The hiring process took over a month. The onsite interviews were very well organized; all interviewers seemed friendly. There were no problems there.

After about a week, my recruiter informed me that all feedback was submitted and would be presented to a hiring committee. I was very surprised to hear that the committee had not made any decision on my case and had instead requested external and internal references. This already seemed a bit unusual for a hiring process for a new grad software engineer.

Still, I gathered the references, which were very positive. My recruiter submitted them again to the hiring committee. This time, my recruiter said the decision was "yes, if we can get a supportive team at Google." So, we started looking for a potential team match.

I went through two additional phone interviews with managers from two different offices. One of the managers said he would be happy to have me on his team and wrote a strong letter of support for the hiring committee to review.

I was really surprised when my recruiter informed me afterward that their decision was still negative. When I expressed my surprise, she finally said that my case had been borderline from the beginning and there was not much chance of me getting through.

I am wondering why they didn't tell me that sooner and kept asking for more information, which took a lot of time and effort to gather. The whole process dragged on for a few weeks, and I had to keep other companies, which had made me offers, waiting until Google finally made a decision.

This was a negative experience, and I think there are serious problems with the hiring process at Google. They not only seem unconcerned about keeping candidates waiting for weeks but also ask for other information, such as references and team support letters, which is quite unusual for a new grad hiring process. Five onsite interviews is already a lot, and it should be enough for them to make a timely decision.