Long story short, I did not get the job, but it was a very cool experience. I am not going to get into too much detail about topics talked about as it would not be right on my part. I did not sign any NDA’s or anything, but still, you will find out details and questions when you actually interview with Google.
It all started by getting a cold mail from a Google recruiter in California, asking me if I would be interested in job position on SRE Team. I thought, “why not”? I was gearing up to get a new job anyways; I agreed. So the recruiter calls, standard conversation about what I have done, what I want to do, etc. It all concluded with some technical questions. The questions were easy and anyone doing UNIX system administration should know the answers. It’s public knowledge that Google runs mostly Linux on frontend. Probably some custom version. Who knows… So, the questions were heavily biased towards Linux and not towards say, Solaris or some BSD UNIX. I was told by the recruiter that I got answers right and that the interview notes would go to the hiring committee, which would decide if and how to proceed further.
I was very pleased to find out a week later that they would like to schedule another phone interview, this time with an SRE engineer in Zurich. I was told this would be a heavily technical interview. So I did a little bit of preparation by searching the web and trying to find out what to expect. Needless to say, I did not find much of anything useful. A lot of webpages I came across mentioned questions such as “Why are man hole covers round?” There was none of those questions during any of the interviews. All interviews I had with Google were technical.
Another week later, the phone call from SRE engineer came. I was little anxious. The first thing the engineer said was that he was interested in how I think and encouraged me to think aloud. That was actually very cool. Being used to interviewers that asked canned questions and expect canned answers, this was definitely refreshing. We talked for about an hour. Questions ranged from system administration to how certain protocols worked, system libraries, networking, automation, the whole nine yards.
I asked him some questions. One of them was something along the lines “What should a good SRE be like” or something like that. I was told that hiring for SRE’s is very difficult, because most of the traits they look for in SRE’s are not taught in schools. Those traits come from experience, constant learning, simply busting ass in the IT field, so to speak.
The interview was a very pleasant experience and I had a very good feeling about it. Again, I was told by the engineer that interview notes would go to the hiring committee that would decide on what to do next. I was told that there would be either another phone interview, or I would be turned down.
About a week later, I was contacted by the recruiter in California, informing me that they wanted me to come onsite. I was very surprised. I did feel confident about the interview with Zurich engineer, but I certainly did not anticipate to be invited onsite. Not so soon, anyways. From reading on the net, you pretty much get grilled mercilessly bunch of times over the phone before Google has you to come onsite.
So, off I went to Dublin. I was put in a pretty nice hotel, courtesy of Google. The next day I was to go through 5 interviews, each about an hour long. I was pretty anxious, as doing 5 interviews in a row is pretty nerve wrecking. Never mind this was at Google. I am not a Google fanboy, but it is well known, that Google hires only some of the best. I was told to basically go through everything I learned, ever! Yeah, that’s pretty wide scope. So I went through algorithms, protocols, TCP/IP packet structures, OSI model, you name it. Just to be sure, to be sure.
The next day I got up, put on pair of nicer jeans, casual shoes and casual dress shirt. That was an advice from the recruiter. No dress pants or anything like that. The point was to fit in, I guess. I arrived at the Google offices, checked in at the reception. The building was nice, everything was casual, no ties to be seen - whew! There was a big projection screen, showing cool location on Google Earth. In the offices there were game consoles in the areas for relaxing, pool tables… Almost like what you see on Youtube.
I was taken to one of the meeting rooms, where different interviewers would take turns at wrecking my brain :-). I went through 3 interviews before lunch. Many, many things were covered and all interviews overlapped in things discussed. But if I was to sum them up: system administration, networking, troubleshooting. Again, I was asked to think aloud. The atmosphere was very relaxed.
Then I was taken for a lunch by one of the Google employees. This guy did not interview me. The whole point was to experience the culture of working at Google. I am not much of a food guy. I eat to stay alive. But damn, the food was good.
We chatted about different things. Mostly about Google, of course. This guy told me he went through over 10 phone interviews, before being invited onsite. Another thing I learned was that most of the tech guys used to be “the computer guy” in past jobs. The best. But at Google, they are all good and there is a lot of competition going on among people. On one hand, that’s good. I think it motivates geeks. On the other hand, I think it creates ego driven mistrust.
After lunch I headed for the final two interviews. Again they overlapped, but to sum them up: coding/scripting and “tell me more about yourself - technically”. Both of them went smooth. At the end I left Google offices feeling pretty hopeful about the whole day.
Week or so later, I got a call from the recruiter, telling me they would not be making an offer at that time. Fair enough. I did not feel disappointed. I was not dying to get the job but I was bumming a little bit. The thought of working at Google with very bright people… But on the other hand, I like to have some life. Having 5 minute or whatever response time when on call, can become old very quickly. I guess one can’t have it all.
I did not ask the recruiter why they were not making an offer. I do not know why. I thought about interviews. To be honest one of them was not completely stellar. It was with one of those people that will make you feel that they know more about something than you do. But hey, that’s how things are.
Overall it was very cool. I look at it as a little geek party. Except in the end you might get a job, or you might not. I found it to be a very good experience. I learned a thing or two. So I guess, thumbs up to Google for the interview experience and maybe in my next lifetime…. :-)
Whoa, as I finished typing this, email from Google came in to rate the interview process…
Interesting post about SRE
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