Engineering Director Interview Experience - Mountain View, California
Process
I was directly interviewed by several top executives, so this isn't very relevant to most interviewers. If you are, they'll sometimes spring it on you. In my case, I got a 15-minute heads-up.
One of the founders asked me a question that I thought was a terrible interview question, and I refused to give an answer. He was asking me to estimate some technical quantity of their datacenters, and I insisted that I would not guesstimate it, but I described how I would measure it and where I would expect the weaknesses in the design to be.
One executive asked me why I was using the iPhone and not the Android. I said the Android still sucked (this was years ago).
They still hired me, which I took as a very positive thing. This is not a culture that has a problem with being challenged. It's an innovative, creative environment that welcomes a debate.
Questions
A logic problem, IQ-like
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Google Engineering Director role in Mountain View, California.
Success Rate
Google's interview process for their Engineering Director roles in Mountain View, California is incredibly easy as the vast majority of engineers get an offer after going through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Google's Engineering Director interview process in Mountain View, California.
Google Work Experiences
- 4.0Lots of politics, crazy impactEngineering Director • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesJune 14, 2023Pros: Good people, with incredible potential to get things done.Cons: Lots of aggressive high-achievers, looking out for themselves.
- 4.0Working at GoogleEngineering Director • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesFebruary 12, 2022Pros: Working with smart people, a healthy environment to work.Cons: Culture in Google Cloud is very different than old Google culture.
- 5.0Great for Engineers, tricky for Product peopleEngineering Director • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesSeptember 8, 2015Pros: Extremely smart co-workers, a lot of resources, excellent perks and working environment, modern internal tools, and an innovative and smart environment. If you have an opportunity to work there, there's really little reason not to try it for a few years at least. If you thrive, you thrive. If you don't, it looks great on the resume. One of Google's main attractions as an employer is that it's really a win-win to work there.Cons: Overall, Google's focus is on defending their cash cow. Their other activities almost seem like they're just trying to keep talent off the market and away from competitors. That means if you're an engineer, you'll have a great time. But if you're a product-oriented person, caring about market success, customer satisfaction, etc., you'll get frustrated after a few years. Top management is very split in its priorities. There are generally a lot of chefs involved in any decision-making, and the decisions tend to be reversed or altered fairly quickly. A surprisingly large percentage of the senior talent does not view Google as a long-term career path, which leads them to focus on a couple of promotion phases and then they're off somewhere else.
Google Interview Questions
