Sourcer contacted me about an opportunity for LinkedIn. I was a passive candidate since I wasn't really looking for something new, but open to seeing what was out there. I was passed to the Recruiter where I had a 30min phone call with them- which was painfully obvious that they were reading off a script because no part of the call was personalized or did they ask me anything related to my job- just house keeping questions (confirming I was working, asked if there were gaps in my employment, do I need work sponsorship, etc).
I was notified a few days after that I was invited to an OS Loop. I had a prep call with the Recruiter and again it painfully obvious that they were reading off a script, but this time they rushed through the whole prep call that I had to ask them to slow down and repeat themselves a handful of times. Additionally the prep call was extremely generic- everything was basically common sense (look up your interviewers on LinkedIn, have examples prepped, wear an appropriate outfit), so I instead relied on how I prep my own candidates and did my own research to prepare.
Had my interview, and overall I'd say 50% of it went over well- it was a mix of Behavioral & Hypothetical questions with follow up questions- overall not that difficult. One interviewer was tough to read and connect with, and I had decent conversations with 2 of them at least. One of the four interviewers seemed under prepared for it though- wasn't sure what Qs they wanted to ask me and had a presence of "I'm tired and I really don't want to be here, but here I am" during the whole interview. They even asked me 2 questions that someone else asked earlier, and when I mentioned it and asked if they wanted to ask a different question or if I should use a different example- they shrugged and said "yea, whichever is fine" without lifting their eyes off their screen which was just off putting and out a bad taste in my mouth. (why would I ever want to work with someone like that?!)
After my interviews, I was pretty on the fence on if I even wanted to continue with Google in the 1st place. The overly scripted and sub-par Recruiter I worked with was a big draw back for me. I was expecting to have stellar Recruiter who could set a high bar for what I should expect from Google Recruiters and really sell me on the opportunity, but I was really underwhelmed from beginning to end. Only 1 interviewer gave a good reason to want to work there, which was the creative freedom & ownership over your work. The rest of the responses were so canned- "the people keep me here" which great, but not good enough for me. I already work with amazing people and I didn't see how I could learn something new from the people there or how I'd have the opportunity to work on something really challenging and fun. I also got "working for a recognizable tech company like Google is so cool" as a response, which was a pretty lame way to convince me that I should leave my current company and work there, and it came off as really pretentious. Google isn't the only innovative tech company out there, and if there isn't a better reason to work other than "the people" and "a recognizable company name"...that's pretty disappointing.
After thinking about it for a few days I decided that, based on the experience I've had, the company wasn't a good fit for me and the opportunity wasn't one I'd want to pursue further; and the thought of putting my own candidates through something like this gives me anxiety.
I'm glad I went though this experience and I'm happy to remain a customer of Google, but I don't see myself wanting to work there anytime soon.
PROS:
+ Free flowing work environment (20% dedication to pursue other interests)
+ Reasonable Process timeline
+ Employee Benefits
CONS:
- Lack Luster Recruiter POC
- Canned & generic responses
- Feeling of average Recruiting colleagues (told me they were not able to hit HC goals last year, lack of genuine enthusiasm/confidence in the Org)
- More focus on internal connectivity than on the work at hand: would spend time & money on a week long lavish team building trip, and not focus on meeting HC demand
- No sense of what the opportunity actually was they were considering me for, and didn't give me anything to be excited about