2005-12-14 18:53
by Vasil KolevI’ve been planning to write about my experience with google – it’s not a lot, and it’s just the hiring process (not the whole process, as everyone knows, they didn’t hire me :) ), I guess some people will find it interesting…
It all began in July 2005, when I got a really interesting letter from one of their head recruiters, Ravi (using the xooglers’ principle, I’ll use just the first names), which I looked at for a long time – it looked like a strange type of spam… In the end the headers were right, and the idea to work there seemed interesting (as admin of the clustering systems, which is probably the most interesting thing there), and we made an arrangement for a phone call. I was also asked where would I want to apply – the proposition was valid for 3-4 places in the USA (where I won’t go no matter what), Zurich and Dublin (which sounded good – their drinks are ok, and it’s not that long way :) ).
Because I had some other work to do, the first talk was at the 15th of August (when I had came back from What The Hack! and had came to my senses), it was a few easy questions (how many hosts can you have in /19 for example), I couldn’t suppress the laughter at some of them :) After that I got asked to sent them a document in which I had filled how do I grade myself on a few things, and then waited for the serious interviews to be scheduled.
They were at 19th and 25th of August (I then found what a wonderful thing the hands-free is). The questions weren’t really hard, and the people decided to question me on the spot there, so the planning started for a trip to Ireland. Here it started to get merry…
The trip began with a fall-start – they weren’t able to get me normally the ticket, so I got to the airport in the early morning to find out that I have to go back home and sleep (they had found me a flight that took out in the early morning from Sofia and was in Dublin by noon, with some staying in Prague). After some apologies there was the organising of the second flight, at 30th of September, who went well…
The flight was ok, but was 40 minutes late, which was mostly because of some kind of a power outage (some storm took out a pole). At the passport control there was another delay, because before me there was some Russian/Ukrainian student, who half an hour looked for her documents, after which I got to the taxis, where there was a queue (and was organised really nice, I didn’t wait long). I also found out that the weather forecast for Dublin by default should be ‘rain, and it might stop from time to time’ (and because I’m smart I haven’t taken my umbrella, good thing that I had brought my hat from WTH).
I got to their office normally (in the beginning the taxi driver didn’t know their address, so she called them to ask them where are they :) ), where because I was late they reordered my interviews a bit. I got put in a room and 6 people took turns asking me on all kinds of questions – there wasn’t anything particularly hard, and the people themselves turned out to be nice and interesting. The place itself looks good, with a fun and merry atmosphere (because I got there Friday). After all this I went to the hotel to get some sleep (I was really tired, I even took short naps on the chair between the interviews). In the hotel it turned out that my reservation was for next month, but they had some free rooms and didn’t leave to sleep on the sidewalk :)
At the 12th of October I was told that the interviews there were ok, but they wanted to talk a bit more with me, so I got another interview scheduled with Ben, the clustering division boss at the 19th of October. It was mostly clearing up how well do I work in a team, especially in a team of people smarter than me (I have no idea why, but they thought that I’ve been in a environment where I’m the smartest – they haven’t been here :) )(there was some delay in the beginning, turned out that they had my phone number wrong in their database…). The idea was that to be the last interview, but then followed one more at the 20th of October (which almost didn’t take place, they had problem with their calendar application). It was mostly ideological – why do I want to work there, what do I like about the job, how do I handle stress, etc..
After that I got told that they liked me and were going to make me an offer – they just wanted some recommendations from previous employers (e.g. to give them a way to contact them). It was easy, and in a week they decided that they want me to do another interview with Ben, which never took place – they had again a problem with the calendar, and in the end we decided that there was no point in this interview, it was on some specific questions about link farms.
Then there was some waiting, and at the 18th of November I got a mail from them with one “Thank you for the interest, but we don’t think you’re a good match for the position, if you want to ask something, write us”. I asked about the reasons (then after a few weeks wrote to Ravi to tell me what was it, but he didn’t know :) ), and explained that if the position isn’t as interesting as the previous one, not to bother with me, there aren’t a lot of things that will make me relocate….
I have no idea if it’s so, but I think that their hiring process tries also to test the patience of the candidates :) A few times I bit my tongue before asking them if they want some help with their hiring process :) Well, I would’ve liked it there, the people were nice and the job seemed great, but there’s also that I feel great to be home…