The initial experience was positive, but it was subsequently handed off to a scatterbrained recruiter. This recruiter was ineffective and only stayed at Google for seven months.

The interview process began promisingly. Google showed interest in me, and I was interested in them. Beyond a question about how many golf balls could fit inside a school bus, it was a generally good interview process. It started with an HR intake, and the representative was professional and has been with Google for eight years. This was followed by two technical screens that went well for me.

This is where problems began. I was then assigned to a poor and pushy recruiter. He persistently pushed the "Site Reliability Engineer" role on me, a position I had no prior experience in. He had to "sell" me on it, essentially stating, "You get to work at Google, and you can switch to Software Engineer later." Given my limited options with Google at the time, I agreed.

Upon arrival, I encountered issues with the hotel accommodations. My booking could not be found, and I had to call a Google-provided number that connected me to an offshore helpdesk. They informed me they had contacted Google, who had no record of my interview. Consequently, I had to pay for the hotel myself, which was quite expensive. Google did eventually reimburse me, but the experience of having to come up with the funds was stressful, leaving me exhausted, confused, and anxious – not an ideal state for a demanding interview the next day.

The following day, the disorganization continued. I was made to sit through five hours of interviews before being allowed lunch. From 8 AM to 1 PM, I was essentially confined, as employees rearranged their schedules, causing me to wait and miss my lunch break. I was unable to perform adequately during the interviews from noon to 1 PM due to hunger; I literally stared at a whiteboard with a pen in my hand and wrote very little. I simply couldn't think clearly when that hungry and stressed. The initial interviews had gone very well.

The later interviews focused on site reliability, and I later realized how poorly I performed in them, given my lack of knowledge in that area. It remains unclear why this recruiter pushed the SRE role so aggressively.

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