There are essentially two measures of an engineer before they are hired in a company: the resume and the interview. For the first part, this is where you show your personal details and work-related experiences on print so that the hiring manager can properly evaluate your technical qualifications. Meanwhile, for the second part, this is where it can be tricky as job interview can be open-ended.
But apparently, that is not the case at Google.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Alphabet Inc. adviser Jonathan Rosenberg revealed in their book “How Google Works” the importance of a one-on-one with applicants. “The interview is where you truly learn about a person — it is far more important than the resume,” the two wrote.
The tech giant’s style so they get their money’s worth to fill vacant positions is to ask questions that would test the thinking abilities of the applicants. In the book, it mentioned about the three types of interview questions that you should be prepared to answer at Google, which might apply to other tech and engineering companies:
Challenge questions
Hiring managers might push you to the edge with their line of questioning, and some of them are at Google.
“What was the lowest point in the project?” or “Why was it successful?” might be asked to you to check your thought process and to verify on how you will defend your answers.
This type of questions can really get to your nerves. But the writers note that the main objective of this is to find the limits of your capabilities.
If you are looking forward to working at Google, you have to earn it. Stock photo
Insight questions
To have a better understanding of the applicants, folks at Google would ask you what is beyond your resume.
If your experiences list lots of work, seminars, and training, they would probably ask you your insights about those. Your previous positions also matter to them, which is why they would ask you about your involvement in your previous companies but through questions that you might not have rehearsed answering to.
Not only that, Google is particular with how well you listen to and interpret the questions. And these are often intentionally specific.
Scenarios
In a company as big as Google, there will be circumstances that the employees will be faced with dilemmas and problems. Even during the interview, the company has to know how you will respond in these situations.
One question you may get is, “When you are in a crisis, or need to make an important decision, how do you do it?”
Your answer will reveal whether you’re a “do it yourself if you want it done right” person or whether you’re able to delegate and rely on others, the authors write. They also mentioned about answering generic responses, as doing so indicate lack of insight on issues.
“You want the answers to be interesting, or at least specific,” Schmidt and Rosenberg wrote.
Now do you think you can survive the job interview at Google?
Source: CNBC Make It
