techSanctuary

I have a few friends at Google, and one of them internally submitted my resume. This is my last semester at the university, so the timing is perfect. I got a call from a recruiter saying that they would like to setup a phone interview.

Before returning to school I worked as a software engineer. Due to the previous experience the recruiter said he wasn't sure if I should be in the new-grad program or not. In any case, he said he would investigate it and that we should move forward with the phone interview.

On the next Friday I had my phone interview. The fellow I talked to worked in the Google Earth group and had a PhD from UC Davis. The actual interview didn't involve any of the brain-teaser questions you see mentioned on the Internet. I was asked about mixing 'static' and 'virtual' in a C++ class. I was then asked a series of questions regarding algorithm design and performance. If I gave a suboptimal answer, I was asked if there was a better way. In the end, I gave answers to everything and seemed to have impressed the interviewer.

On the following Monday I got a call saying I passed the test. I was told I was being handed over to the new-grad department and they would be handling it from there. I've since been contacted about scheduling an on-site interview, but now I'm told I'm not being considered a new-grad. I'm not sure how the 'new-grad' issue is going to play out in the end, but so far the interview process has been going rather smoothly.