hey everybody it's me Jesse and I just
want to tell you a little bit about my
Google interview experience so my last
video I talked about the overall job
hunting experience and I mentioned the
Google interview a little bit but
several of you asked for more details so
here they are when I first put out my
message on Twitter that I was looking
for for work I got a response from a
Google recruiter and which was amazing
right
I had previously I had applied to
positions at Google for their Pittsburgh
office and even even with a reference I
still couldn't even get an interview so
I was pretty amazed at that that just I
guess it kind of shows like the power of
having a good Twitter network so I got
an email from a recruiter or it might
have been a DM on Twitter actually I
don't remember for sure but either way
message back and forth a little bit set
up a phone call so that first phone call
was just with the recruiter and I and we
just talked like about what what I do
what my my past experience was and what
I'm interested in now and then we talked
a little bit about the role at Google
and whether or not I'd be interested in
it so you know really basic no no
technical questions or anything like
that and then after that the next step
was to set me up with a technical
interview over the phone so the way we
did it was I had a Google Doc so there
was a link to a Google Doc a shared
Google Doc I went there and then I was
asked a coding question and I had to
type out my answer in the Google Doc so
to my surprise
the question was actually way more
front-end oriented oriented and didn't
have much to do with data structures or
algorithms I had heard you know from
from other people from from sources
online and in books that you needed to
know your data structures and algorithms
to work at Google but I I didn't have
any this was basically just a front-end
based question so it may disappoint some
of you to know that I'm not gonna give
you the exact questions I don't think
that would be that helpful actually
because the odds of getting the same
question are very slim each interviewer
has freedom to ask you know whatever
questions they want to ask so it's it
probably wouldn't be that that helpful
anyway but it was more front-end
oriented I got to use JavaScript and I I
thought that I did okay on it it seemed
easier than I expected and I didn't I
wasn't really expecting to move on to
the next round although I did better
than I thought it just I wasn't
expecting it right to prepare I had
looked at some like online training so
there are several websites out there
that will let you do algorithm problems
and just test yourself on them so
there's a website called pram PRA MP and
you can actually interview with other
people so the way it works is you
schedule time the first I think half
hour one person interviews the other one
and then you switch roles and then you
go for another I believe it's a half an
hour so I did a little bit of that and
that was kind of nice just to practice
like talking through things I mean
through the live coding that I do for
free code camp I was already used to
talking through coding so that wasn't
really a big deal for me but it was it
was good to like be under pressure with
a question that you don't know
beforehand
so on the front end related stuff I did
great on any time I try to do a date
algorithm problem I was not great with
that but luckily the first interview all
front end ended up getting a call back
and the same recruiter that first
contacted me from Google contacted me
again and said that they would would
like me to come out to Mountain View
California
and do five interviews over the course
of a day out at at their main campus in
Mountain View
so I was I was totally stunned that guy
I mean I honestly did not think that
that was a possibility even when I got
the phone call I'm expecting like wow
this was really nice that you know she
took the time to call me and tell me
that I didn't move on to the next round
you know but it was so pleasantly
surprised and so happy so at that point
I'm be 100% honest I had quit studying
for the Google interviews because I just
I just thought there's no way you know
because you you always hear how hard it
is to get into Google and how talented
the people that work there are and I
just didn't consider myself at that
level yet but anyway I get the I get
moved on to the next round right so the
way the process works Google handles
everything your flights your hotel I
scheduled all the flights we flew out
this was maybe this was really shortly
after I got I got the call because I had
some other job offers and I didn't want
to keep them waiting so normally there'd
be a little bit more time but for me I
think it was less than a week between
when I found out I was going to go for
the interviews and then me actually
flying out there so I go out to Mountain
View and I get there kind of like any
evening I have one night in the hotel
and in the morning I wake up I go to my
interviews so I'll give you a little
play-by-play of how it went I thought
that my first interview was at 9:30 so I
got there early enough for that
and it turns out my first interview
wasn't until I think like 10:15 a.m. so
that was okay I was just there early
which is better than being late but it
gave me some time to just sit there and
be nervous but I they came they got me
for my first interview they took me to
so this building had so many rooms right
this is one of many buildings on campus
there are a lot of rooms so they
actually took me first to another
building so we left the first building
went to another building and went into a
room there and I had two interviews
back-to-back in in that particular room
so I think those two interviews went
well those were probably my best
interviews both of those were very
front-end related so no data structure
algorithm stuff more like Dom
manipulation you know just kind of like
basic like handling of data you know
using for loops and things like that so
yeah not bad I felt like I had kind of a
good good conversations with with my
interviewers so I was feeling pretty
good after that I I think my first
interview I probably did the best the
second interview I think I wished that I
would have had a little bit more time so
it's like I had a solution but it was
like I had ideas to make it make it
better so then after that I think after
that was that will dinner was lunch
right so then they have a Google
employee escort you to the cafeteria and
you have lunch that's not part of the
interview process so you're not being
judged on what you talked about at lunch
I've heard stories of people saying that
you you are it may have been in the past
that that happened but they told me
several times throughout the day that
that's not part of the any of you
process like it just relax to was cool I
got to talk to a guy who worked
on the the pixel three the hardware for
the pixel three and I had just bought a
pixel three so it was kind of cool I
could we could talk about it and yeah so
it was nice and I got a really had like
some really honest answers about things
like you know housing especially with a
family
this guy had a few kids and you know
talking about how long is your commute
you know and and how long you know how
much does it cost to live around here so
that was that was a lot of good good
info for me you know you know I have
four kids and so that's you know being
able to find a place that can fit for
kids is important so I go back into my
original building after that and find a
room and it takes a little while to find
the room I think we got lost this is how
big Google's campus is people who have
been employed there for a while we're
actually getting lost trying to find the
room where the interview interviews were
in so my next interview actually I think
I missed out on at least like 10 to 15
minutes of the time for the interview
because my interviewer got lost on the
way over so that really messed me up for
that particular interview and for that
one I actually got to use a laptop with
a code editor all the other interviews
were all just on a whiteboard with a
marker so I really wish I would have had
the full amount of interview time for
that because I definitely knew how to
solve the problem I just had such a
small amount of time it was difficult I
will say this to of my interviewers had
really heavy accents it was difficult
for me to understand and that definitely
threw me so I mean that's I kind of
didn't expect that but it does make a
difference right like when you are
interviewing with somebody that speaks
the same language like natively and is
basically a part of the same like
culture it's easy to pick up on lots of
cues even like nonverbal cues like
manners of speaking and to get some
feedback you
just just by talking but when you're
talking to somebody who is a non-native
speaker of your language who kind of
pretty obviously you know came over you
know to your country later in life right
it's a lot harder to pick up on those
cues I'm not sure if are they happy with
my answer they're not happy with my
answer then you know are they annoyed at
this point are they joking or they yeah
it was really hard to get a read so that
definitely threw me off for for two of
the interviews and then so the last two
interviews were again on a whiteboard
you know writing out all my code so that
was those the interview process I will
say you definitely need to be
comfortable talking while you're
rewriting out your code that's a big
thing I kept being reminded of that by
the preparation emails that Google sent
me all the training materials that they
sent me which they do send you training
materials some of the books that I got
so one book that was a big help was
cracking the coding interview which was
recommended to me by several people
definitely helpful the algorithm stuff
not so helpful because I didn't get
asked about that but the general you
know interview prep and just the
explanation that the book gives about
what the interviewers are looking for
you know and what they're thinking
definitely helps help me to kind of
guide the answers I gave and what I
focused on so I kind of I left the
interviews with about the same feeling
that I had from that first technical
interview that I had over the phone
which was this was easier than I thought
it would be but I'm not sure that I did
well enough to move on so afterwards
they have kind of a candidate Center
where you can go and check out some
Google products you know use them talk
to
recruiters about your experience ask
questions about Google so I went over
there and talked with some of the
recruiters that were there and somebody
that I know that works at Google came
over after some meetings and you know we
talked for a while about the interviews
and about what it's like for them at
Google so that was that was really good
it was some good information and it was
nice to be able to see them again
I had kind of we had both been to some
of the same conferences before so it was
cool to be able to catch up and then
after that I had since since I was
coming from the east coast of the US I
got to stay another night so I just got
stay one more night flew out early the
next morning and that was it that was my
my process so that was on I think I got
back on a Friday and then I got a call
Monday night from my recruiter letting
me know that I would not be moving on
and essentially moving on at that point
means getting an offer right there's a
couple steps that need to go on on
Google's end of things to determine how
much to offer and you know what team I
would be on but for the candidate at
that point you you pretty much are just
waiting to hear whether or not you get
an offer so didn't get the offer of
course you know I was a little bit
disappointed but I didn't really have an
expectation of getting the authors the
offer so I mean I don't know if that was
like realistic like if that was imposter
syndrome or me just trying to brace
myself for to not be disappointed but I
had some great offers and if you want to
hear more about the other offers and
everything check out my last video on my
my job interview experience but it was
almost a relief to me because then it I
had I had lots of options and it made it
hard to make a decision so that just
took one option off the table and it
took
of our decisions off the table for me
mainly moving my family all the way
across the country going somewhere where
you know we didn't really know we didn't
know anybody I mean I knew one person
from some conferences but like you know
my kids didn't know anybody maybe one of
different schools so it was it would be
a big big move and it would have been a
hard decision especially if the salary
would have been you know competitive
with the other offers which I'm assuming
it would be because you know Google
can't afford to do that it would have
been a heartbreaking decision either way
to move would have been heartbreaking to
move away from family and then but to
turn down Google would have been
heartbreaking as well because you have
the opportunity to build things
sometimes that are really cutting edge
that you couldn't build anywhere else
you have the opportunity to build things
that are used by millions of people
which is it's a rare a rare thing you
also the fact that you would have Google
on your resume would help so much in you
know future job opportunities so I'm
almost I'm glad I actually am glad that
I didn't have to make that decision
because it would have no matter what I
mean it's almost like I don't know it
would have been good either way I'm sure
it would have worked out well but it
also would have involved a lot of
sadness either way so overall it was a
wonderful experience for me
it's just to be able to get as far as I
did in the process was was amazing
it it I get I think it helped me to see
how far I'd come and how much my sales
had increased it's it's just hard to
know there's not R it's not like you can
take a developer test and it'll tell you
how good of a developer you are really
it's just you know but being able to get
that that far in an interview with a
company that interview so many people
you know they really know what they're
doing if the interview process and
they're notoriously challenging
it was it was good you know it kind of
gave me a confidence that I think has
already had an impact on on me and my
work and I think it will continue to so
definitely if you ever get the chance to
interview at Google especially for
front-end developer job I would say this
practice doing front-end type of
problems so you know go online you can
go on free code camp or whatever and
just take some of their challenges their
practice challenges javascript stuff and
practice writing the solution out if you
have a whiteboard doing on a whiteboard
have piece of paper do on a piece of
paper have somebody there or at least
record it and talk while you're doing it
watch the recording make sure there's no
awkward silences that is probably the
key the feedback I got was that I
definitely knew JavaScript but I just
couldn't write clean code fast enough so
I think if I would have spent more time
doing that I probably would have had a
much better shot of of actually getting
an offer all right so just work work on
that on your speed and accuracy of
handwriting code without the aid of your
developer tools or your code editor or
anything like that and definitely if
you're not used to talking while you're
coding work on that as much as possible
even if you have to narrate to yourself
while you code that's that's a big deal
that your interviewers need to know
what's going on inside your head what
you're thinking because what you're
thinking is is almost it's it's more
important to them than actually solving
the problem if they like the way you
think and you approach problems then you
can get an offer even without having
solved the problem but even if you solve
the problem and you don't let them know
at all how you knew it it's it's not
that helpful to them so anyway
my experience that's my advice videos a
little bit longer than I expected it to
be if you stuck around this long thank
you so much let me know if there's
anything else you want to know about
about my interview process or any other
topics you'd like me to cover you can
comment in this video reach out to me
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