The sole purpose of this post is to give credit where it’s due. To all the fellow aspirants working hard on their interview journeys, I hope this post serves as a confidence booster.

In these uncertain times — where ghosting, lowballing, and rejections with silly reasons are becoming more common — it’s important to acknowledge that there are recruiters who genuinely work hard to support candidates throughout the process.

My Background

To start with, I am an entrepreneur with no real paycheck and have been away from coding for almost 5 years. But I did have one FAANG experience (Microsoft, 2 years), which at least put my resume in recruiter's radar sometimes. One such recruiter is this person who picked me out of LinkedIn (I reached out to her among 100 other recruiters). What followed was a journey that would not have been possible without her support.

While there were multiple instances where she played a crucial role, I’d like to highlight three key moments that truly made a difference.

1. Never Spoken a Single Negative Word -
   With 5 YOE and definetly two LH ratings (assumption), I was pretty sure that my chances for L5 were slim. I even requested the recruiter to consider me for L4 instead.
   But she never once discouraged me. Not even a single negative word was uttered from her mouth during our conversations. She kept reinforcing that I was going to make it through and land as L5 at Google. I would pick up her call with tension and end the call with hope. What more do you want from a recruiter?

2. Always Communicated Transparently -
   One of the most crucial qualities of a recruiter is responsiveness, and she has always set the bar high. She picked up my calls all the time, even on weekends, and insisted that I reach out to her for even the smallest doubts. Though she couldn’t share exact interview ratings, she always provided clear and transparent feedback, which helped me improve for my upcoming rounds. That level of communication is all anyone wants during this complex and lengthy interview process. How many of you agree to this?

3. Fought for My Team Match
   Landing an L5 team match with just 5 YOE is supposed to be next to impossible. As expected, I failed 2 team match rounds, but she never gave up on me. Finally, a team accepted me but then backed out at the last moment because they didn’t want to hire me at L5. Ideally, they shouldn’t do that because as per the rules, I was eligible for L5 and possessed exactly the skills they were seeking. But she was able to sell my profile to the HM and got me back into the team match. How many recruiters go this far for their candidates?

If you ask me to quantify the reasons for me getting into Google, I’d say my hard work was only 10%, and the remaining 90% was her belief in me.

Hence, I dedicate this post to her and to all the recruiters who genuinely work hard to help candidates land their dream jobs. Their efforts often go unnoticed, but they make all the difference 🙌 🙌

Check my interview experience - Google | L5 | Bangalore | Selected | Interview Experience