Interviewed by Google Part 2
As many of you know, I was interviewed by Google two more times. Once as a UI Engineer for Gmail and once for a web developer position at YouTube (Google owns YouTube). YouTube actually sent me out on a plane to San Francisco, but I was turned down for both positions. Let me explain how this played out…
UI Engineer at Gmail
The phone interview for UI Engineer was for a position on the gmail team. The person who interviewed me asked very heavy JavaScript questions. One question went like this, “How do you profile JavaScript”? So I told him about Firebug for Firefox and Drosera for Safari, that was fine. Then he asked me, “How do you profile JavaScript in Internet Explorer?” I had no idea so he responded with, “The JavaScript date object, outputting the date and time with each line of code executed”. Wow, manually profiling JavaScript with the date object? – I wouldn’t have thought of that, nor would I do that unless for some drastic situation.
Aside from the heavy JavaScript questions, I think the interview went well and I gained more insight about Google.
Web Developer at YouTube
The phone interview for YouTube went great. I was interviewed by the lead web developer and was interested to find they have less than 300 people there at the moment. He asked me a lot of JavaScript and CSS questions. This all went fine, and I got along with him very well. So they sent me a plane ticket for an on-site interview.
I took this opportunity to visit people I know at Google as well. The Googleplex is a pretty crazy place, seemed like Disney world for work. But, after being there for a few years the mystique of it all wears off and it is just an office to them. Free food and cafeterias made it seem a little reminiscent of college days. I even got a little jealous at one point.
The on-site interview was enjoyable. What was interesting to find out is how everything is based on self-motivation. You set your goals, you set your time lines. This works with very motivated people, but wouldn’t work in the general working world for obvious reasons.
In the end, the reason I was given for not given an offer was being, “library dependent” (aka jQuery). This got under my skin a bit, because I don’t think it is true. I understand how they thought this because I talked about jQuery a lot and am very involved in the community, but jQuery is used to get stuff done faster – not as a crutch. 4 of my 6 open source projects are without a library… but don’t need to go any further.
Wrapping Up My Experience
I’ll take free plane flights to Google any day. I was glad to meet the people I met, and to see the inside of Google was a good experience. Sounds like things aren’t over quite yet with Google, but once again I still have a great position at RMG. Cheers!
7 comments
Thanks or sharing your experiences Marc. Bummer. Did you talk about the 4/6 open source projects you work on that don’t use a library? Did you get to show code or was this more of a verbal interview?
Haha. Despite some pokes from them, I haven’t yet done a proper interview, though I bet it’d go something like yours…. I could see myself getting the “library dependent” tag. :)
Also, for IE I’ve been using JASH for profiling in IE. And then you could go down the route of JsLex.. but… eh.
Thanks for this post. great to see the experience.
@leveille: No, I didn’t talk about my non-library projects because I didn’t think it mattered. The interview was more verbal, but I had a laptop there and was able to show them my latest projects.
@Paul Irish: JASH? I’ll check it out. Glad you enjoyed reading my experience.
Wow, I have to say this was an eyeopener. I have always wondered how an interview with Googles okes would go. Must be quite an experience. I mean, I’d be nervous as hell. Interesting that focus soooo much on the Javascript. I though a guy like you would be a shoe-in. Nways, loved the post and would love to have such an experience for myself in the future!
Even you had turn down on the interview there’s still a positive thing that happened and that you have learned something from them.
Even you haven’t hired, I want to congratulate you because being invited for interview by Google is already a big thing. You are great.
Marc,
I consider that if you were invited for expenses covered “twice” to visit their installations is because you are great in your line of work and they will offer you something good very soon, that is very motivational for the rest of us and certainly a great achievement which certainly opens up a lot of doors and I think that you addressed in a very professional way in your blog.
It’s hard to make a good developer to “unlearn” the way you develop and that is something that such a big company probably would not risk to do right now or simply the interviewer thinks you will be a good fit in the future for another position, but you can consider either way as they have seen you personally, dealt with you and shall there will be soon the opportunity you can be facing a very well rewarded position there.
It is indeed a very nice experience to share so thank you, and if you regardless remain the way you are now everything will be just fine.
:)
Cheers from Panama City, Republic of Panama
Jean Paul