Anyone have experience with phone interviews with google?

hellolin

Recently I have applied for the google summer IT internship, it is not their usual programming camp up there in Mountain view, but for general networking and IT support within the company. I have already been scheduled for a 2 hour long phone interviews with some of their team members. I know that I can not share any interview questions or prep docs, and I am not going to do so here, nor do I ask anyone who has gone though with any interviews with them to post any interviewing questions. I just want to see if anyone has any tips for me to prepare for this interview, so far this will be the most challenging interview I will ever had, and one of the biggest companies as well. If I get to do this summer internship with them, even if it is still IT support help desk, it will be a dream come true for me, who doesn't want to work for maybe the best tech company in the world? I was just excited that they actually paid attention to my college resume and give me 2 hours of their life to interview me.

Dakinggamer87

That's awesome good luck!!

devils_haircut

I actually got contacted through LinkedIn for that same position, but I thought it was a joke. I am in no way qualified to work for Google.

Master Of Puppets

Best of luck! From what I've heard, the recruiting process in Google is extremely hardcore. Especially for coders and higher-level networking positions.

networker050184

I've been talking with them about a position. Not much really to share. It's basically standard interviewing, just a lot more of it and pretty thorough.

TomkoTech

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=0

tier~

First things first, best of luck with the interview!

Google has posted a lot of general material regarding their interview process via LifeAtGoogle. I know I've seen several videos discussing their interview process. How we hire - Google Careers should be a decent start.

pramin

hellolin wrote: »

Recently I have applied for the google summer IT internship, it is not their usual programming camp up there in Mountain view, but for general networking and IT support within the company. I have already been scheduled for a 2 hour long phone interviews with some of their team members. I know that I can not share any interview questions or prep docs, and I am not going to do so here, nor do I ask anyone who has gone though with any interviews with them to post any interviewing questions. I just want to see if anyone has any tips for me to prepare for this interview, so far this will be the most challenging interview I will ever had, and one of the biggest companies as well. If I get to do this summer internship with them, even if it is still IT support help desk, it will be a dream come true for me, who doesn't want to work for maybe the best tech company in the world? I was just excited that they actually paid attention to my college resume and give me 2 hours of their life to interview me.

fyi.

search google interview process in tech exams you will find some info that you are looking for

hellolin

Thank you guys very much for the blesses and help. Well it's actually kinda funny, I applied and thought to myself, "Oh well there are probably 1000 people in my big city who probably applied for the same position, and what's the chances that my resume gets picked up?" What do I know, they emailed almost a week and half earlier, a day after my birthday, and I didn't check that email until this week! So basically Google contacted me to make interview appointments and I laid them off for a week and half! Now the even more funnier stuff happened, I replied the email super late, but the recruiter almost replied me right away, and I was giving the interview notices the next day! The only bad thing is that since I replied so late, all of the interviewing slots for April are filled, so my interview date is on the first monday of May. Hope this won't be too late for them to decide, but meanwhile I do have a couple more offers for summer internship, some of them are from pretty big local dotcoms and IT companies as well. Should I accept at least one summer internship offer and wait for google to decide, or should I just straight up reject all the other internship offers and wait for google? I have already rejected 2 job offers, both of them desktop support, one from my school and another one from the State of CA, and I currently do have an unpaid internship with an IT company that I like to do work with.
I heard from somewhere that there are avg. 1000 resumes per job openings for Google, and the recruiter only spends about 15 sec on each one of them, and 130 out of 1000 resumes are picked for phone interviews, and at the end they are only hiring one out of those 130, stiff competition for sure! But hey if they are willing to wait for me for a week and half and reply me right away for interviews, does that mean they are still pretty interested in me?
A little background about myself: A navy vet, currently studying in one of the two only Polytechnic universities in the state, and have a 3.67 GPA in my CIS program, have only about 4 month of internship experience with basic IT support, and I guess all of that together actually worth a nod for Google, well that means at least I must have a killer resume then!

hellolin

devils_haircut wrote: »

I actually got contacted through LinkedIn for that same position, but I thought it was a joke. I am in no way qualified to work for Google.

That's the thing, I heard for Google they are always looking for unique people who has the skills to work for them, i.e. someone who is different from the other tech guys. I guess me being a military vet and my high GPA in a very technology focused school nod their doors for a sec, and that was enough to land me the technical interviews. So what is your story? You must have something unique about yourself that Google found out, remember they are the search company, if they want they can find everything about you lol

devils_haircut

hellolin wrote: »

So what is your story?

I'm an Army veteran as well, and I recently graduated with my A.S. I think they were looking for recent grads, and the vet status probably helped (along with having some certs, albeit basic ones).

I'm not really sure how they look for candidates, but it's probably a nice name to have on your resume.

hellolin

devils_haircut wrote: »

I'm an Army veteran as well, and I recently graduated with my A.S. I think they were looking for recent grads, and the vet status probably helped (along with having some certs, albeit basic ones).

I'm not really sure how they look for candidates, but it's probably a nice name to have on your resume.

That's probably why, I know google is very good at helping out vets, they just had a vets camp last year here in Cali where they bought bunch of vets together and taught them resume and job hunting skills, but I think mostly they were interested in finding vets who is interested in technology, I guess that's how my resume poped out in their HR.

the_Grinch

I've been interviewed by them twice. The first time it was for a tech support position and it was the most grueling two hours of my life. I went in expecting the standard HR like interview and was blown away by what they asked. The second phone interview was more of the same, two hours and all technical. After that it was to their NYC office for three to five more interviews. Nailed the first two and then bombed the third. Walked out and knew I didn't get the position.

The second time was for a position that I felt they really didn't describe very well in the posting. After 45 minutes I realized there wouldn't be a second phone call.

Honestly, just answer the questions to the best of your ability giving as much information as you can. It seemed to me being honest and working through the questions as best you could was what they were looking for. Good luck and congrats!!

hellolin

the_Grinch wrote: »

I've been interviewed by them twice. The first time it was for a tech support position and it was the most grueling two hours of my life. I went in expecting the standard HR like interview and was blown away by what they asked. The second phone interview was more of the same, two hours and all technical. After that it was to their NYC office for three to five more interviews. Nailed the first two and then bombed the third. Walked out and knew I didn't get the position.

The second time was for a position that I felt they really didn't describe very well in the posting. After 45 minutes I realized there wouldn't be a second phone call.

Honestly, just answer the questions to the best of your ability giving as much information as you can. It seemed to me being honest and working through the questions as best you could was what they were looking for. Good luck and congrats!!

Thanks for all the information man, one thing though is it is an intern position, so I would think it is more of finding out my expertise and interests within their company, rather than a certain topic. But hey that's the kind of interview experiences that I need later on when I finally graduate college in order to land my first job, if I can get a second interview from google, then I must be good enough to get hired by some other company already!
Matter of fact I had 2 interviews today with 2 companies about their summer IT internship, and I think I might just got another offer today, hard to reject but I really do want to wait out the google one

kennya

Hi, So have you had the interview with Google? How did it go?

ITcognito

devils_haircut wrote: »

I actually got contacted through LinkedIn for that same position, but I thought it was a joke. I am in no way qualified to work for Google.

Why put yourself down like that? Google's overrated.

ITcognito

I don't want to clog the forum with a similar topic, so I'll toss it in here if you don't mind.

I have a interview coming up for a summer networking internship. What kind of questions should I expect?

hellolin

Well my interview hasn't come yet, it's the first monday of May, and guess what, I have already secured a long term internship with a very well know car shopping/review/comparison for their IT support team, and this company models after google for all its worth....Well I am still planing to go though the google interview process just to see where I am at and how interested they are in me, but the chance of me either getting selected or accept their offer now is pretty slim. But yes once I went though those 2 interviews I will post my experience here, of course I won't post any questions they actually will ask me as I signed the NDF.

kennya

ITcognito wrote: »

I don't want to clog the forum with a similar topic, so I'll toss it in here if you don't mind.

I have a interview coming up for a summer networking internship. What kind of questions should I expect?

I saw this:

My Google Interview « failing like never before

kennya

I also saw these articles informative, it is the ITRP program, but same department:

Training Systems Reflections: Google Interview
Randy's blog: My Google (phone) Interview

hellolin

Update: I decided that I am probably going to call off the interview, reason being that I got offered an help desk internship with one of the big dot coms here(Literally off the same strip with the google office), at the beginning of the process the HR told me it was $12 to start, 20 hour a week part time, but when I got the offer letter I was surprised: $16/hour, 24 hours a week, budgeted until at least the end of this year, so pretty much I got a raise before I even started my first day! So I decided it wasn't worth the effort or time to take a working day off just to interview with google for a 10 week summer internship (Same position), plus this job has a higher chance of turning into a premt. position after I graduate next year. So with the good pay and length of the job I decide to forgo with my google adventure, thanks everyone for the tips though!

kennya

hellolin wrote: »

Update: I decided that I am probably going to call off the interview, reason being that I got offered an help desk internship with one of the big dot coms here(Literally off the same strip with the google office), at the beginning of the process the HR told me it was $12 to start, 20 hour a week part time, but when I got the offer letter I was surprised: $16/hour, 24 hours a week, budgeted until at least the end of this year, so pretty much I got a raise before I even started my first day! So I decided it wasn't worth the effort or time to take a working day off just to interview with google for a 10 week summer internship (Same position), plus this job has a higher chance of turning into a premt. position after I graduate next year. So with the good pay and length of the job I decide to forgo with my google adventure, thanks everyone for the tips though!

The IT internship with Google also has a high chance of turning into a full time role. Interns are interviewed for the full time role, it is called ITRP program which (begins January and June every year), a 26 month rotational program around Google offices, then you can move to any technical infrastructure department inside Google after that.

broli720

I was making $22 an hour as an intern a few years ago. Imagine what you would make at google. It would be foolish to turn down the interview...

ToxicWaste

I haven't had experience with Google, but have had several telephone interviews. They are similar, and different, I was asked more than once questions similar to this: what three things are the reason you want this job? What can you offer to this job that other candidates cannot?

Wish you luck, use good social skills, only answer the questions, and do not add additional information, stay away from telling them about your self, example I did this, I can do that, I can, me, and so on, mention that you want to be part of a bigger team and contribute equally as a team member. Tell them that you know the difference between good work and bad work, and you do everything up to your standards. Tell them that your job is to make the customers job, equipment, or what ever BETTER.

Remember that the customer is actually your boss, and that is who you work for,

Hope I have helped, as I am looking for work my self.

I wish you Good Skill!

hellolin

broli720 wrote: »

I was making $22 an hour as an intern a few years ago. Imagine what you would make at google. It would be foolish to turn down the interview...

That's damn good, I got interviewed with an IT auditing intern position and that was $20 a hour, but I have already accepted this current offer, good thing is this company's working enviroment is modeled after google, so I get all the perks as well

broli720

It doesn't hurt to interview though. Why pass up on that experience?

hellolin

broli720 wrote: »

It doesn't hurt to interview though. Why pass up on that experience?

because the interview will happen during my working hours, and I kinda don't want to take a day off just to go though the interview that I probably won't have much chance to pass, plus I just took this offer from this company which is going to be long term. Well let's see how this plays out in the long run

jrlviper

From what I've read on this post, it seem to me pretty sad that people aren't even willing to try out. Some interns have gone on to be offered Full-Time positions after finishing school work.

Be a big boy and at least try. The worst that could happen is that you get rejected!

tprice5

Agreed. Very near-sighted to not even interview.

N2IT

Interviewing with Google would be a great experience I would still go through the interview. Don't take the lazy path.

hellolin

Update: after about a month after I accepted the internship offer at my current company, Google emailed me said they have already filled the position and canceled the interview themselves, and told me to apply again next year for their IT resident program if I am still interested. So far 4 month into my internship with my current company I like the company a lot, and my goal is to have them extend my internship beyond this year, so it will last until I graduate next May, and hopefully offer me a full time position. So the google interview idea had been put off for a while now, but thanks for the advice everyone!