Defining Google

pbaumgar writes "Did anyone catch the 60 Minutes piece on Google this evening? They mention their hiring process a bit in the story: 'For example, Google is hiring about 25 new people every week, and receives more than 1,000 resumes a day. But they're determined to stick to their rigorous screening process. Google uses aptitude tests, which it has even placed in technical magazines, hoping some really big brains would tackle the hardest problems. Score well on the test, and you might get a job interview. And then another and another. One recent hire had 14 interviews before getting the job - and that was in the public relations department.' As a person who recently interviewed with them this past summer (I didn't get the job), I was wondering what others' experiences were like who interview with Google. I had 4 interviews, and it was by far the longest and most interesting interviewing process I've been involved in. I'd love to hear others' experiences in their attempt to get hired."

Can't Imagine this on 60 seconds...

[Omniscientist]

Brin says he splurged on a new T-shirt. And he still drives a little Japanese car.

For some reason I can't see 60 Seconds including a little passage about Brin's splurging action, mentioned in the quote.

Google employment

[Hamster Of Death]

Working at google is an easy gig to get. Just get on with the cleaning crew that does their office or something.

Working FOR google is a whole different ball game.

Interview?

[NetNinja]

I had a headhunter call me and ask if I was willing to work for $13.00 an hour.

Nah!

I had two interviews at Google

[Anonymous Crowhead]

They told me they only hire the top 0.000000000000000001% of all programmers. Funny, every other company I interviewed at said the same thing, give or take a magnitude.

Re:Interview?

[Anonymous Coward]

When? For Google? With Stock Options?

If it was for Google pre-IPO then you are an idiot.

If not for Google, then why are you wasting our time idiot?

You are a idiot either way, no escaping that fact.

Re:Is it just me

[MoobY]

Note that while you are saying this, you have your gmail address plain out for everyone on /. to read and abuse. I don't think you really dislike google ...

Re:I had two interviews at Google

[khellendros1984]

Hmmm.....seems to me that they're assuming an available pool of 100 Quintillion or so programmers...Google had better check its math!

Re:I hate college

[ari_j]

... require a batchelors degree ...

My experience has been that those companies that require you to have an education to even apply to work for them do so to ensure that you have balance in your life. A real Bachelor of Science degree includes enough liberal arts, writing, and, in general, thinking in its attainment that companies know you'll be balanced enough to do things like bathe before work, read a good book after work to stay sane, and spell the name of the degree you have correctly. These are just examples - their expectations may be much higher, but the key thing they are looking for is balance.

Re:I had two interviews at Google

[jericho4.0]

Even one magnitude less, and assuming that all people on Earth are programmers, that's a very tiny chunk of a programmer.

Re:I had two interviews at Google

[Lord Kano]

We're hiring programmers. One fingernail at a time.

LK

Anti-Google Fortune?

[PetoskeyGuy]

The /. fortune for this article seems strangely relevant.

To every Ph.D. there is an equal and opposite Ph.D. -- B. Duggan

Re:I hate college

[seanadams.com]

Collage isnt everything. I learnt to make money without a batchelors', and I do'nt need a job at google.

U don't need an education to succeed. Google is ghey!

Re:I hate college

[Skadet]

A real Bachelor of Science degree includes enough liberal arts, writing, and, in general, thinking....

Yep, sounds like a BS degree to me!

Searching Questions

[dotslashdot]

They kept asking me searching questions--it was like they were looking for something but couldn't find it. I would often respond with "Did you mean

• what

did I like about my last job?" When my answers were repetitive, I asked the interviewer if they wanted me to reiterate my answers. how strange.

Re:I hate college

[cosmo7]

Before I went to ITT Tech I couldn't even spell the word 'engineer'.

Now I are one.

Re:I had two interviews at Google

[Punboy]

Thats why all these tech guys are unemployed! there are only 100000000 companies to work for :-p

Interviewing at M$

[Anonymous Coward]

M$ used to be known for their tough interviews and how selective they were about hiring.

In spite of this, they still turn out shitty products.

I know how to define Google!

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Life Engine.

oh wait...

Re:Anti-Google Fortune?

[kosmicki]

Time to study up for my death doctorate. Really gonna be hard to uphold the oath to cause harm to everyone, I mean, there are only so many hours in a day people!

Re:Hiring attempt

[Anonymous Coward]

You goofed on not marrying her...

Re:Discarding too many people

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

but the code they write is often poor from a readability, structural, and maintainability perspective

Google uses perl?

14 interviews != 14 rounds

[Anonymous Coward]

You could do 14 interviews in 3 afternoon rounds.

So that's one flat tire, one sick aunt, and a dentist appointment.

Easiest Interview EVER!!

[IcarusMoth]

It was like
Me: "What Up?"
Them: "What Up?"
then I pulled down my pants and they were like:
"You're Hired!!"
then I'm like "Respect."

Indeed!

[fluxrad]

Collage isnt everything. I learnt to make money without a batchelors', and I do'nt need a job at google.

I see you have a CS degree.

Re:I interviewed in May

[Anonymous Coward]

You could try paragraphs.

Re:Google employment

[phiwum]

Working at google is an easy gig to get. Just get on with the cleaning crew that does their office or something.


More ass-talking from the Slashdot crowd.

My Google custodial job took 12 interviews, 6 aptitude tests, 5 references and a letter of commendation from the local Sanitation Department. Even then, I probably wouldn't have the job if not for my exceptional refuse-handling and my skills with a toilet brush.

Re:I interviewed in May

[Xenna]

Please tell us more about the ethics question they asked you at Microsoft ;-)

Re:I hate college

[Tet]

A real Bachelor of Science degree includes enough liberal arts

Only in the US. Everywhere else, when you take a degree in science, you study... science!

Distributed Programming and Problem Solving

[Anonymous Coward]

You were a pawn, a part of Google's new DPPS system (Distributed Programming and Problem Solving) where smart folks at Google break projects and problems up into small bits and then get "applicants" to write code or solve the problem piece for them. It works wonders! Free use of smart people... Great idea, Google!

Re:A year ago it was horrible

[HuguesT]

Very good, this suggests an algorithm to get hired by Google: do not memorize man pages, assert your opinion when asked (do not try to guess what you think the Google people will like), be truthful about what you know, and play hard to get!

Re:Easiest Interview EVER!!

[dj245]

then I pulled down my pants and they were like:
"You're Hired!!"

No no no. This article is about Google [google.com], not Booble [booble.com]

Re:Quick Question

[Dhalka226]

Good is an adjective, well is an adverb.

You are GOOD at faking who you are.

You fake who you are WELL.

Obviously...

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

One recent hire had 14 interviews before getting the job - and that was in the public relations department.'

This one is so obvious...

1) Engineering company - lotsa dorky engineers who can never get close to a babe in real life
2) PR department - #1 requirement is to be good looking, usually female (able to work as a "booth babe" if the regular unemployeed actress/model/singer/songwriter chicks are no shows).

Those 14 "interviews" was just google management sharing the wealth with the engineers, keeping up morale and all. Maybe even hooking up a couple with some nice poon since everybody knows google stock options are making the long-time employees rich.

Re:Not only Google looks for big brains

[JimR]

I'm not sure I would want to work for any company that asked me this question in an interview, as it clearly indicates that the culture in the company is for management to pay themselves as much as possible, whilst paying the people who actually do the work as little as possible.

Re:I interviewed in May

[ArsenneLupin]

Then one day he told me that I needed to set aside two hours for a timed essay. I took the essay, which was the "final step" in the interview process, according to the Word doc they sent me (I was expecting some high-tech web form that prevents me from missing the deadline, but instead I just got the email at the time specified and had to email it back within two hours). I got an email about a week later telling me I didn't get the job. My essay kicked ass. I should post it online. Oh well. I've got a lot of other observations about the differences between the Google and Microsoft interview processes if anyone cares.

Your error was that you sent back an essay. You really should have sent a message "Sorry, I can't read your attachment, could you send me it again in an open format, please"?

Your other error was that you did your Microsoft interviews before your Google interviews. Had you done it in the other order, you could at least have gotten the Microsoft position, especially after telling them how you flunked google ;-)

I just wish they would redesign their news group

[Snaller]

... or failing that, do anyone know someone apart from Google who indexses usenet?

Re:Long intervies processes suck

[Dogtanian]

My 15 year old friend was interviewed 3 times for a job a the "love sack" store. They sell bean bag chairs. He would just have been a sales clerk. They called him back for a forth interview but he just blew them off because he was sick of it.

Why was a bean-bag store hiring programmers for a now obselete computer language [ic.ac.uk] anyway?

Re:This is why..

[HHaygood]

So let me get this straight -- you're upset about the difficult process of getting the job, so instead you're considering going into medicine?

Think, man, think!

Re:Searching Questions

[EriDay]

I just told them I came up with 4,300,000 answers in .16 seconds. I could give them a summary of my top 10 answers, or if they felt lucky, I'd just give them my number 1 answer.

Re:Long intervies processes suck

[__aafkqj3628]

There are only so many flat tires and sick aunts one can come up with for missing a couple of hours of work.

Just be sure you keep track of them, when you're on your 8th dead grandparent, people start getting suspicious.

Re:I hate college

[KilobyteKnight]

What about those of us with a BA who work in the IT industry? We too bring a balanced, yet completely different view to the workplace - one of the reasons I was hired at my current job. Computer geek + history geek means a man who can do mental backflips.

Oh, so that's the other thing you can do with a history degree.

Re:Comprehensive interviews are very important.

[Lonath]

I pity the fool who attempts to learn something from Slashdot.

Your comment is funny when I read it using my internal "Mr. T" voice.

Maybe you'd learn English?

[berck]

...there are many of us whom don't have one...

who, not whom.

...usually looking at degree's...

degrees, not degree's.

Re:Quick Question

[themightythor]

Pretentious is an adjective, pretentiously is an adverb.

Re:Discarding too many people

[Amit J. Patel]

If you interview enough people, you can solve all your problems this way.

Re:Quick Question

[owenb]

So is well.

If you fake who you are, I will throw you in this WELL.

Re:Long intervies processes suck

[BigGerman]

I just like the term "furthering".
I thought if one kept furthering oneself he would go blind or something

Re:Quick Question

[Zetra]

Reference.com gets slashdotted every single time there is a /. post.
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