My initial contact was with a recruiter who was very friendly. He scheduled a one-hour interview with a development manager. I was shocked that the entire decision was going to be based on one person's opinion especially for such a high-level position. When I met the interviewer, he didn't even introduce himself. He was very standoffish and didn't seem to care about me whatsoever. In fact, he didn't even say hello, how are you doing, or ask anything about me at all - he just jumped right into interview questions. He didn't ask anything about my experience until 20 minutes into the interview and then he only cared about what I was working on currently. Considering this was an interview for a development manager position, I expected more management questions. Instead it was highly technical. And, it wasn't really clear to me from the beginning what he expected. I guess Google only cares that they're managers be able to code instead of lead a team. (I've heard this from other people as well.) Overall, this was the worst interview I've ever had in my entire career.

There are many interviews. At least 5 are tests for the particular role, and if you do well enough, there are even more with the peers and managers at the role you are going for. After all that, your "package" (results of your 8+ interviews, and your Google recruiter notes, resume, etc) goes to the hiring committee. It takes over a month. Since there is testing, you will only do well if you are good at taking tests. Forget about applying if you are over 50 and 20+ years out of school. You will do poorly on the tests. If they want a way to only hire college grads, they have found a great way to do it legally.