I know there are about 4 million people, so roughly 16 million.

To find that out, I'd need to go to library to look up the Annual Agricultural Census.

I know that agricultural land can support X sheep per square KM. I know that the land mass of NZ is XXX, and 80% of this is used for agriculture. so I'd estimate X times XXX times 0.8.



... anything to prove you can do some on-the-spot analytic thinking. It doesn't matter if your answer is vastly wrong, it's the thought process that counts.

For extra points, after the analysis, say that you'd like to know what the informaiton is for, and thus how important accuracy for this question. And suggest some other places where you could check.

Sala

I know someone who did 13 interviews with them... and didn't get the job

vibe666

Sala wrote: »

I know someone who did 13 interviews with them... and didn't get the job

that's the thing with them, their only interest is to make sure they get the right person for the job.

sometimes that's immediately obvious, other times it isn't and they have to re-check. they don't care about you personally, just the vacancy. until that is, you get the job and then they care very much because they know you are the exact right fit for that particular puzzle.

this might help. sorry for the big pic, but i reckon it's worth it.

point 4 is a little bit scary.

Mrs OBumble

vibe666 wrote: »

point 4 is a little bit scary.

They're telling you up-front, so it's probably not illegal. (You give implicit permission when you apply).

Unlike many companies that do it anway, and don't tell you. The only scary thing is that in a large company, there's more likely to be someone who knew you.

MysticalRain

I did 5 interviews with Google. But didn't get the job in the end. I wasn't asked much about my education for the position I was going for. But I was asked a few pop-psychology type questions, such as who is your favourite superhero etc. I think their recruiting process is probably second to none for selecting hardcore computer geeks. It seems to work very well for them. But I do think a lot of people probably give up half way through the process and begin to wonder if the job is really for them.

vibe666

MysticalRain wrote: »

But I do think a lot of people probably give up half way through the process and begin to wonder if the job is really for them.

it's funny tha you should say that, i kind of felt the same way afterwards. not right away, but after i had some time to think about it kind of fell out of love with the idea of working for them and now i don't think i would even if they came to me right away with an offer.

quietriot

The only people who "walk" into jobs with Google tend to be the non-technical areas such as business and marketing. I know people working in the non-tech areas there that certainly made me raise an eyebrow when I heard they'd been employed there.

As somebody in IT, I wouldn't bother working for them myself. Salary isn't scale toppling and they sound like more hassle than they're worth.

kaytee26

Thanks for the response and advice! I had the interview and thankfully was not asked that dreaded question! Received an offer today too. Looks like I worried needlessly!

Jellybaby1

Regarding questions for Google interviews, I came across this online

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204552304577113003705089744.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

Check the comments tab as well.