Status: Freelance dev (6 years)
Position: L3-L4 at Google
Location: Virtual
Date: April 2022
Technology: Javascript (Frontend)
Result: Reject

Technical phone screen (1 hour):

Interviewer was really friendly and seemed excited to interview me (yay!).

I had two questions, the first was a Leetcode question that I had reviewed the night before. I pushed through that one really quickly. The second was a more difficult Leetcode question that I had yet to review. Fortunately, this question aligned well with my experience, so I was able to hobble towards the correct answer.

Interviewer literally told me "good luck on the Onsite". Again, yay!

Onsite (5 rounds):

My Onsite interviews (which weren't "Onsite" grumble grumble) took place all on the same day.

The first interview was the "Googliness" interview. The interviewer didn't say that, but it was obvious from the start. It consisted of questions about my developer experience. I've worked on dozens of projects, so I knocked this one out of the park. I think if I had had less projects under my belt, I could have focused in on one project in particular and gotten at least a PASS.

The second interview was over a data structure that I've never used. The structure was more akin to something a backend dev would use. I was honest with the interviewer that I'd never worked with the structure before. They were more receptive to questions after I told them of my unfamiliarity (I would recommend doing this). I hobbled to an answer and the interviewer and I talked edge cases as the clock ran out. Overall, I think I did good on this one.

The third interview focused on some advanced applications of frontend javascript. This was definitely the strongest interview question of the day and one I felt I did OKAY on. I didn't produce an answer, but I did get about 75% of the way. The interviewer was a generally likable person, but did NOT give any help on this one. I asked open ended questions "to myself" in a vain attempt to get a response from the interviewer. Instead of helpful hints, I got crickets. I think (maybe) I should have been more direct in my questioning.

The fourth interview was a crash and burn. I'm convinced it was the interview that cost me the job. Google doesn't give detailed feedback on rejects, so I'll never know for sure. It was a Leetcode question that I had not reviewed AND did not align with my professional experience. I would recommend vehemently pursuing these questions and reviewing them. Without detailed knowledge on how to approach this type of problem, my only response was repeating "I'm drawing a blank" until the time ran out. It's an understandably frustrating experience, and I (stupidly) became frustrated. If you are in the same position, be honest and say "hey, I think this is a leetcode question that I never reviewed". In hindsight, that's the approach I think would have resulted in a better outcome than what I got.

The fifth interview included the least likeable interviewer of the bunch. After my previous botched interview, I came into this one refreshed and determined to give a positive impression. The interviewer really didn't care though. I don't blame them (they really did seem busy), but it did sour the interview in general. The question was much more frontend focused than the previous one and probably would have been my favourite if the interviewer was more focused. I ended up droning on about what I was doing since I wasn't getting any feedback from the interviewer. The poor guy all but said "sorry, I wasn't listening" at one point. Overall, I think the interviewer didn't care enough to fail me, so I think I got a positive review from them.

Recruiter Comments

I received a call from the recruiter the day after the interview. I'm 99% convinced this is a BAD sign - but have no proof. They explained that I had mixed reviews but leaning negative, so no hire. I think if they had leaned positive, I would have been recommended to a hiring commitee, but I don't know 100% how Google's hiring process functions.

My Thoughts

Ultimately, through this process, I realized that developer experience does not translate well across industries. My valuable soft skills (mostly in client relations) amounted to nothing in my interview with Google. I believe this is a direct result of the task expectations being different between the SMB world and the Corporate world. Google is interested in the best software developers, not in average software developers who also have sales/client relations experience.

Anyway, that's my 2-cents. Thanks for sticking it through if you read all of this.