I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Mar 2014
Interview
First I had a quick HR interview and then a phone interview was setup with a product manager. The interviewer asked me to explain how I will go about building a video editing software for blind people. I thought my technical and creative thinking aspects were right on.
However, I messed up on some market sizing calculations, very basic percentages. I am startled at myself for that silly mistake that just got me off track. I had done these kinds of problems so very well in GMATs and GREs but messed up here, can't believe myself.
Anyway, apart from that, I thought the interview went well. I also did pretty good on coming up with ideas for business models for this video editing software. I was happy about my overall performance but kicked myself for the math calculation error. I didn't expect that this mistake and some confusion around it would cause me the job! In hindsight, I am not even sure if the interviewer was expecting me to challenge the product idea and ask questions about why would someone want to build such product with limited addressable market etc.
The process was straightforward and moved quickly. After applying online, a recruiter reached out within a few days for a brief phone screen. That was followed by two video interviews, one with the hiring manager and one with a panel of team members focused on project planning and stakeholder communication. The whole thing wrapped up in about two weeks, and the team was responsive and clear about next steps throughout.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I walked through a specific project where a key vendor delivery slipped. I explained how I flagged the risk early in our weekly status review, reset expectations with stakeholders, re-sequenced dependent tasks, and brought the timeline back within an acceptable range by negotiating a partial early delivery.
standard 1st round digital interview, they are asking about your experience, background, some behavioural questions and technical questions. and they also share a bit more about the role, culture and expectation
Very self-driven, first of multiple rounds, where I had to take the initiative to arrive at the problem, constraints, approach, solutions, tradeoffs and reasoning behind it in a matter of 30 minutes.