Saturday, June 26, 2010

almost google interview experience

hi all,
so a few months ago i was contacted by some recruiter (from google), he asked me if i was interested to work at google, and i said yes. (of course i said yes it was like "oh my God so the last period of time i spent doing 'don't know what' was not in vain, it all has a purpose, my life has a purpose", cause this is google man, not some average company with average programing job, this is serious shit, some fucking serious shit is happening now with me ).
So i started to prepare for the phone screening, i searched in google for "google interview" and surprisingly i got many results, people sharing their experience, so it was nice to read all this, then there were some interesting interview tips :
1. warm up before interview (drink coffee suggestion, start your brain ...)
2. listen to what interviewer says, don't interrupt the interviewer (cause interviewer is like God assistant and you can get to God only if you "are being nice" with the interviewer)
3. never say no to the interviewer, try to answer smart, ok try to answer anything (better if it is smart thou),
4. remember that interviewers are people and they like to feel important, and they like people dancing around.
5.and many others but most important to should be friendly speaking so you can create a contact with the person on the other end, people have to like you, you have to blend in.
6. and of course you have to know what you are talking about.
7. if you don't know the answer, show them you can find the answer
8. anything is good as long as it is not nothing
9. and many more, in other words be prepared to lick asses and be nice while you are doing it.

but also there were some interviewers who were sharing the whole interview scheme and question types (well my interview was exactly as described at least from interview scheme point of view). So anyway i was reading that people are being asked stuffed i was good at long time ago, but stuff that my previous 2 companies don't give a damn about. So i thought again : oh fucking shit my life was not so pointless after all. i wasn't accumulating just unneeded knowledge, there is somebody who needs the shit i once learned.
i felt good, the brain i considered long gone for a walk, passed by again and we started having fun, i was reading about algorithms, complexity, lists, heaps (i learned that wikipedia rules). It was a nice time of my life and i even applied some the new knowledges at my work place (did some optimizations), man it felt i am fucking alive.
And then i had my first phone screening, i was really scared, my adrenalin was pumping, and this was one of those interview i really care about, (the truth is i have an interview per year and i am not really good at it, i am not the average people person). Well this screening passed well, we (me and the interviewer) found this common ground were we could stand and just talk, and i liked talking it was a nice experience. I somehow managed to pass the 1st screening. (probably at that time my biorhythms were high)
My second screening was a failure, i failed to find common ground with the interviewer. Probably this happened because i was asked "tell me about your most interesting project?", and i went like "what?, what interesting project, did i had any?", how can anything be interesting after you finish it ? Interesting is building spaceships and exploring the universe in the search for new life form to mate and create diversity in life. :) So after this question i knew my interview was failed.
and this was it, i was told that i am not a very good math and ....
so what have we learned kids :
1. never put interviews on Monday
2. always check your biorhythms
3. be fucking friendly to people
4. learn to talk
5. always prepare what you have to say
6. don't improvise, you are not fucking Chris Rock
7. learn to lose

TODO : search for a book for "learning to lose" cause i lack the skills

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