Prepare for your Google Interview: Tips and Example of Question.

In today’s Hufnews article, we’re going to walk you through the hiring process at Google, and share helpful details to prepare you for the experience!

The first step is getting your application to Google. Start by browsing open jobs around the world on Google’s Careers site and find up to three jobs that match your skills and interests. Try to focus on roles where you meet all of the minimum qualifications, and ideally some of the preferred.

Now, it’s time to get your resume ready. One thing to point out here is that Google don’t require degrees from certain universities (or a university at all, depending on the role) and your GPA (Grade Point Average) is only part of your application if you’re a recent grad. After you submit your application, Google have a team of highly-trained pros who look over your resume and connect the dots between your experience and roles at Google. There’s no one kind of Googler, so they are always looking for people who bring new perspectives and life experiences that’ll help them build stronger teams, products, and services for all of their users.

Google really care about making this part of the process fair and effective, so these reviewers focus on each candidate instead of each application for a specific job. Once your resume is reviewed, you may hear from a recruiter. If you don’t hear from them in a few weeks, you can assume that they are moving forward with other candidates unless otherwise noted – but they might reach out in the future if another role is a match.
After a recruiter reaches out to you, phone calls are usually next. Typically, chat and learn more about you, your interests, experience, etc. You may then have phone interviews with Googlers that are more specific to the job or team. For technical roles, this often means coding interviews, and for business roles they’ll focus on skills and experience specific to the job you applied for.

The next step is onsite interviews at Google — a really exciting day! You’ll usually have 45-minute interviews where you meet a variety of Googlers, to demonstrate your abilities, and have time to ask questions about your interviewer, the role, and the team. You may also have lunch with a Googler to learn more about what it’s like to work there.

Now, let’s talk through other important things to know about interviews. Google use vetted, high-quality questions that are tailored to the job you’ve applied for and challenging (in a good way). So don’t worry, you won’t be asked any brainteaser questions, their research shows these types of questions aren’t useful for assessing you! All interviewers are trained and use standardized rubrics so that they’re consistent and confident in their assessments. Regardless of the job you’ve applied for, there are four attributes they look for:

-First, is general cognitive ability: they want to hire smart people who can learn and adapt to new situations, so this is about how you learn and solve hard problems in real life, not about GPAs or test scores.

-Second is role-related knowledge: It’s pretty straightforward, they want to make sure you have the experience, background, and skills that’ll set you up for success in the role.

-Third is leadership: they don’t just look at the job titles, since different team members will need to step into leadership roles and contribute. The recruiter look for examples of things like being a team player and navigating challenges to make an impact.

-Last, but not least, is Googleyness: Google want to make sure you can thrive with them, so they look for signs of comfort with ambiguity, bias to action, and a collaborative nature.

After interviews, your recruiter will share your interview feedback and scores, resume, references, and any work samples you submitted with a hiring committee. The hiring committees bring together Googlers who know the role best, but haven’t met any of the applicants, to offer a comprehensive, unbiased review. If the committee recommends they hire you, that recommendation and all of your info is sent to a senior leader—who provides another layer of objectivity—for final review. If everything is approved, your recruiter will get in touch to make an offer!

And that’s how Google hire!