The process began with a phone screen with a recruiter for Site Reliability Engineer Role in Mountain View, CA. The questions were fairly straightforward, but I just did OK. I thought I should have answered all the questions correctly, but for whatever reason, I blanked on one or two of the questions. I was pleasantly surprised when my recruiter called me back an hour later. Given my career arc at my current employee, I had expressed an interest in leadership type roles. I felt given the amount of coding I had done and the significant challenges I have successfully overcome in the last few years at my current company, I could serve better the company at a leadership position. My recruiter was really great. She considered my experience, resume, and desire for a leadership type role and scheduled me for a technical phone screening for a managerial role.
Two weeks later I had a technical phone screening. The questions were straightforward and the interviewer did a good job interacting. I did well enough to get to a managerial phone screening. That phone screening was also straightforward. I thought I had done OK. Unfortunately, my recruiter called me and told me I was "not a good fit" for the managerial role. She asked me to take another technical phone screening for a Site Reliability Engineer role. This screening did not go as well as the other two. I kind of got stuck on the problem and time ran out. What most annoyed me most was that within 15 minutes of ending the interview I had the entire solution to the coding problem completed coded. I sent the code the recruiter, but I do not think it mattered. Soon thereafter, I received an email from another recruiter saying my previous recruiter had passed me along to her. I honestly cannot say if my first recruiter passed me along due to positive feedback or negative. I was just very grateful to be still in the game, so to speak.
The new recruiter scheduled me for a phone screening with the hiring manager for the TPM role. I felt I did well in this screening. I felt like I made a solid connection with the interviewer. Soon after my recruiter confirmed my feelings and said I had made it to the onsite interview.
Google's mountain view campus is amazing and I was very excited to be there. I had 5 interviews. 3 with TPMs and 2 with SWEs. I had lunch with a SWE. The SWEs had system design questions and one coding question. The TPMs had more project management /behavioral type questions. I did not think any of the questions were terribly difficult and I honestly felt I did OK. I answered all questions and looking back, I know I answered behavioral questions honestly. In other words, I was not trying to answer the questions to satisfy/impress them, but rather I answered as if I would react if confronted with the situation posed in the question.
Unfortunately, I was told I was "not a good fit". The rejection stings, but I knew google's reputation for hiring. I felt all the interviewers, but one, would probably have been good people to work along side. One interviewer had an air of arrogance and when I was done with interview, made me honestly not want to work for Google. All the interviewers were trying to push me, and this is to be expected. Whereas I could tell this one fellow did not think highly of me from the onset.
That being said, my annoyance quickly went away as I drove around the campus and then Mountain View later. if given a reasonable offer, I am pretty sure I would had taken it, despite the one fellow.
To close, I have no idea why I was not a good fit. They don't tell you. I don't know if the one interviewer railroaded my chances or maybe all the interviewers had issue with my answers.
The only thing I am sure of (and why I rate this a positive experience) is that I made a positive impression on the recruiters and the hiring manager and I am very grateful that they gave me every opportunity to succeed.
