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.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2011 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.