Engineering Manager Interview Experience - Mountain View, California
May 1, 2018
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
This was a long process with a lot of back and forth.
I interviewed for an Engineering Manager, Tools and Infrastructure role.
The process started with a recruiter introduction and a call with managers. This was followed by an onsite interview consisting of five sessions.
The onsite sessions included:
- Two management sessions
- One design session
- One coding session
- One tools and infrastructure session
Overall, the people were really nice, and the interview was not super hard.
I would say this is a good place if you are looking for a stable big company.
After the onsite, you enter the headcount (HC) approval process, and after that, the offer committee determines your compensation level. This is a very tiring and long process, especially if you have other offers pending.
During the offer stage, you get to meet different groups to select where you want to work. The people I met sounded arrogant and made me think twice about whether I wanted to work there.
Google is a very bottom-up organization, and engineers have a lot of power. Managers are there primarily to support them, so it's not for everyone.
I turned down their offer as I had an offer from a company I liked more.
Questions
Typical management/behavior questions:
- Tell me about your history.
- How will you handle conflicts?
- How will you handle challenges?
- How will you handle successes?
Design and coding are also standard.
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 15 interview experiences for the Google Engineering Manager role in Mountain View, California.
Success Rate
20%
Pass Rate
Google's interview process for their Engineering Manager roles in Mountain View, California is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive53%
Neutral7%
Negative40%
Candidates reported having good feelings for Google's Engineering Manager interview process in Mountain View, California.
Google Work Experiences
4.0
Perspective from the middle of the pack, both in terms of job level and employee count
Engineering Manager • Current Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
June 11, 2008
Pros: The people are pretty fantastic, as are the perks -- food, HR really does have innovative ways of taking care of you, and transportation options. Google has been willing to open up offices where its people want to be, which has been great.
There is a lot of opportunity to travel and communicate your vision to a wider audience. I appreciate some of the hard work that has gone into building the culture, and Google tries hard to maintain that.
There is a sense of legacy, and that great things are yet to come. This is not something that is easily sustained, yet there is so much effort here that it just might work.
Cons: Certainly, it's a big company. It tries hard to not be. It tries to rekindle some of the old things that made it unique, but it seems like a lost cause for the most part.
There is much less opportunity to shoot to the top. There is less and less exposure to people outside your organization and too far above your management chain.
There is a lot of work to be done, and Google is pretty cheap about the way that work gets accomplished. It puts added burden on many people, including engineers and lower-level managers. Getting actual things accomplished and seeing how it fits into the company goals has been hard.
4.0
Great place to start a career
Engineering Manager • Former Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
October 30, 2017
Pros: When I was at Google, the company was growing rapidly, and I was able to grow with the company. I was quickly promoted and benefitted from having a lot of senior, experienced people to learn from. I got to work on products used by billions of people, which is an impact that few other places can match.
Cons: Google has a lot of bad managers. They spend a ton of money trying to figure out how to make it better, but the tl;dr is that at the senior levels, a lot of the promotion committees (it's an anonymous committee, not your manager, who decides) look favorably on managing people. Especially on the manager track, the size of the organization you manage seemed to matter more than how good of a manager you were.
In many parts of the org, it became impossible to get the promotion to the next level unless you had a manager who was really good about helping you carve out space to manage a large organization within their org.
Career development is mostly an exercise for the reader. There are lots of opportunities available, but you have to go out and find them and push. Don't expect someone to guide you along career development.
At the senior levels, you're at a huge disadvantage outside of Mountain View. And if you're in MTV, you're either suffering a huge commute from SF, or living in an extremely overpriced, boring suburb.
5.0
Best company ever
Engineering Manager • Current Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
September 27, 2016
Pros: Google epitomizes why I love technology and the tech industry.
Useful products, smart people, data-driven decisions & culture, and a mission I can feel good about when I go to sleep every night. This is as good as it gets.
Cons: Google's difficult to get into, but also difficult to get fired from. It's like Stanford in that regard.
This has pros (easy to feel safe) and cons (easy to coast for years).
- 4.0Perspective from the middle of the pack, both in terms of job level and employee countEngineering Manager • Current EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesJune 11, 2008Pros: The people are pretty fantastic, as are the perks -- food, HR really does have innovative ways of taking care of you, and transportation options. Google has been willing to open up offices where its people want to be, which has been great. There is a lot of opportunity to travel and communicate your vision to a wider audience. I appreciate some of the hard work that has gone into building the culture, and Google tries hard to maintain that. There is a sense of legacy, and that great things are yet to come. This is not something that is easily sustained, yet there is so much effort here that it just might work.Cons: Certainly, it's a big company. It tries hard to not be. It tries to rekindle some of the old things that made it unique, but it seems like a lost cause for the most part. There is much less opportunity to shoot to the top. There is less and less exposure to people outside your organization and too far above your management chain. There is a lot of work to be done, and Google is pretty cheap about the way that work gets accomplished. It puts added burden on many people, including engineers and lower-level managers. Getting actual things accomplished and seeing how it fits into the company goals has been hard.
- 4.0Great place to start a careerEngineering Manager • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesOctober 30, 2017Pros: When I was at Google, the company was growing rapidly, and I was able to grow with the company. I was quickly promoted and benefitted from having a lot of senior, experienced people to learn from. I got to work on products used by billions of people, which is an impact that few other places can match.Cons: Google has a lot of bad managers. They spend a ton of money trying to figure out how to make it better, but the tl;dr is that at the senior levels, a lot of the promotion committees (it's an anonymous committee, not your manager, who decides) look favorably on managing people. Especially on the manager track, the size of the organization you manage seemed to matter more than how good of a manager you were. In many parts of the org, it became impossible to get the promotion to the next level unless you had a manager who was really good about helping you carve out space to manage a large organization within their org. Career development is mostly an exercise for the reader. There are lots of opportunities available, but you have to go out and find them and push. Don't expect someone to guide you along career development. At the senior levels, you're at a huge disadvantage outside of Mountain View. And if you're in MTV, you're either suffering a huge commute from SF, or living in an extremely overpriced, boring suburb.
- 5.0Best company everEngineering Manager • Current EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesSeptember 27, 2016Pros: Google epitomizes why I love technology and the tech industry. Useful products, smart people, data-driven decisions & culture, and a mission I can feel good about when I go to sleep every night. This is as good as it gets.Cons: Google's difficult to get into, but also difficult to get fired from. It's like Stanford in that regard. This has pros (easy to feel safe) and cons (easy to coast for years).
Google Interview Questions
Explore Interview QuestionsTaro 75Google Interview QuestionsMeta Interview QuestionsAmazon Interview QuestionsApple Interview QuestionsNetflix Interview Questions
Explore Interview ExperiencesOpenAI Interview ExperiencesAnthropic Interview ExperiencesPerplexity Interview ExperiencesWindsurf Interview ExperiencesMistral AI Interview Experiences
