And I just want to tell you a little bit about my Google interview experience s o my last video.

I talked about the overall job hunting experience, and I mentioned the Google interview a little bit.

Ah, but several of you asked for more details s.

Oh, here they are.

Um, when I first put out my message on Twitter that I was looking for work.

Um, I got a response from a Google recruiter and which, which was amazing, right?

I had previously I'd applied to positions Ah, at Google for their Pittsburgh office.

And even even with a reference, I still couldn't even get an interview.

So I was pretty amazed at at that, um, that just I guess it kind of shows like the power off er having a good Twitter network s o.

I got an email from Ah, recruiter.

Or it might have been a d m on Twitter.

Actually, I don't remember for sure, but either way, a message back and forth a little bit set up a phone call s o.

That first phone call was just with the recruiter, and I and we just talked like about What would I do?

What my past experience was and what I'm interested in now.

And then we, uh, talked a little bit about the role of Google and whether or not I'd be interested in it, eso, you know, really basic.

No, no technical questions or anything like that.

Ah, And then after that, the next step was to set me up with a technical interview over the phone.

Um, so the way we did it was I had a Google doc.

So there was a link to a Google doc, a shared Google doc.

I went there, and then I was asked a coding question, and I had to type out my answer in the Google doc.

Um, so to my surprise, the question was actually way more front and oriented, oriented and didn't have much to do with data structures are algorithms I had heard, um, you know, from from other people from sources on nine and in books that you needed to know your data structures and algorithms to work at Google.

But I I didn't have any.

This was basically just a friend and based question.

So it may disappoint some of you to know that.

I'm not gonna give you the exact questions.

I don't think that would be that helpful, actually, because the odds of getting the same question are very slim.

Each interviewer has freedom to ask, you know, whatever questions they want to ask.

So, um, it's it probably wouldn't be that that helpful anyway, But it was more front and oriented.

I got to use JavaScript, and I I thought that I did okay on it.

Um, it seemed easier than I expected.

And I didn't I wasn't really expecting to move on to the next round.

Although I did better than I thought.

It just I wasn't expecting it.

Right, um, to prepare.

I had looked at some, like online training s.

Oh, there are several web sites out there that'll let you do algorithm problems.

Um, and just test yourself on him s Oh, there's a website called Cramp P R A.

M P.

And you can actually interview with other people.

So the way it works is you scheduled time.

The first of 1/2 hour, one person interviews together one and then you switch roles and then you go for another.

I believe it's 1/2 an hour.

So I did a little bit of that and that was kind of nice just to practice, like talking through things.

I mean, through the live coating that I do for a free code camp.

I was already used to talking through coding, so that wasn't really a big deal for me.

But it was it was good to like be under pressure with the question that you don't know beforehand.

Eso on the front end related stuff.

I did great on any time I tried to do a data structure algorithm problem.

I was not great with that.

Um but luckily, the first interview off runnin ah ended up getting a call back, and the same recruiter that first contacted me from Google contacted me again and said that they would would like me to come out to Mountain View California and do five interviews over the course of a day out at at their main campus in a mountain here.

So I was I was totally stunned.

That guy I mean, I honestly did not think that that was a possibility.

Even when I got the phone call.

I'm expecting like, wow, this was really nice that, You know, she took the time to call me and tell me that I didn't move on to the next round.

You know, uh, it was so pleasantly surprised on so happy.

So at that point, I would be 100% honest.

I had quit studying for the Google interviews because I just I just thought there's no way, um, you know, because you always hear how hard it is to get into Google and how talented the people that work there are.

And I just didn't consider myself at that level yet.

Ah, but anyway, I get the I get moved on to the next round.

Right?

So the way the process works, Google handles everything.

Ah, your flights, Your hotel?

Um, I they scheduled all the flights we flew out.

Um, this was maybe this was really shortly after I got I got the call because I had some other job offers and I didn't want to keep him waiting.

So normally there'd be a little bit more time.

But for me, I think it was less than a week between when I found out I was going to go for the interviews and then me actually flying out there, so Ah, I go out to Mountain View, and, um, I get there kind of like in the evening.

I have one night in the hotel in the morning I wake up, I could in my interviews eso I'll give you a little play by play of how it went.

Um, I thought that my first interview was at 9 30 So I got there early enough for that.

And it turns out my first interview wasn't in, so I think, like, 10:15 a.m. Eso.

That was okay.

I was just there early, which is better than being late, but it gave me some time to just sit there and be nervous.

Um, but I they came.

They got me for my first interview.

Uh, they took me to sew this building.

Had so many rooms.

All right, this is one of many buildings on campus.

There are a lot of rooms.

So they actually took me first to another building s.

So we left the first building, went to another building and, um went into a room there, and I had two interviews back to back in in that particular room s O I think those two interviews went well.

Those were probably my best interviews.

Ah, Both of those were very front and related.

So no data structure algorithm stuff.

More like dawn manipulation.

Um, you know, just kind of, like basic, like handling of data using four loops and things like that.

Uh, so, Yeah, not bad.

I felt like I had kind of a good good conversations with with my interviewers.

Um, so I was feeling pretty good after that.

Um, I I think my first interview, I probably did the best.

The second interview.

Um, I think I wish that I would have had a little bit more time s.

So it's like I had a solution, but it was like I had ideas to make it make it better s so then after that, I think after that was double dinner was lunch, right?

So then, uh, they have a Google employee escort you to the cafeteria and you have lunch.

That's not part of the interview process.

So you're not being judged on what you talk about at lunch?

I've heard stories of people saying that you are.

It may have been in the past that that happened.

Ah, but they told me several times throughout the day that that's not part of the interview process.

I could just relax, too, was cool.

I got to talk to Ah, guy who worked on the pixel three, the hardware for the pixel three.

And I had just bought a picture, All three.

So it was kind of cool.

I could, uh we could talk about it.

And, um yes, So it was nice.

And I got really had, like, some really honest answers about things like, you know, housing, especially with a family.

This guy had a few kids and, you know, talking about how long is your commute, you know, And how long you know, how much does it cost to live around here?

So that was that was a lot of good good info for me, you know?

You know, I have four kids, and so that's being able to find a place that can fit for kids is important.

Uh, so I go back into my original building after that and find a room.

Uh, and it takes a little while to find the room.

I think we got lost.

This is how big Google's campuses, people who have been employed there for a while.

We're actually getting lost, trying to find the room where the interview interviews were in.

So my next interview, Actually, I think I missed out on at least like 10 to 15 minutes of the time for the interview because my interviewer got lost on the way over S O.

That really messed me up for that particular interview.

And for that when I actually got to use a laptop with a code editor, all the other interviews were all just on a white board with a marker s O.

I really wish I would have had the full amount of interview time for that because I definitely knew how to solve the problem.

I just had such a small amount of time.

It was difficult.

Ah, I will say this, Um, two of my interview has had really heavy accents.

It was difficult for me to understand, and that definitely threw me.

Um, so I mean, that's I kind of didn't expect that.

Ah, but it does make a difference, right?

Like when you are interviewing with somebody that speaks the same language like natively and is basically a part of the same like culture.

It's easy to pick up on lots of cues, even like nonverbal cues like manners of speaking and to get some from feedback, you know, just just by talking.

But when you're talking to somebody who is a non native speakers of your language, um, who kind of pretty, obviously, you know, came over to your country later in life, right?

Ah, it's a lot harder to pick up on those cues.

I'm not sure if, um, are they happy with my answer?

They're not happy with my answer that, you know.

Are they annoyed at this point?

Are they joking or that it was really hard to get a read.

So, um, that definitely threw me off for for two of the interviews.

Ah, and then So the last two interviews were again on a white board?

Um, you know, writing out.

Oh, my code s o.

That was those the interview process.

I will say you definitely need to be comfortable talking while you're writing out your code.

That's a big thing.

Um, I kept being reminded of that by the preparation emails that Google sent me all the training materials that they sat me, which they do send your training materials.

Um, some of the books that I got.

So one book that was a big help was cracking the coding interview, which was recommended to me by several people.

Definitely helpful.

The algorithm stuff.

Not so helpful because I didn't get asked about that.

But the General interview prep and just the explanation that the book gives about what the interviewers air looking for.

You know what they're thinking?

Definitely helps.

Help Meteo kind of guide the answers I gave and what I focused on, S o I kind.

I left the interviews with about the same feeling that I had from that first, um, technical interview that I had over the phone, which was this was easier than I thought it would be.

But I'm not sure that I did well enough to move on.

So afterwards, they have kind of, ah, candidate center where you can go and check out some Google products.

Um, you use them talk to, um, recruiters about your experience as questions about Well, So I went over there and talked with some of the recruiters that were there and somebody that I know that works at Google came over after some meetings.

And, you know, we talked for a while about the interviews and about what it's like for them at Google s O.

That was That was really good.

It was some good information, and it was nice to be able to see them again.

I had kind of we have both been to some of the same conferences before, s so it was cool to be able to catch up.

Um, and then after that, I had ah, since since I was coming from the East Coast, Um, of the U S.

I got to stay another night.

Um, so just get stay.

One more night flew out early the next morning, and that was it.

That was my process.

So, uh, that was on.

I think I got back on a Friday and then I got a call Monday night from my recruiter letting me know that, um, I would not be moving on.

And essentially moving on at that point means getting an offer right.

There's a couple of steps that need to go on on Google's end of things to determine how much to offer and, you know, what team I would be on.

But, uh, for the candidate at that point, you pretty much you're just waiting to hear whether or not you get an offer.

Eso I didn't get the offer.

Of course.

You know, I was a little bit disappointed, but I didn't really have an expectation of of getting the authors of the offer.

So I mean, I don't know if that was, like, realistic, like if it was imposter syndrome or me just trying to brace myself for, ah, to not be disappointed.

Um, but I had some great offers.

And if you want to hear more about the other offers and everything, check out my last video on my job interview experience.

But it was almost a relief to me, because then it I had I have lots of options, and it made it hard to make a decision.

So that just took one option off the table, and it took some hard decisions off the table for me.

Um, mainly moving my family all the way across the country, going somewhere where, you know, we didn't really know.

We didn't know anybody.

I mean, I knew one person from some conferences But, like, you know, my kids didn't know anybody.