A recruiter from Google Southern California (Irvine and Santa Monica) contacted me through LinkedIn, asking if I was interested in applying to Google. I replied yes and then had a phone call with the recruiter, about 40 minutes long, to discuss my background and experience. The recruiter also explained the interview process and answered all my questions. She was incredibly nice and very easy to talk to.

The first step was to choose an office to apply to. I chose Santa Monica and requested two weeks to study before the initial phone interview.

Two weeks later, I had my phone interview. I was very nervous, but my nerves calmed as soon as I started talking to the interviewer. He was friendly, and the interview felt, to some extent, like we were a team working on a problem together rather than a formal interview. It was very casual, and the problems were interesting. The interviewer offered a few tips and clues when I got stuck, but overall, I felt I performed quite well.

One week later, the recruiter contacted me to announce that I had passed the phone interview and was invited to an onsite interview at the Santa Monica office. The onsite interview was scheduled for a week after that, meaning two weeks after the phone interview.

I arrived at the building, but there are three buildings, and I showed up at the wrong one! That was a great way to make a first impression; I felt so foolish. So, if you have an interview there, make sure to follow the directions they provide by email instead of searching "Google Santa Monica" on Google Maps for the location.

The onsite interview consisted of five 45-minute one-on-one interviews back-to-back, with a lunch with an engineer in the middle.

• Four of the interviewers were male software engineers in their early 30s.
• One was older (in his 50s).

All of them were nice and friendly, making the experience very pleasant. All but one interviewer made me feel like I was already part of the team, and that we were simply collaborating on a problem.

The lunch was a bit more awkward. The engineer was older than me (I am in my late 20s), so we didn't have much in common. He was very difficult to talk with. I had prepared some questions and conversation topics to ensure the lunch would go smoothly, but I exhausted all my questions within about 10 minutes because he only responded with "yes," "no," or a few words. He never asked me anything or made any effort to continue the conversation. You could tell he was a nice guy, nothing inherently wrong with him, just not a conversationalist. It seemed like an unusual choice for an interviewee lunch; the entire experience felt like an uphill battle against awkward silence. The lunch was likely the most stressful part of the entire interview day!

At the end of the day, I left the onsite interview feeling confident and happy. The problems had all been interesting, and I genuinely enjoyed most of the interviewers. One week later, I received an email from the recruiter stating I was not selected for the job. I thought I had performed well; I suppose I wasn't quite quick enough with my answers.