I've recently had an interview with Google for a Product Manager role. In preparation for this interview I've done an extensive research on different tips, format of the interview and the process at Google. Needless to say, I've found lots of information about what this would look like but after having gone through an initial phone interview myself, I've realized that some of the widely available information is not as accurate as should be. Below I will try to describe the process as well as the specifics of the interview without violating any Google disclosure rules.

Process before the interview:

1. If you are applying to Google for a specific position, the first sign that things are going your way would be an email from a junior recruiter at Google. This individual will ask you a number of general questions and will ask you to submit your college and (or) high school transcripts and other related information for verification of eligibility. I am not sure your academic performance makes any different at this early stage.

2. Thereafter you will be contacted by another recruiter, who I suppose is of a more senior level, this person will be able to answer any questions related to the role you are applying for and will ask about your preferred location of work, make a determination if Google has any opening in that locations, and suggest alternative Google sites that have particular position available. Also, this recruiter will ask you to write a little about why you would like to apply for this position, as well as a little about yourself, and a little about different products (this is product strictly for Product Manager's rols) and what you would like to improve. I must add that personally this process has been very pleasant for me and I got a feeling that most Google recruiters are nice guys/girls.

3. Once all of that information is submitted, recruiter will let you know if they have decided to move to a phone interview with you or not. If the decision is yes, you will be asked to provide day/times you are available and then you will be contacted by a Google HR person who will coordinate your interview schedule with an Google employee who's going to be interviewing you. I generally found that these HR scheduling people are less responsive and enthusiastic as the recruiters.

Phone Interview:

My understanding is that every phone interview is unique and completely dependent on a particular interviewer. The questions that I got asked may or may not be of the same type as would be presented to the next candidate by the same or a different interviewer. I also guess that there is some sort of an interview rotation schedule that is going on in Google when it comes to phone interviews. Below I will summarize general topics of my Product Manager interview which should be only viewed as one of many interview scenarios.

I was interviewed by another Product Manager at Google. This person was extremely friendly and supportive with a nice personality which I found extremely helpful. The length of the interview was 45 minutes and the interviewer stayed on schedule and didn’t go over the time specified.

The following topics were discussed:

1. Tell me about yourself (Introduce what is important to know about you in 3-5 minutes). At this point interviewer read your resume and associated paperwork, therefore I don’t think there is a point of going over it again.
2. Give me some ideas of products you like (not Google related)
3. How do you improve these product (s)
4. One big analytics question. (In my case it had nothing to do with computers or Product Management)
5. Time to ask interviewer your questions (5 minutes before the end of the interview)

In person interview:

This is a to be continued section …. From the information that I got so far, there may be a series of 3-4 on site interviews with different individuals in various roles.

I will update this post as time permits. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

Twitter sent an email around to users yesterday, giving four suggestions for getting the most out of Twitter in 2011:

1. Follow your interests: Follow the people who share your passions
2. Get specific: Follow your favourite leagues, teams, players, writers etc
3. Don’t panic: Search for hashtags and relevant accounts during emergencies to stay informed
4. Return to Twitter: A call for lapsed users to return to  a service that apparently now has over 200 million user accounts

Four suggestions seems a little thin to me. I often get asked why people should use Twitter; here are 25 ideas for ways you can get value out of Twitter, with a mix of business and personal focus:

1. Stay in touch– Find your friends and use Twitter to post and read micro-updates on what’s going on in your lives
2. Meet new people– Get to know friends of your friends and widen your circle
3. Network professionally– Follow and get to know other people working in your industry
4. Find local events– Watch for interesting events that your connections are attending. Take advantage of the opportunity to take online connections offline
5. Research destinations– Travelling somewhere? Search for what people are saying, and poll your network for pointers on your destination
6. Get recommendations– Looking for a vendor, at home or at work? Ask your Twitter friends for recommendations on who to go with
7. Grow professionally– Identify the leaders in your industry. Read what they post; follow who they follow; learn from their activity
8. Fuel your passion– Find people who share the same interests as you, and geek it up! Let other peoples’ passion for your interests fuel your own
9. Influence the influencers– Get to know the people with influence in your field, before you need to ask them for anything
10. Stay on top of news– Follow news-related accounts, both traditional and non-traditional – to stay up-to-date with news in your area and your industry
11. Get to know journalists– Whether you post or you just lurk, follow the journalists in your field, learn what they read and what they like, and get to know what will be helpful for them
12. Research competitors– Follow your competitors. See what they post; see who they engage. Learn from their successes and their mistakes
13. Gain insights– Solicit feedback from your connections on ideas, products and services
14. Filter your reading–  Rather than fearing drinkin from the Twitter firehose, create a list of people who consistently post things that interest you and let them generate your reading list. Bonus: you’ll find stories from sites you don’t normally check
15. Generate ideas – Whether it’s through case studies other people post, ideas sparked from conversations or reactions to your posts, let your connections help you to generate new ideas
16. Organize meetups– Found yourself with some time on your hands? See who else is around. Planning to be somewhere at a certain time? See if anyone wants to meet up with you
17. Boost your reputation– Post your own content or curate others’ to build your own reputation in your chosen area
18. Inbound job hunting -Network with peers in your industry, build relationships with hiring managers, develop your own reputation and watch the number of job offers you receive rocket
19. Outbound job hunting – Follow executives at the companies you want to work for and keep your eyes open for job openings
20. Stay on top of trends – Identify the thought leaders in your industry and stay on top of trends by listening to what they’re saying
21. Drive conversions– As a business user, point people towards your points of conversion… but don’t do it too often, and make sure it’s something people will find valuable
22. Engage with your community– Don’t focus all of your company’s posts on pushing content; try to make a majority of your posts more conversational
23. Solve problems– Monitor for problems with your company’s customers, and solve them
24. Re-purpose content– Have something interesting on one of your other online properties? Let people know where to find it
25. New business generation– Get to know people at companies you want to work with; watch for requests for help from people looking for your services; post/curate content that generates inbound demand

http://blog.onlinemarketingconnect.com/frame/index.php?url=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dfPR/~3/jM3vFSJy7es/&link=2

Spread the word throughfriends-and-family e-mails.

See attached report:

• Friends-and-family e-mails had 43 percent higher open ratesand 29 percent higher click rates compared to bulk promotions
• Social network links within friends-and-family e-mails had much higher referral ratesthan e-mails with no social network links
• For friends-and-family campaigns, 20 percent and 30 percent off are the most common offers during the holiday season
• Revenue per e-mail and transaction rates for friends-and-family e-mails were 85 percent higher and 2.5 times higher, respectively, against bulk promotions
• Compared against non–friends-and-family promotions with the same offer values, friends-and-family e-mails generate higher revenue per e-mail

See the full article: http://www.bestwebdesignseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/EMS_friends_family_WP.pdf

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JOKES FOR SLIGHTLY TWISTED MINDS…

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However, new Dell Streak has a number of disadvantages which will be detrimental to the same success story we have seen with the iPhone ATT deal:

• Unlike few years ago, every carrier has a wide selection of smart phones now.
• iPhone and other Apple products have fans who would buy even the most useless device and Dell doesnt have nearly as much in terms of consumer loyalty.
• This new device positions itself as a tablet/cell phone. It is too small to be a useful table and too big to be a convenient cell phone.
• Streak is an android based device and will be in direct competition with other android phone. It seems like this is a way for ATT to get back at Apple.

All we can do is wait and see, ofcourse. 

The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history.

"Who said 'Give me Liberty, or give me Death?' " She saw a sea of blank
faces, except for Pedro, who had his hand up.

"Patrick Henry, 1775."

"Very good!" apprised the teacher. "Now, who said, "Government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth?"

Again, no response except from Pedro: "Abraham Lincoln, 1863."

The teacher snapped at the class, "Class, you should be ashamed! Pedro, who
is new to our country, knows more about its history than you do!"

She heard a loud whisper: "Screw the Mexicans!"

"Who said that?" she demanded.

Pedro put his hand up. "Jim Bowie, 1836."

At that point, a student in the back said, "I'm gonna puke." The teacher
glared and asked, "All right! Now, who said that?"

Again, Pedro answered, "George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991."

Now furious, another student yelled, "Oh yeah? Suck this!"

Pedro jumped out of his chair waving his hand and shouting to the teacher, "
Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!"

Now, with almost a mob hysteria, the teacher said, "You little shit. If you
say anything else, I'll kill you!"

Pedro frantically yelled at the top of his voice, "Gary Condit to Chandra
Levy, 2001."

The teacher fainted, and as the class gathered around her on the floor,
someone said, "Oh shit, we're in BIG trouble now!"

Pedro whispered, "Saddam Hussein, 2003."

Finally someone throws a eraser at Pedro, and someone else shouted, "Duck"!

The Teacher, just waking, asked, "Who said that?"

Pedro shouted, "Dick Cheney 2006!"

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Heard of the 3 Tenors? Here are the Three Rabbis

Don’t know if these 3 are rabbis or cantors, but they are amazing.
Especially the one on the right–he is silent at the beginning but at about
2:30 into the clip, he comes up with a note worthy of Pavarotti!

Turn on your sound, click on the link below, and be amazed!

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