Anyone who has given an interview at Google knows the pressure of it all. Sweaty palms, spinning head and a heart that is about to jump out of your throat. After all, it is one of the largest – if not THE largest – technology company in the world. And of course, it is one of the most notorious ones as well when it comes to asking crazy interview questions. Giving an interview at Google has been quite a mystery, but a recruiter at Google, Keawe Block, has finally let out some never before revealed secrets that will surely help you out. So if you are about to give an interview at Google, or are planning on applying there; here are a few things you need to keep in mind.
Keawe revealed in a post in the website FastCompany about the four things that he looks for while hiring engineers for the mega-firm. Google was infamous for not hiring outside a particular group of schools, but they have broken that barrier as they now boast hires from more than 300 schools as compared to 75 previously. He revealed that GPA is not the most important thing in the hiring process, but there are some ground rules upon which the recruitment process is based.
1) Don’t Be Underconfident:
He said that the potential recruit must not ‘disqualify himself/herself preemptively’. By this, he meant that the aspirants usually think that they don’t belong to some particular, fancy school so they can’t be hired, which is totally wrong. He further elaborated that he has learned to find tech talent in a much wider range of places than he previously thought. He and the firm came to the realisation that there are a lot less spaces in the universities than there is tech talent, and thus Google now tries to reach out to a wider pool of talent.
2) Be Flexible With Your Skill Set:
He wants to see one quality in engineers, and that is to be flexible in their approach. He wants them to think that they can do anything and everything, even if it supposedly is “out of their domain” and even if they “didn’t learn it at school”. Google is regularly engaged in such ventures; thus this quality is a must.
3) Code, Code and Code
Block stated that an engineer at Google must be comfortable with coding exercises. The coding talent is a must for any aspirant at Google, and the most important attribute. He stressed on the need to be able to code and encouraged applicants towards intensive preparation for the coding exercise. Candidates are usually made to answer three coding questions from scratch; that means without using any help of a library function within 45 minutes, and this is the centrepiece of all of Google’s interviews. Candidates can start practising with a live person, and try going analogue by using a whiteboard or a blank piece of paper. Their primary focus should be on developing particular algorithms and data structures.
4) Composure Is The Key
And of course like in any interview, one should always remember to believe in him/herself and not lose confidence and composure when stepping into the Google campus.
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