What to expect in phone interview with Google.

elvis2002

A HR person from google wants to arrange a chat on the phone with me? Anyone know what to expect from that?

copacetic

they just want to confirm you are not a nutter before you come in and speak to them directly. so if you are, let on not to be by acting normal..

Beruthiel

my bloke did a phone interview with them, it was 45mins of questions

feylya

I know a few people who had phone interviews with them. The whole trick is to have a laugh with them. As long as you can get on with them, your abilities aren't as important (but still necessary )

What position is it for?

Tom Dunne

I did two phone interviews with them for a techy position.

The first one was the IT manger asking about your CV and some minor technical stuff. The second was pure technical.

The other five were face to face and all technical.

skywalker_208

why do they feel the need to do so many interviews?

Tom Dunne

There are plenty of threads in this very forum on this very topic, yet none answer this very question.

My own opinion is that they are incredibly picky on who they chose to work with (it's your peers interviewing you).

eth0_

I've given up with Google. I've had two different technical interviews with them for different jobs in the past year and did fine in both but they didn't invite me for an interview. In fact the last time I had to send 2 emails to the HR woman, and in the end ask the person in google who referred me to find out what the story was. They said I didn't fit the bill...despite doing the exact job I applied for for the past 2 years.

The guy who interviewed me last didn't seem to know what he was at, one random question he asked was what are the new features in the new release of mac os x. Then he told me it was the new Intel processor???

whippet

the initial phone interview with google will be hr going through your CV , basic stuff. They will go through it in a fair bit of detail mind you and it will last about 45mins.

On an other note, despite all the bitterness I have seen about google recruitment methods on these boards, I must say my dealings with them have been spot on. I got to the final phases of on-site interviews and unfortunatly I didn't get the job. I got a call from HR a week to the day after the interview and was given some great feed back as to why i wasn't sucessful.

Everytime I was promised a call they called, and the process was very transparent. Due to the number of applications they recieve they have to screen these with telephone interviews before they call people for on-site interviews.

eth0_

It wasn't HR who interviewed me. It was a member of the team I would have been joining.
My contact with HR was a 5 minute phone call asking what I was doing currently and when would suit for a technical interview.

red,white,&blue

Google is one of the toughest interviews to crack. The company generally looks for people that are basically anti-social, addicted to their work, highly intellectual, and are in many respects loners. The witty and social need not apply. The interviews are rigorous, and most average 5 stages, with the one on one in person interviews occuring last. The highest rate of interview failure occurs at this stage, and you are psychologically profiled from the initial phone interview. If you want to succeed I would suggest you show very little personality if you have one and keep it completely serious and technical.

BuffyBot

On an other note, despite all the bitterness I have seen about google recruitment methods on these boards

I'm not sure it's bitterness - probably more disbelief at the needless complexity and the seemingly scattergun approach they are taking towards recruitment.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Tom Dunne

red,white,&blue wrote:

Google is one of the toughest interviews to crack. The company generally looks for people that are basically anti-social, addicted to their work, highly intellectual, and are in many respects loners. The witty and social need not apply. The interviews are rigorous, and most average 5 stages, with the one on one in person interviews occuring last. The highest rate of interview failure occurs at this stage, and you are psychologically profiled from the initial phone interview. If you want to succeed I would suggest you show very little personality if you have one and keep it completely serious and technical.

I disagree completely.

The people that interviewed me were young, bright, witty, dedicated and good craic. Just how many interviews have you done with Google? All seven interviews were one-on-one. Psychologiacally profiled? The people who interviewed me were techies, not psychologists. They were writing on plain A4 paper, not filling out any kind of form.

Bear in mind there are different types of jobs - I was going for tech support, not a sales job.

BuffyBot

Big company growing way way too quickly. Original company culture being lost in the mess.

Seems so.

skywalker_208

tom dunne wrote:

Bear in mind there are different types of jobs - I was going for tech support, not a sales job.

7 interviews for tech support?

Tom Dunne

Yes. It wasn't first line telephone support, it was all-encompassing - Windows, Unix, Mac, networks, printers, phones, video-conferencing, everything.

red,white,&blue

tom dunne wrote:

I disagree completely.

The people that interviewed me were young, bright, witty, dedicated and good craic. Just how many interviews have you done with Google? All seven interviews were one-on-one. Psychologiacally profiled? The people who interviewed me were techies, not psychologists. They were writing on plain A4 paper, not filling out any kind of form.

Bear in mind there are different types of jobs - I was going for tech support, not a sales job.

That's how good they are. You didn't even know you were being psychologically evaluated. It is common knowledge in the States that this is done by this company, as well as many others.

copacetic

red,white,&blue wrote:

That's how good they are. You didn't even know you were being psychologically evaluated. It is common knowledge in the States that this is done by this company, as well as many others.

?
and I supposed the people who were interviewing him didn't know they were profiling him either?

HelterSkelter

5 to 7 interviews for a job!! What a joke. I've worked for companies that had rigerous interviewing processes and companies who were the complete opposite. There was still the same percentage of dossers, chancers and lazy fúcks working for each company. These HR people are just trying to keep themselves in a job so they invent this whole complicated recruitment process.

damnyanks

Friend did an interview to be a graduate trader at an investment bank. She had to do 8 interviews in one day. She had to do some tests previous to that and also had an assement center with her interviews.

These were all on the same day!

jrey1981

I did an interview for one of their adwords guys as I have a journalism degree - which is what they were supposedly looking for - but the woman interviewing me was not the easiest person to build a rapport with over the phone.

I think they were looking for more hard sell skills as far as I could tell...

penexpers

red,white,&blue wrote:

Google is one of the toughest interviews to crack. The company generally looks for people that are basically anti-social, addicted to their work, highly intellectual, and are in many respects loners. The witty and social need not apply. The interviews are rigorous, and most average 5 stages, with the one on one in person interviews occuring last. The highest rate of interview failure occurs at this stage, and you are psychologically profiled from the initial phone interview. If you want to succeed I would suggest you show very little personality if you have one and keep it completely serious and technical.

*blink* I personally know quite a few people working in google, both in adwords and technical and none of them fit that profile.

Supercell

tom dunne wrote:

I disagree completely.

The people that interviewed me were young, bright, witty, dedicated and good craic. Just how many interviews have you done with Google? All seven interviews were one-on-one. Psychologiacally profiled? The people who interviewed me were techies, not psychologists. They were writing on plain A4 paper, not filling out any kind of form.

Bear in mind there are different types of jobs - I was going for tech support, not a sales job.

Lol, messianic, the brethren have you by the curlies!

johny28

Oh!man Goolge have the worst recruting process because of the following:
1- they don't even tell you what is the salary range
2- tooks a long time between the application time and the time they get back to the candidate
3- even if you apply for something like technical support you have to go through 6 interveiws ; 3 phone interveiws and 3 on site interveiws.
4- and at the end they don't offer much I know for tech support they offer 24 k and for sales its 30 k....

My expereince with them was terrible.

Thanks

johny28

Hi there,

Just wondering how did your interview go?and what you think of Doogle opps meant google Now?

Thanks

madmoe

Guys,
I have to agree with what most people are saying here, interviews with Google SUCK!!

Have had a few experiences over the phone with them and they DID NOT call back when they said they would and worst of all they left the outcome hanging! Tell me if I did not get through but do not leave it hanging, its common curtsey! All I can say is God only knows what they would be like to work for if they are this blasse about the interview process!

Dave!

damnyanks wrote:

Friend did an interview to be a graduate trader at an investment bank. She had to do 8 interviews in one day. She had to do some tests previous to that and also had an assement center with her interviews.

These were all on the same day!

Jayzis! Did she get the job in the end?

damnyanks

Yup

homeOwner

I dont understand why google are going to such lengths when hiring people at the lower end of the pay scale. For a manager or senior person who they are going to be paying shed loads of money too, then fine, you want to know whether or not the person can perform (but imo 8 interviews is excessive for that) But if you are offering 25-35K to someone, give them a probation period and let them go if they are not performing. The admin costs and overheads of having 6 different staff interview the same person over and over, taking them away from their work smells like ineffeciency to me. Even wall street companies dont do this - you're in and out in a few hours, a day at most and you meet with all the departments for an hour who might want to hire you and thats it, you know within a week whether or not you get the job. Its not rocket science.

jdc78

Hi,

Anyone know salary ranges for Google AdWord Account Managers?

Waiting on an interview date and before proceeding further, just want to make sure I am not wasting their nor my time.

Thanks.

whippet

I was told in an interview that the expected earnings would be well into the 40K's

JimmySmith

Goole do this to make you feel so important (if you get the job) that you forget about the salary and are just delighted to have got through such an elite selection.
They dont need to profile you. Google already know more about you than your mother does.

jdc78

€40K with a minimum of 5 years experience they're looking for? :eek: forget it!

whippet

that was before bonuses etc and I don't think it was a min of 5 years.