Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

I have a few friends that work at Google. Prior to talking with Sierra and Jack about Google, I was definitely a startup guy. I’ve had an awesome experience at Redfin, and I even made a long post about why I prefer startups. After speaking with Sierra and Jack, I got the impression that Google was very much a bottoms-up organization, which had a lot of appeal. I want to make sure that the place I work gives me lots of say, lots of creative control, and lots of responsibility, and I think Google definitely would. Sierra and Jack convinced me that I should give Google a shot, so I did. Oh, and I’m looking to be a PM (Google calls them APMs). I sent in my resume through the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Affiliates Program and was asked for two phone screens a week or so later.

Phone Screens
My first phone screen was with an APM who mostly asked me about my wine website. He asked me business objective-related questions and told me that the Cellarspot UI wasn’t that bad. I didn’t agree with him.

I thought the first phone screen went well. The next phone screen was with a PM who grinded me with awesome technical challenges.

I thought this interview went OK, but it definitely could have gone better. I heard back about a week later that Google wanted to fly me down for a full-paid weekend. Awesome!

Google Batch Weekend
The weekend started off with a paid flight from Seattle to San Francisco and a paid taxi ride from SFO to my swankster-elite hotel. I felt very much at home. I arrived on a Thursday evening and saw some Berkeley friends that night. The next day was Google day. We were driven in a BALLER Google shuttle from the city to Mountain View to start a big long day of interviews and campus tours.

I had three interviews in the morning, then lunch, then a campus tour, then two more interviews.

I was generally very impressed with the interview process. I got questions asking about my personality, pondering my technical ability, checking my HCI background (of which I have none), and seeing how I would go about spec-ing various products. The most surprising piece of the interview process was that I was never asked about my leadership abilities. PMs need to do three things: 1) understand business requirements, 2) make awesome products with those business requirements in mind, and 3) lead a team. I would argue that being a leader is the most important piece of a PM, but maybe that’s because I have a startup bias. Maybe larger companies like Google have more process and structure so that developers will just follow the PMs spec. I was surprised my leadership wasn’t tested, but maybe that’s not something that you have to have as an entry-level APM at Google.

The campus itself was absolutely stunning. The food was exquisite, the perks were unbelievable (tons of free food, tons of free drinks, and MUCH more), and the wine was flowing (not really). Google would definitely be an unbelievable place to work.

After interviews, we went to the Fog City Diner, which was super awesome. We got to sit down with PMs and APMs and talk about whatever we wanted to talk about. I took this opportunity to ask tons of questions and probably annoyed everyone around me. Marissa Mayer also showed up and talked to each table for a few minutes.  It was nice of her to make a scene and tell some cool stories.

Saturday was scavenger hunt day and karaoke night. It was possibly one of the funnest/best days of my life. We ran around the city for six hours taking embarrassing pictures while doing embarrassing things. Such things include propose to a stranger, get cuffed by a cop, run up hills, roll down streets, get in bed with a couple you don’t know, sing to a couple, get a makeover, etc. I, having very little shame, went to town on this hunt and my team won!

That night was karaoke night, and man was it awesome. I love karaoke, and the my colleagues were absolute rock stars. Eric, Adam, Tom, Jayant, Taj, Josh, and everyone else were just letting loose and having a killer time. Drinks on Google, of course.

I got breakfast with a few more friends Sunday morning and flew home that afternoon. I found out a few days later that I didn’t get the job.

If you’re interviewing with Google, prepare for an awesome time, an awesome company, awesome people (both candidates and Googlers), awesome food, and a super competitive experience. Only three of the 12 candidates moved on in my group, and all of us were ultra qualified. I’m sad that I didn’t get the job, but I had such a wonderful weekend anyway. It’s all good.

Bonus story: Glenn, the Redfin CEO, apparently heard the Google rejection news from my boss Matt. He saw me walking in the halls, snuck up on me, put his arm around me and while walking beside me said, “I heard the good news, dude!” Haha.